Why Implementation is Our Love Language
For those unfamiliar with our branding process here at B&Co, it’s typically a play of three acts. The discovery phase starts with a site visit to pick up on the energy and story of a place, letting us immerse ourselves in the location before anything else. The brand development phase focuses on the brand story and visual identity. And finally, brand implementation is where branding comes to life. This stage can include everything from developing a website and printed collateral to designing uniforms, tote bags, and signage — the fun stuff.
There’s a certain creative magic that happens when we let our imaginations run wild, allowing a brand’s story to inform tangible materials, touchpoints and concepts. Over the years, we’ve thought outside the box to generate ideas that are genuinely synced with a brand’s promised guest experience. Here are a few of our favorites:
1
The Last Hotel – Rooftop Menu
We designed a unique rooftop drink menu for The Last Hotel in St. Louis, MO that doubled as a fan. St. Louis summers can be sweltering (especially from the rooftop!), and we hoped guests would appreciate a functional fan to ward off the St. Louis heat while ordering something cool and refreshing!2
Grind City Festival – Event Poster
Our Senior Graphic Designer, Josh, had a lot of fun designing the event poster detailing the headlining acts for Grind City Festival 2024 in Memphis, TN. With a gritty, worn texture and hand-drawn illustrations to add some pop, the poster looked classically vintage yet clean and modern, in line with the gritty, free-flowing demeanor of this festival’s guests and lineup.3
French Leave Resort – Nautical DND Sign
The tropical French Leave Resort in Governors Harbor, Bahamas, allowed us to conjure up unique collateral for this marina property. As a fun touchpoint, guests could hang nautical rope knots on the doorknobs of their villas as a cheeky way to cue housekeeping “Do Knot Disturb.”4
Wolfe’s Hotel Moab – National Geographic Magazines
Wolfe’s edgy and creative brand dimensions led us to draw a parallel between vintage magazines like Afar and Rolling Stone and Wolfe’s brand pillars. We suggested that the staff include a selection of vintage National Geographic magazines for guests to leaf through for inspiration while they plan their next Moab outing from the lobby or their rooms.5
Hotel Trouvail – Thrift Pop-Up
Trouvaille – meaning “lucky find” in French, inspired the name of this Miami Beach hotel. It also got our gears turning as we looked deeper into the surroundings of this stylish urban oasis. What else could be a lucky find in such a place? Why, vintage clothing, of course! We developed a concept for a thrift pop-up that occasionally rotates in the lobby for guests to discover their own “lucky find.”6
Hotel Vesper – Dynamic Room Lighting
Hotel Vesper’s brand persona of an ambitious, classy and confident woman led us to develop some intentional brand activation ideas geared towards the go-getter traveler. We suggested a dynamic workspace in the guest room with built-in LED lighting to create a sharper appearance while video conferencing and a station for doing makeup before a big presentation.7
The Daytona Hotel – Tread Drink Coasters
We had a lot of fun spinning up ideas for The Daytona Hotel. Located just across the street from the Daytona International Speedway, we suggested drink coasters with a rubber bottom reminiscent of a race car’s tire tread pattern. This was also a clever way to prevent spilled drinks while watching the exciting Daytona 500!8
Faro Blanco Resort – Catch Of The Day Boxes
Faro Blanco Resort’s unique location in the Middle Keys inspired brand activation ideas that captured its unexpected sense of adventure. We suggested that the Faro Blanco team help guests preserve an exciting “catch of the day” moment by taking the fish they caught packed out in special branded packaging or having the kitchen prepare the fish in a special presentation during their meal.
We firmly believe that the deeper we can explore a brand’s concept, the more likely we are to inspire future creativity for the teams in charge of implementation. While our expertise is in developing these brands, we love this hand-off of the baton from branding to operations. It’s exciting to see a brand we developed get its legs out from under itself and develop into a fantastic guest experience due to the operations team’s hard work.
