WORDS
WORDS
WORDS
Omar Boubess
Omar Boubess
Omar Boubess
DATE
DATE
DATE
March 2024
March 2024
March 2024
Hospitality Brand Design Debt
Hospitality Brand Design Debt
Hospitality Brand Design Debt
“Design debt is all the good design concepts of solutions that you skipped in order to reach short-term goals. It’s all the corners you cut during or after the design stage, the moments when somebody said: “Forget it, let’s do it the simpler way, the users will make do.” Ward Cunningham
Brand / Design Debt is a process in which your hotel or property’s strategic design decisions fall out of order as you hunt for short-term fixes and quick results. While understandable from a financial and operational perspective, this search for quick turnarounds erodes trust and lowers the perceived value of your brand in the eyes of your guest. This ‘debt’ is incurred through major inconsistencies and discrepancies in branded touchpoints including your tone of voice, brand identity and visual design, on-site collaterals, as well as your website design and user experience. We all know that lack of trust and lowered perceived value lead to one thing - a failing business.
Your guests don’t really know why they do or don’t trust you: it’s a gut feeling that takes place subconsciously when interacting your brand - both online and on-site - through all your designed assets, communication and service.
Rushing to market comes at a price.
“Design debt is all the good design concepts of solutions that you skipped in order to reach short-term goals. It’s all the corners you cut during or after the design stage, the moments when somebody said: “Forget it, let’s do it the simpler way, the users will make do.” Ward Cunningham
Brand / Design Debt is a process in which your hotel or property’s strategic design decisions fall out of order as you hunt for short-term fixes and quick results. While understandable from a financial and operational perspective, this search for quick turnarounds erodes trust and lowers the perceived value of your brand in the eyes of your guest. This ‘debt’ is incurred through major inconsistencies and discrepancies in branded touchpoints including your tone of voice, brand identity and visual design, on-site collaterals, as well as your website design and user experience. We all know that lack of trust and lowered perceived value lead to one thing - a failing business.
Your guests don’t really know why they do or don’t trust you: it’s a gut feeling that takes place subconsciously when interacting your brand - both online and on-site - through all your designed assets, communication and service.
Rushing to market comes at a price.
“Design debt is all the good design concepts of solutions that you skipped in order to reach short-term goals. It’s all the corners you cut during or after the design stage, the moments when somebody said: “Forget it, let’s do it the simpler way, the users will make do.” Ward Cunningham
Brand / Design Debt is a process in which your hotel or property’s strategic design decisions fall out of order as you hunt for short-term fixes and quick results. While understandable from a financial and operational perspective, this search for quick turnarounds erodes trust and lowers the perceived value of your brand in the eyes of your guest. This ‘debt’ is incurred through major inconsistencies and discrepancies in branded touchpoints including your tone of voice, brand identity and visual design, on-site collaterals, as well as your website design and user experience. We all know that lack of trust and lowered perceived value lead to one thing - a failing business.
Your guests don’t really know why they do or don’t trust you: it’s a gut feeling that takes place subconsciously when interacting your brand - both online and on-site - through all your designed assets, communication and service.
Rushing to market comes at a price.
How Do Your Incur Brand / Design Debt?
Brand / Design Debt can happen as a result of many factors - we’ve categorized them below according to project phases and operational size - in order to better recognize and amend any issues during those phases.
Pre-Launch
Time is not properly taken to define Brand Strategy, Audience Personas, Guest Journeys, and branded touchpoints
Brand voice, messaging, and tone are not clearly defined
Lack of Brand Guidelines or Standards for internal team to understand what is considered ‘on-brand’
Unreasonable deadlines
Uncoordinated internal team and communications
Lack of brand and design audits to ensure standards are met
Post-Launch
More stakeholders become involved and speak on behalf of the brand - unknowingly deteriorating the original strategy, direction, and voice
Focusing on quantity of touchpoints over quality of touchpoints
Focusing on short-term fixes
Unreasonable deadlines
Uncoordinated internal team and communications
Lack of brand and design audits to ensure standards are met
With newly launched properties, owners tend to burden the load or hand-off to junior staff, who aren’t equipped to properly define the vision or execute brand strategy effectively through copywriting, visual design, and website implementation. The result is an amateur outward expression of the brand, resulting in lower brand value and difficulty in attracting guests.
With smaller operations, brand management is more straightforward (although burdensome)as the core team is trying to maintaining standards: imagery style, copy and messaging, color choices, visual style, font use, etc. If the brand is setup correctly from the beginning with an agency or experienced internal team - owners still tend to have their hands in the ‘design pie’ to oversee and approve output - which can detract from their true powers, improving operations and guest experience. The consequences are a lack of attention paid to guest experience and fulfilment, resulting in loss of trust and service quality.
