Many discussions about brands these days often seem to have much less focus than they should. Perhaps it is the variety of mediums across which branding is expressed (product form, packaging, display, positioning, communications etc.). Perhaps it's because it has become fashionable for brand identities to have so many moving parts (personality, characteristics, essence, point of view, visual identity and more).
It was refreshing therefore to come across a business whose entire branding - and its core reason for being - was captured in its name. It is in the aptly name Tenderloin district beside the Gentleman's club called Market Street Theater (both whose name and euphemism are an oxymoron) that one encounters the AIDA hotel.
It refers to the four basic stages or conditions that a person goes through from initial encounter to making a sale. The acronym Attention, Interest, Desire, Action has long been used by salespeople to help their craft: understanding the basic nature and sequence of growing involvement helps salespeople actively guide their prospect along it.
'Location location location' is a maxim often heard in the retail business: whether to banks or chains of coffee stores, being in prime places where people are when their needs strike is the name of the game.
The Aida Hotel recognizes this applies to success of a busines serving the satiation of needs of a carnal nature too. Customers of the Market Street theater are no doubt propelled through the first three stages of the involvement model which renders the final stage an act of completion, in more ways than one. A particular kind of street vendor understands this too, and the AIDA hotel provides an ideal venue for the occasion.
In a time when brands and their management can become over-thought and over-wrought, The AIDA hotel is a shining example of clear focus and potent simplicity.
Posts
