Photo via Unsplash
Photo via Unsplash
Lately a lot of my work has been inside a hospitality brand that keeps growing. There is the main resort, there are individual villas that each need their own personality, and there is a café that lives under the same roof but speaks to a completely different crowd.
Get it wrong one way and everything looks like a copy of the logo with a new word next to it. Get it wrong the other way and guests have no idea the café and the resort belong together.
How much of the parent brand should it carry?
Rules
Before designing anything, I write down which parts of the parent brand are non-negotiable. Usually it is a short list like the typeface family, the tone of voice and one signature graphic element.
Everything outside that list is free for the sub-brand to own. When someone asks why the café uses a different color, the answer is already agreed on.
Saujana
Rest, slowly.
Typeface
Syne
Tone of voice
Warm and plain
Signature element
The arch
Color
#1F3D2B
Imagery style
Horizon lines
Personality
The quiet host
Reason
A sub-brand needs a story that is more specific than the parent. The resort might be about rest and nature, while the café is about the morning ritual and the people who come back every weekend.
If I cannot explain in one sentence why a sub-brand feels different, it probably does not need to be a sub-brand at all. It might just be a section of the main brand.
The one sentence test
Villas
“Each villa has its own personality and its own story to tell.”
Café
“Built around the morning ritual and the people who come back every weekend.”
Gift shop
“Sells things from the resort.”
Thread
The connection does not have to be visual every time. Sometimes it is the way the staff greet people, the paper stock on the menu or a phrase that shows up across every touchpoint.
Guests rarely notice these things consciously, but they feel the consistency, and that is what builds trust in the parent brand.
Four touchpoints, three brands
Saujana
Good morning, welcome back.
Room card
Teduh 03
Villa sign
Pagi Café
Good morning, welcome back.
Café menu
Pagi
Cup sleeve
Reality
A brand system looks tidy on a presentation slide. The real test is a signboard next to another signboard, a menu next to a room card, an Instagram feed where posts from different brands appear on the same day.
I always mock up these side by side situations before calling anything final, because that is exactly how people will experience it.
One feed, same day
Three brands posting side by side, and the feed still reads as one family.
Sunrise at the pool
New: pandan latte
Villa 03 is ready
Saturday regulars
Rest, slowly.
Open from 6am
Garden view mornings
Weekend retreat
See you tomorrow
Everyone has their own face, but you can still tell they grew up in the same house.
That balance is harder to design than a single logo, and honestly it is one of the most satisfying problems I have worked on.
Brand names in the examples are made up for this article.
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