Brand proliferation: Fact or fiction? 品牌激增：是事實或科幻情節?
Executives agreed the addition of soft brands to the hotel landscape hasn’t led to an overload of brands.
旅館業界高層咸認軟性品牌加入旅館業界並未導致酒店品牌的過量。

“This notion of brand proliferation—people get exhausted by it … it’s really not that stressful to the customer,” Haggerty said. “It’s really just a reaction to serving a particular need. … It is really mindset we’re marketing to, and not an individual.”
凱悅酒店集團的全球資本策略、加盟與精選服務主管 Steve Haggerty 說：「品牌激增的論點 ─ 人們已感到厭倦… 那其實對顧客來說並沒有令人感到壓力的程度。軟性品牌真的只是一個服務特定需求的回應與互動。….那正是我們行銷時的心態，而非針對個人。」

Rutledge agreed, but he noted that the Hilton portfolio of brands continues to add properties, and soft brands can be looked at as competing with a company’s core brands.
牛津資本集團的創辦人、總裁暨執行長John Rutledge同意Haggerty的看法，但他特別指出希爾頓酒店集團旗下品牌持續擴點，而其軟性品牌可以被視為與集團核心品牌分庭抗禮。

“As an owner, I’m also sensitive to the fact they’re slicing and dicing the customer that’s coming to Chicago even more closely, and they’re spreading out that demand across even more competitive assets,” he said. “Thankfully the engine is so chock-full of demand that we still—knock on wood—are exceeding our expectations. But overall, brand proliferation really doesn’t concern me.”
Rutledge接著說：「身為一名業主，我同樣也感受到希爾頓集團把來到芝加哥的顧客區分得更細，而且他們把住宿需求遍及更多競爭群的酒店據點。幸虧酒店集團行銷引擎讓芝加哥的旅宿需求滿載，以致我們的績效表現仍然超乎預期( 好險！→快輕敲木頭三下以免事後打臉或惹禍)。不過，整體來說，品牌激增這件事情確實沒有讓我煩心。」

Hotel chains must continue to dig deeper into customer demographics and psychographics to offer consumers the experiences they’re seeking, the executives said.
旅館業高層都認為，國際連鎖酒店集團必須要持續深耕顧客的人口統計分析與心理變數 以提供顧客所欲求的體驗。

“What is incumbent upon us is to dive deeply—and we have the ability to do that now with data and technology—and really figure out in order of priority what that customer needs in each purpose of travel, and then deliver it,” Haggerty said. “That brought us to soft brands.
凱悅酒店集團的Steve Haggerty 說：「我們的責任在於更深入了解我們的顧客─而我們現今已憑藉著數據與科技辦到了─ 並在顧客每一次的旅行目的當中，真正探究出他們需求的優先順序，然後回應與提供相關服務和建議。這樣的過程讓我們推出軟性品牌。」

“From a customer’s point of view, choice is great and innovation is wonderful and having more competition in the marketplace is a good thing,” he added. “We have to work harder to win the wallet, the heart and the mind of the consumer.”
Haggerty補充說：「從顧客的觀點來看，有選擇很棒，有創新很讚，而市場競爭更多也是件好事。我們必須要更賣力來贏得顧客的荷包、心意與想法。」

More growth is coming 更多的增長將來臨
Because of that competition for customers, the growth in the soft-brand arena won’t slow, the speakers said.
這次專題討論的旅館業高層表示，為了爭取更多的客源，軟性品牌的競爭成長將不會減緩。

“Soft branding will grow exponentially,” Kong said. “If you can add hotels by increasing the number of options … you are more relevant to those customers.”
最佳西方酒店集團的總裁暨執行長 David Kong 說：「軟性品牌將呈幾何級數方式成長。如果你能藉由增加軟性品牌的選項來擴增據點…你就會跟那些酒店據點的既有客群更加連結緊密。」

Gaining a critical mass in the soft-brand sub-segment is an important goal, the Best Western leader added.
David Kong接著說，獲得軟性品牌的關鍵客群是很重要的目標。

“Most people are looking at it as one hotel at a time,” Kong said. “There’s going to come to a point in time where some hotel companies are going to have to think about how they can grow this scale dramatically. If you grow one at a time, it’s too slow."
David Kong表示，「大多數的人都把這樣的品牌每次都當成一間旅館酒店來看待。然而該是時候讓一些旅館酒店業者好好地想想他們要如何把自己目前的經營規模有戲劇性成長。要是你一次只成長提昇一個據點，那真的太慢。」

“If you don’t have scale, you can’t make the necessary investments in technology, sales or marketing,” he added.
「如果你沒有相當程度的規模，你就無法在科技、業務行銷層面上進行必要的投資。」David Kong附帶說。

Rutledge said the soft-brand concept has grown because big brands are reacting to the re-emergence of the independent lifestyle sector, and the publicly traded hotel companies have earnings per share growth expectations that they have to meet.
牛津資本集團的John Rutledge表示，軟性品牌的概念已發展成長，因為國際大型連鎖酒店集團正對於獨立自營的生活風格酒店區塊之再度興起做出回應，再者，這些上市的酒店集團已有符合預期的每股盈餘(EPS)的成長。

“It’s super important,” Haggerty said of scale. “But scale itself isn’t entirely sufficient.”
凱悅酒店集團的Steve Haggerty 提到「規模」表示，「它超重要的，但只談規模尚未完全足夠。」

Delivering what the customer wants, in the manner they want is essential to soft-brand success, he added.
Haggerty補充說，「以顧客想要的方式來提供他們所欲的」是軟性品牌成功的重要一環。

“Nothing is black and white. It’s not binary, and if you take a reasonable approach to the target market you’re going after, your location, where you’re positioning this hotel from a pricing point of view and which customer base best matches up, it’s going to work,” Haggerty said.
Haggerty接著說：「沒有事物是非黑即白。這不是二元論，而且如果你對所追求的目標市場採用一個合理方法，即你的酒店位置，這包含以價格的觀點來定位這間酒店，和以基本客源最合拍的情況。那麼這樣就有成效。」

Kong said hotel companies are learning how to better use their websites as distribution platforms—and that means more scale.
David Kong 說，旅館業者現今正學習如何更善用其官方網站以作為銷售平台─ 而這意指更大的經營規模。

“Why not try to grow our company exponentially through thinking about it as a distribution platform and ramping it up through scale?” Kong said. “There are opportunities for brands like Best Western to be thinking that way. Instead of one hotel at a time, think about it en masse.”
Kong接著說；「為何不試著把軟性品牌當作是個銷售平台，並且藉此逐步擴大經營規模，讓自家旅館酒店的發展呈幾何級數的成長？比如最佳西方酒店集團旗下品牌就有如此想法的機會。與其一次僅一個據點調整提昇，倒不如想想整體的規模擴張。」

Despite the drive for growth coming from branding companies, it’s the development community that holds the cards, speakers said.
這幾位旅館業界高層人士都表示，即使軟性品牌的成長動力來自於酒店集團方，但藉此發展的旅館酒店群體才握有王牌。

“There’s always room for a nimble entrepreneur—the David vs. Goliath,” Rutledge said. “Despite the proliferation of brands, there will always be smart, local and nimble players that can succeed.”
牛津資本集團的John Rutledge表示，「對於敏捷靈活的企業主，市場仍然有空間讓他們能夠以小勝大(大衛與歌利亞的故事)。就算酒店品牌激增，總會有聰明、當地化且機靈的業者能在競爭中獲勝。」