Das vernachl?ssigte versprechen — Die markenpolitik internationaler Hotelketten im Spiegel aktueller Erkenntnisse des Dienstleistungsmarketing

摘要

International hotel chains are currently in the process of clearing out their portfolios in response to changed conditions on hotel investment markets, and this is releasing extensive financial resources for the development of new hotel brands. Hotel chains in most cases think of the services they offer as being generic in this context. In terms of their current marketing activities, they are shifting the focus of their brand management goals to pinpoint the realization of economies of scale by using shared resources. The state of the art in scientific marketing research, in contrast, indicates that the promises that a hotel brand makes to guests for every link along the hotel’s value chain are of paramount importance. This paper explores these divergent views of branding by critically reviewing the current trends in brand management of international hotel chains in view of the latest theoretical findings of service marketing. On the basis of a critical dialog between marketing research and practice, the paper arrives at a promising and, at the same time, practical brand policy that both serves the peculiarities of hotel services and can be utilized as a central strategic, operative instrument of customer-oriented corporate management.