How To Create A Global Boutique Brand

A pixel8 Case Study

What’s the definition of boutique? Dictionary.com defines it as ‘designating, or characteristic of a small, exclusive producer or business.’

So how do you take a brand like this global, whilst also holding onto the very essence and idiosyncrasies of what your brand is all about?

What Does Boutique Mean?

Why Would A Global Brand Benefit From Being Boutique? When you think of the word boutique,

you think of something special, sophisticated and luxurious.

So if a business is wanting to portray this kind of brand message and ethos to their customers, it makes sense to push forwards with a boutique brand message at heart.

But there are some challenges to this...

The ChallengesOne of the main challenges for a global business trying to feel like a boutique is the amount of effort and work that goes into it.

To be a successful boutique, each site should be personalised to ensure they don’t feel like a chain - yet but because global brands need to be consistent, it has to be done in a way that remains on brand as well as true to their nature.

We can’t think of a better way to really get to the heart of what it takes to keep a boutique feel for a global brand than providing a case study that we’ve worked hard on ourselves.

And luckily, we have a great example for you to learn from...

How About A Case Study?

The International Hotel Group & Hotel Indigo

The International Hotel Group owns Hotel Indigo, and there are 84 Hotel Indigo locations around the world to date.

Here at pixel8, we had the exciting task of creating a boutique feel throughout them all.

This meant injecting personality into each hotel, but we also knew we had to keep on brand. In short, we needed to keep a healthy yet effective balance between the boutique and the Hotel Indigo brand.

What we didFor this exciting challenge, we knew we had a brand refresh on our hands. Yet it was vital we also allowed each Hotel Indigo to keep it’s boutique nature.

New brand guidelines were the solution.

Including a fresh colour palette, new imagery, a new website, and also over 100 pieces of artwork.

The Artwork & Imagery When it came down to artwork, it was

vital that it was customisable.

This would enable each branch to put their boutique stamp on it and cut down artwork approval processes, saving everyone time and money. We also wanted the imagery for the brand to push this boutique brand message, so we ensured they were on point, as you can see!

The Website

Image example here

We knew it was vital that this boutique feel also shined through on the website.

We set to work instantly, researching local areas to come up with everything that made each and every one of their destinations that extra bit special.You can see on the left the exciting results that came out of it.

We rounded up everything to see do and taste in Asheville, for example. A very personal and useful touch indeed.

The Colour Palette

Colour is so important to a business, and we knew we had to get the colours just right for Hotel Indigo.

It would be these colours that linked each hotel even though they are all boutique establishments in their own right.

We refreshed it using three core colours that you can see on the left. Now Hotel Indigo have an instantly recognisable colour palette that sets it apart from the rest.

What We Achieved

By refreshing the brand and enabling them to keep that luxurious boutique feel, Hotel Indigo saw a rise of 18.9% increase in revenue.

The revenue per room also increased by 20.3%.

Finally, the brand became the third largest brand in the boutique hotel sector. A job well done - if we don’t mind saying so ourselves!

What Hotel Indigo Had To Say...

Interested In Taking Creating A Global Boutique Brand?

Just because your brand has a boutique feel, doesn’t mean you can’t keep it if you do go global.

Infact, it’s a lot easier than you may realise!

If you’re interested in working on your brand message or having a refresh, give us a call today.

You can reach us on 0161 228 6489, and we’d love to help you refine your brand whether you’re aiming for a boutique feel, or something else entirely!