Branding: A New Leisure Resort
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." This successful but much-parodied shampoo ad of the 1980s featured an alluring woman tossing her beautiful, shining hair over her shoulder. Yet the advertisement was for a relatively modestly priced drugstore shampoo. The success of the ad lay in the fact that it promised luxury at a bargain price in the form of Pantene. It was disseminated through mass-marketing channels like television and magazines, and the product proved popular in America because the advertisement suggested that with the right products, anyone could be enviably beautiful as a supermodel in an affordable fashion. The ad promised an inclusive ideal of luxury, rather than an exclusive ideal. For paying a few dollars more than the cheapest brand, beauty was in the hands of every woman, every morning in her shower.
As more and more Americans continue to travel, and the World Wide Web makes shopping for bargains easier, creating a resort with a similar luxury image, at an affordable price, would possess tremendous potential to generate revenue. From $3.00 lattes to 'comfort dining' (versus fast food) middle-income and middle-class Americans are increasingly drawn to relatively affordable goods that have a brand image of luxury. Thus creating a leisure resort where staff members dressed in suits and ties, where chocolate was placed upon every guest's turned-down pillow at night, but was still affordable would seem to be an ideal venue and branding opportunity. The Internet, magazines aimed at consumers possessing such aspirations like Martha Stewart Living or Glamour (versus downscale magazines like Ladies' Home Journal or upscale magazines like Gourmet), and early nighttime television shows still aimed at families, but with two working adults, would be the ideal marketing venues for this new brand of travel destination. Concerns of this demographic, like environmental safety and the fair and ethical treatment of workers (touted by Starbucks and Costco, for example) could also be emphasized in the marketing of the product. Another popular image might be ads that show children being treated like royalty, and pets (for a small fee) being warmly accepted and enjoying a 'spa treatment' or grooming while their owners frolicked during the day. This could also potentially draw the demographic of aspiring middle-class American families to this new brand.
