Na Su’s Three Minute Thesis
US-based Hotel Brand Personality
Na’s study “U.S.-Based Hotel Brand Personality” provides insights to hotel branding by clarifying the individual usefulness of brand personality in driving consumers’ psychological feelings. Brand personality is integrated knowledge held by consumers about what a brand is or what a brand means to them. Consumers attribute human-like features to brands either for the purpose of self-expression or seeking familiarity. Hotels can be used to either satisfy consumer’s functional needs for accommodation or to make sense of self, both of which may be influenced by consumer’s travel purposes (e.g., leisure vs. business) and hotel price categories. Her results suggest that different strategies should be employed when advertising different hotel categories or marketing to consumers with different travel purpose. Ultimately, this research will help practitioners better understand what personality dimensions they should strengthen for managing hotel brands in the future.
About Na
Na Su is pursuing her Ph.D. in the school of Hospitality Business Management. Her research interests concentrate on hospitality branding, brand-consumer relationship, and social networking sites. She is teaching international tourism with a focus on contemporary issues of international tourism and corresponding theories.