Our Lucaya Brand Study: A Case of Inspired On-brand Behaviors


Hutchinson Whampoa, a major international trading company, through a series of complicated negotiations acquired ownership of a rundown property in the Bahamas. It took on the Herculean task of converting one hotel, building two others, and combining them into a first-class unified major resort, complete with a casino. Since Grand Bahama Island was not a tourist destination, the challenge was considerable.

Hutchinson started off right. It brought in one of the best UK brand imaging companies, Wolff Olins, which had worked with Hutchinson on a previous brand initiative, Orange Telecom, a UK telecommunication company. The Orange Telecom campaign set records in the telecom industry. In a remarkably short time it became a billion-dollar brand and today is one of the top one hundred brands in the world.

The hotel division of Hutchinson understood that it needed to capture the passion of its staff in order to succeed. Wolff Olins wrapped the Our Lucaya brand proposition around the unique people on Grand Bahama Island, known for their friendliness and desire to share. The decision was made to highlight the culture of the legendary Lucaya Indians, renowned for their hospitality. The brand idea was to create an "experience of participation" sharing with the distinctive Grand Bahamians.

Our Lucaya's Brand Induction Program

In working with this client, our challenge was to take the defined brand promise and values developed by Wolff Olins and shape them into a communication experience that the local Bahamian population would embrace and deliver. The current attitudes on the property were first assessed. After a deep immersion in the Bahamian culture, we were able to pinpoint the challenges inherent in a situation where local Bahamians were being managed predominantly by professional European hoteliers and dealing with American and European guests. The high standards of the Europeans had to be met while the Bahamians needed inspiration to take ownership of the brand.

The developed brand communication experiences became a brand statement. By the time these brand induction programs had touched fifteen hundred Our Lucaya staff members, the passion for the "ourness" of Our Lucaya was firmly embraced by the Bahamians.

Our Lucaya's brand proposition stands for six ideas: vibrancy, engaging, energizing, personal, worth remembering, and refreshing. Since everyone had different interpretations of these words, staff were asked to define what these words meant to them. Staff created posters and then danced, sang, or otherwise explained the significance of each of the words. Huge amounts of energy were released and right away staff knew that they were connected to something different than just a hotel job. The posters were hung on walls around the resort, and contests were organized to select the best posters. Wolff Olins had selected striking and evocative pictures to go with each of the six brand ideas that were also used in the Our Lucaya advertising campaign. These widely displayed pictures and posters helped to inspire and reinforce staff ideas about what they needed to do.

In order to be engaging in a manner that fit a resort environment, staff were taught how to ask open-ended questions of the guests. This was a skill set that required considerable coaching because hotel staff around the world tend to ask questions that can easily be answered by a single yes or no or other one-word answer ("Is this your first visit here? Did you fly in?"), which is not very engaging. Instead they were taught possibilities such as, "What special things did you do today?"

To demonstrate "personal," housekeepers were told that who they were as individuals (personal) was desirable and on-brand for guests to see. When set free to be themselves at work, they dressed up their vacuum cleaners as people and gave them names. Vibrant language also was modeled and practiced. The golf course was never described as "up to standard." It became "a green paradise on earth" or "a breath of fresh air in the morning." Most of the expressive Bahamian staff immediately embraced this practice as it so directly mirrors their culture.

Giving the Bahamians Permission to Fly Like Swirling Flocks of Birds

Once the Bahamians understood what was expected of them, they allowed the enormous joy and creativity in their vibrant language to be shared with the guests. They were encouraged to use their distinctive local patois, which involves repeating words. Bahamians do not say, "Good morning," to each other. They say, "Morn, morn." The key message of the program printed in the staff Brand Book was "We want people to go away from Our Lucaya feeling the service they received was not only top-notch but refreshingly different in its style and approach." It was up to the staff to deliver this different service.

In the publicity that followed, Peta Peter, TMI's program director for this project, was quoted as saying, "We looked at what it is about Grand Bahama Island that is unique, and it came back to how they treat a guest. It's like, 'My house is your house.'" [33] Peta coached staff to explore feelings of self-worth, styles of communication, and strategies to handle difficult internal situations—not the most typical of topics in a customer service program. While ideas for communication were suggested, staff were never once told what they had to do in a precise manner.

In multiple reinforcing ways, however, staff were told over and over again that all they had to do was be their natural Bahamian selves and they would be brand distinctive: vibrant, personal, worth remembering, engaging, energizing, and refreshing. If they delivered their Bahamian culture with a high level of service standards, the reputation for Our Lucaya would spread.

James McDougall, director of training for Our Lucaya, summarized the process, "The main goal was to get everyone to buy into the 'all a we is one family' concept—the local Bahamian expression for the whole family pulling together to clean and get the house ready before the relatives or special guests arrive." [34] Generic customer service might have created good customer service delivery, but the spirit and brand promise of Our Lucaya would have been present only in the resort's advertising. Only a specific branded service delivery would work.

[33]As quoted by Rick Burns, "We Are Family: Making a Resort 'Our' Home," Lodging HR 3, no. 12 (March 2002): 1.

[34]As quoted by Rick Burns, "We Are Family: Making a Resort 'Our' Home," Lodging HR 3, no. 12 (March 2002): 1.




Branded Customer Service(c) The New Competitive Edge
Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge
ISBN: 1576752984
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 134

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