With growing brands - more stakeholders are onboarding into the team, providing their input, and often indirectly diluting the brand’s strategic positioning and direction. A brand that has a powerful presence and unique identity can be led astray through ‘design by committee’ - a process in which too many (unnecessary) voices are taken into consideration, creating a ‘Frankenstein’ outward appearance - an inconsistent mix of visual directions, messaging styles, and priorities.
How Do Your Incur Brand / Design Debt?
Brand / Design Debt can happen as a result of many factors - we’ve categorized them below according to project phases and operational size - in order to better recognize and amend any issues during those phases.
Pre-Launch
Time is not properly taken to define Brand Strategy, Audience Personas, Guest Journeys, and branded touchpoints
Brand voice, messaging, and tone are not clearly defined
Lack of Brand Guidelines or Standards for internal team to understand what is considered ‘on-brand’
Unreasonable deadlines
Uncoordinated internal team and communications
Lack of brand and design audits to ensure standards are met
Post-Launch
More stakeholders become involved and speak on behalf of the brand - unknowingly deteriorating the original strategy, direction, and voice
Focusing on quantity of touchpoints over quality of touchpoints
Focusing on short-term fixes
Unreasonable deadlines
Uncoordinated internal team and communications
Lack of brand and design audits to ensure standards are met
With newly launched properties, owners tend to burden the load or hand-off to junior staff, who aren’t equipped to properly define the vision or execute brand strategy effectively through copywriting, visual design, and website implementation. The result is an amateur outward expression of the brand, resulting in lower brand value and difficulty in attracting guests.
With smaller operations, brand management is more straightforward (although burdensome)as the core team is trying to maintaining standards: imagery style, copy and messaging, color choices, visual style, font use, etc. If the brand is setup correctly from the beginning with an agency or experienced internal team - owners still tend to have their hands in the ‘design pie’ to oversee and approve output - which can detract from their true powers, improving operations and guest experience. The consequences are a lack of attention paid to guest experience and fulfilment, resulting in loss of trust and service quality.
With growing brands - more stakeholders are onboarding into the team, providing their input, and often indirectly diluting the brand’s strategic positioning and direction. A brand that has a powerful presence and unique identity can be led astray through ‘design by committee’ - a process in which too many (unnecessary) voices are taken into consideration, creating a ‘Frankenstein’ outward appearance - an inconsistent mix of visual directions, messaging styles, and priorities.
How Do Your Incur Brand / Design Debt?
Brand / Design Debt can happen as a result of many factors - we’ve categorized them below according to project phases and operational size - in order to better recognize and amend any issues during those phases.
Pre-Launch
Time is not properly taken to define Brand Strategy, Audience Personas, Guest Journeys, and branded touchpoints
Brand voice, messaging, and tone are not clearly defined
Lack of Brand Guidelines or Standards for internal team to understand what is considered ‘on-brand’
Unreasonable deadlines
Uncoordinated internal team and communications
Lack of brand and design audits to ensure standards are met
Post-Launch
More stakeholders become involved and speak on behalf of the brand - unknowingly deteriorating the original strategy, direction, and voice
Focusing on quantity of touchpoints over quality of touchpoints
Focusing on short-term fixes
Unreasonable deadlines
Uncoordinated internal team and communications
Lack of brand and design audits to ensure standards are met
With newly launched properties, owners tend to burden the load or hand-off to junior staff, who aren’t equipped to properly define the vision or execute brand strategy effectively through copywriting, visual design, and website implementation. The result is an amateur outward expression of the brand, resulting in lower brand value and difficulty in attracting guests.
With smaller operations, brand management is more straightforward (although burdensome)as the core team is trying to maintaining standards: imagery style, copy and messaging, color choices, visual style, font use, etc. If the brand is setup correctly from the beginning with an agency or experienced internal team - owners still tend to have their hands in the ‘design pie’ to oversee and approve output - which can detract from their true powers, improving operations and guest experience. The consequences are a lack of attention paid to guest experience and fulfilment, resulting in loss of trust and service quality.
With growing brands - more stakeholders are onboarding into the team, providing their input, and often indirectly diluting the brand’s strategic positioning and direction. A brand that has a powerful presence and unique identity can be led astray through ‘design by committee’ - a process in which too many (unnecessary) voices are taken into consideration, creating a ‘Frankenstein’ outward appearance - an inconsistent mix of visual directions, messaging styles, and priorities.
