What we do
The purpose of our brand village structure isn’t just the “forced integration” of disciplines or a new name for the concept of working in core teams – it is also designed to be an organizational mirror of BOHAN’s brand planning approach. And what we call brand planning isn’t just another agency brand strategy process. It is how we refer to our creative problem-solving culture: an integrated brand-village “behavior” of enterprise-wide information gathering, synthesis and strategic development that not only leads to our brand storytelling, brand engagement and assessment phases – but can also yield legitimate McKinsey-esque business strategies and long-range projective planning well beyond the usual marketing playground.
BOHAN’s brand planning culture involves every discipline – and our clients – at every step of the research, strategy and creative development processes in a uniquely nonlinear collaboration of multi-disciplinary perspectives. Specific job descriptions and formalities are suspended in the early phases of our brand planning process in favor of assessing and solving the business, brand or marketing problem, with each participant bringing expertise and observations from his or her life and professional experience to bear in developing a solution.
Redefining Luxury In The 21st Century
For generations, West Virginia’s Greenbrier resort had been America’s most distinguished luxury destination, but newer, aggressive resorts had chipped away at marketshare. The Greenbrier was adrift in a category it had once owned. It needed to tap into an audience of meeting planners with whom it had lost touch, while simultaneously developing traditional leisure vacationers who had moved on to other resorts. It needed to speak in a consistent voice to its target audiences with a marketing appeal appropriate to the specific desires of each and to find those potential customers with a new – and unfamiliar – media mix.
The Greenbrier couldn’t walk away from the legacy it had in a category where it had been “defining luxury since 1778,” but it also had to reintroduce itself to an audience that had all but forgotten it. The solution, in part, was to add a 21st Century touch to its positioning – a positioning that was expressed as “The Timeless, Innovative, Prestigious, American Resort.”
- An e-mail-marketing program (a completely new medium for The Greenbrier) spoke to meeting planners with a message of utility – specifically, a series of articles on successful meeting planning, how to use technology to enhance meetings and the importance of the Internet in promoting meetings.
- A companion leisure-guest e-mail effort was built on one message a month, with special offers and specific golf, spa and holiday packages.
- A new website was the most visible element in a total rebranding effort that included everything from sales materials, menus and welcoming materials in the guest rooms to trade advertising, tradeshow booths and a custom magazine.
The resort’s permission-based marketing database grew from virtually zero to 45,000, enabling the resort to reach decision makers capable of dramatically influencing sales. The Greenbrier’s Internet traffic tripled in the first week after launching its new website, and online bookings rose 50 percent in nine months. A new trade advertising campaign drove an 80 percent increase in meetings-based room bookings. With the e-mail marketing programs in place, volume at The Greenbrier’s reservation center jumped by 150 calls per day (and the close rate on those telephone queries doubled – a clear indication that a more qualified customer was reaching out to the resort).
The reputation and recognition of The Greenbrier brand rose quickly to its highest level in more than a decade.
The historic resort that defined luxury. Tucked away in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. 6,500 acres. 800 rooms breathtakingly draped with exquisite décor. More than 50 exceptional activities to fit anyone’s timetable and appetite for action. Richness in experience and memories, including the U.S. presidents, world politicians and celebrities.
Client Examples
