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Study: Travel brands that create customer delight

February 16, 2012 | Hotel Marketing

A new travel related study by Brand Keys looks at 46 travel brands. Attributes relating to “brand value” and “personal services” are exerting the strongest impact on customer decision-making, category-expectations, and engagement with brands.

The discovery of a "Decade of Delight," which describes consumers' key brand expectations was the critical finding in last year's annual Brand Keys.(CLEI) conducted by the New York-based brand and customer loyalty and engagement consultancy. This year, evidence continues to mount that it is indeed “delight” that defines the consumer relationship with brands in the Travel-Related Products and Services category.

For all 46 brands tracked in the Travel-Related Products and Services category, attributes relating to “brand value” and “personal services” are exerting the strongest impact on customer decision-making, category-expectations, and engagement with brands.

While expectation levels for delight vary by category, brands in the Travel-Related Products and Services category that were best at creating customer delight are:

- Avis
- Best-Western
- Continental
- Day’s Inn
- Expedia
- Hilton
- Inter-Continental

“Consumer expectations have been accelerating for some time,” said Robert Passikoff, president, Brand Keys. “Many industry pundits have looked at the pressures on price and drew the erroneous conclusion that brands have lost their value. Quite the opposite is true. Real brands are more valuable than ever. We need only look to the continuing success of luxury brands as evidence. Brands that lack meaningful differentiation are being punished by the economic and behavioral shifts, becoming ‘category placeholders’ because consumers do not look for commodities in their search for delight.”

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