To inform its future strategy and market positioning, Holiday Architects needed to understand their Brand Essence in the eyes of their target customers – what are the elements of the brand that are both particularly valued and seen as different from competitors within the tailor-made travel sector?
We conducted depth interviews among existing and past customers who had experience of booking with Holiday Architects – a mix of those who had booked but not travelled, used the brand once and repeat users – so that we could isolate the stages in the customer journey that were driving the Brand Essence. Using techniques to get under the skin of what customers especially valued and saw as unique compared with other brands they had come across within the sector, we were able to pinpoint the true essence of the brand.
Simultaneously, we also conducted a focus group among Holiday Architects’ customer-facing staff to understand whether their thoughts on the Brand Essence were the same as their customers. Were they well aligned or was there a disconnect that needed to be addressed?
“I’m really pleased with what you’ve uncovered. Not just the quality of the research but the content as well – it feels like it will give us a really nice brand story to build and there is something distinct at the core of what we do. My brain is already fizzing with what we can do with this!”
Andrew Hunt, CEO
