KOWLOON, Hong Kong—IHG plans to introduce a new brand to the Asia-Pacific region during the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific.
A press conference on 16 October at the InterContinental Hong Kong in Kowloon, Hong Kong will reveal the details of the upscale brand, according to a media release. Andrew Cosslett, chief executive of IHG, and Peter Gower, chief executive of IHG Asia Pacific, will discuss the brand strategy and its “unique design philosophy.”
Cosslett discussed brand development at the 2008 Americas Investors & Leadership Conference in September in Los Angeles, California.
He explained the company’s philosophy of brand management during an interview: “What you find is that you’ve got at any one time, you’ve got an execution of a brand strategy taking place, which is where you’ve got Holiday Inn at the moment. You would then have behind that another brand probably being prepared or the finals plans before launch. Behind that you would have early research, general research being done just to find opportunities.
“What we’re trying to put in place at IHG is a multi-stage approach which would give us at any one time this combination of things happening so we always have something happening with one of our big brands which is engaging our front-line staff and our operations people. And behind that we have a series of things coming down the pike which will play out in the years to come.”
Cosslett said new brands would be the result of customer research.
“As the customer becomes more discreet and becomes more discerning about what they want, we want to be at the forefront of trends and making sure that we’re identifying customer needs early and putting products and brands in the market which would best respond to them,” he said. “I think you can expect that of us, and I hope we don’t disappoint.”
IHG’s current portfolio comprises about 4,000 hotels with 590,000 guestrooms under the following brands: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and Hotel Indigo.
Asia Pacific is IHG’s smallest region in terms of total distribution, but boasts the largest pipelines for the InterContinental and Crowne Plaza brands. As of March 31, the InterContinental pipeline had 30 properties with 10,615 guestrooms and Crowne Plaza had 57 properties with 21,714 guestrooms.
Read more about IHG's plan in the Asia-Pacific region: "IHG Asia-Pacific plans for dynamic growth"