Page 88 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 1: DEFINE AND REFINE

Figure 3.1
With a new marketing campaign developed by
Team One, Ritz-Carlton broadly communicated how it
was redefining its brand and evolving luxury.

(Advertisement: copyright © The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC. All rights
reserved. Reprinted with permission. Photograph: copyright © Christopher Wilson.)

places they haven’t seen us before, and I think they’ll embrace
the fact that we are shifting. But if we said for next year’s strategy,
we’re going to be a sexy brand, the customers would say, ‘Who
are you kidding? You’re Ritz-Carlton.’ There is a lot of white
space between doing nothing and going so far over the edge that
you’re not credible. So that’s the fine line that we walk all the
time.”
“When we err walking that line,” Bruce continues, “we err
toward maintaining the historic perception of the brand because
so much equity is sitting there, and one bad move could set back
years of hard work establishing the respect this company carries.
However, along with that, in the past couple of years the edgi-
ness and risk tolerance of this company has gone up, and we’re
always pushing.”
Whether a company has established brand equity that it
must reposition or is in its early development phase, leadership

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