Concept Development

Together with our client we defined the basics of the destination and performed a thorough field and market analysis involving various stakeholders of the destination. Once the research phase was completed, the strengths determined and new potential uncovered, a new concept was defined focusing on five key pillars: sport, nature, culture and tradition, gastronomy and, above all else, sustainability. With those pillars as our base, we created a sustainable destination strategy for the next years and broke it down step-by-step into actionable plans and processes.

Brand Development

As part of the sustainable concept activation, we supported our client with defining a new brand identity that expresses the new and sustainable positioning.

How we did this was by searching for matching partners, supporting in the creation of the RFP, briefing the chosen agencies. And, in partnership with the array of wonderful partners, agencies, contributors, etc., we also helped in defining and creating the new, sustainable brand.

Sales + Marketing Support + Strategy

Since the beginning of the collaboration, we have supported our client with sales and marketing activities, such as setting up the social media channels. We have also consulted and supported with the development of the website by structuring the website, helping with decision making, and aligning all parties in bringing it all to life. With so many parties involved, and the inherent complexity of destinations, co-creation has been key and MAp's primary role has been to facilitate and provide direction for all who had a hand in making it happen.

Concept Development

MAp’s directive was to advance and build off the overall concept of Koncept Hotels by translating it into its two new properties. To that end, it was important that both hotel concepts focus on sustainability and digitalisation, but also have their own distinct stories to tell.

To achieve that, we started with a field and trend analysis as well as with a study of best practice examples. We derived from the SWOT analysis the strategic potentials, and working together with the Koncept Hotels team, crafted two authentic and innovative sustainable hotel concepts.

The first was Hotel Josefine, which celebrates the success of female entrepreneurs - especially that of Josefine Clouth, who ran her late husband's business successfully on the site of the hotel back at the start of the 20th century. The hotel is dedicated to her commitment, her being a role model for all strong women, and her love for art. The concept for the International, on the other hand, is built off its history as the Central Immigration Office to celebrate Cologne's multi-cultural and cosmopolitan society. The overall objective: to further strengthen the market position of Koncept Hotels as digital, fair and local.

Brand Creation, Brand Activation

Before addressing the hotel itself, it was important that we zoom out and define MAP Projects as a larger hotel brand, getting to the heart of its purpose and other defining characteristics. While emphasising on the available assets (smart and stylish design), we added the emotional storytelling to draw the right people in. We then took it a step further by defining how to activate the newly-defined hotel brand and sustainable storytelling through the visual, verbal and sensory branding.

Concept Development

Next we set our sights on MAP Hotel. While MAP Hotel possessed many strengths as a smart design hotel thanks to Marios’ incredible vision and aesthetic, we discovered and defined the hotel’s guest typologies to determine their expectations and needs, and from there we defined the USPs that delivered the most value. We also positioned the hotel concept in a way that would differentiate it along those guest benefits, key being lifestyle, technology, sustainability and design. The hotel concept was then translated into operations, showing how it can be brought to life.

Sales + Marketing Strategy

When looking at operations, we also had to determine how best to sell and communicate the hotel. Thus we defined the hotel sales and marketing communication channel mix and determined the top priorities moving forward to strengthen MAP Hotel’s sales and marketing performance leading up to its reopening.

Resource Management, Restaurant Consulting

In the time of COVID-19, figuring out smart solutions is part of the game. Therefore, together with our client we tackled important pandemic-related issues, such as where to save resources by defining what activities to handle in-house or to outsource, as well as how to appeal to and bring locals to MAP Hotel’s Scale restaurant.