Monteria Case Study

People often confuse Brand Purpose for ‘social service’. They do not think that brands can be profitable if they have a brand purpose. In today’s post digital era, Consumer needs are individual, but brand and behavioral choices are social. And in order to cater to this behaviour, brands need to think beyond just brand positioning.

Let’s look at Monteria – a standalone holiday resort in Khopoli, which is around 1.5 hours drive away from Mumbai. Anyone who has worked in the hospitality industry knows that ‘Physicality is the only reality’ when it comes to attracting certain kinds of guests.

Monteria, because of its location and physical structure came to attract large traditional families that were coming to spend a weekend together from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Monteria realized a need for becoming a brand that is not only loved by people but also frequented often by them.

With this as the brief, Wolfzhowl worked on arriving at the Brand Purpose. During our journey of unearthing the brand purpose, we made some discoveries about the audiences that were visiting Moneteria and what were their motivations.

We understood that the decision to come to the resort was the patriarch’s. He chose to bring his entire family to spend a weekend. The younger children (teens+) detested that they kept going to the same resort for their weekend getaways and were always spending time on their phones. Even young couples felt that the resort was for large families and was not meant for a couple get-away.

We didn’t want the client to change their focus to attract millennials, when they were already doing well with larger families. It was a profitable business and as strategists, we didn’t think it wise to refocus all efforts in bringing in a completely new audience.

WHAT DROVE OUR TG TO MONTERIA?

We understood that the decision to come to the resort was the patriarch’s. He chose to bring his entire family to spend a weekend. The younger children (teens+) detested that they kept going to the same resort for their weekend getaways and were always spending time on their phones. Even young couples felt that the resort was for large families and was not meant for a couple get-away.

We didn’t want the client to change their focus to attract millennials, when they were already doing well with larger families. It was a profitable business and as strategists, we didn’t think it wise to refocus all efforts in bringing in a completely new audience.

So what did we do?

We dove deep into the audience’s mindset and understand what is it that they are really looking for. During this, we realized that the traditional Indian families have a stringent hierarchy which makes it difficult for them to communicate their opinions and thoughts freely. There is no friendship in these relationships. At home, everyone has a role to play – a daughter-in-law, a son, a brother, a father. However, when they step out into a foreign territory, they loosen up on their roles.

How could Monteria bridge this gap?

Through its purpose. With the insight – In a world where friends are becoming family, families are losing out on their friendship. Hence the purpose:

Monteria – Where Family Becomes Friend.

Why did this make sense? When families step into a foreign environment, like the resort, they loosen up a little. The boundaries of relationships take a step back, allowing people to have a fun with their children and in-laws and partners without fear of consequences. Monteria is an enabler for families becoming friends.

But just a purpose statement is not enough. How do we bring this purpose to life and ensure profitability for the brand?

Of course, digital films, a live and happening Instagram account were the obvious hygiene choices. But would a brand be able to enable friendships amongst families just through digital content? Unlikely.

Our solution – A board game.

A simple game that can be played with upto 9 players was put in every room. The rules of the game were simple – Roll the dice, move to the spot. Once you reach your spot, read what’s written in the box. Eg: “You vs Stud Boy”. The person who has rolled the dice has to pick a ‘Stud Boy’ from the group and explain why that person was chosen. The person who rolled the dice needs to pick a card, which has a variety of ‘family-friendly’ questions that allow you to get to know each other far better.

If you land on an empty box, you are supposed to pick an action card and do the action. Until someone else surpasses you, everyone in the group is supposed to follow the action after their chance to roll the dice.

Fun isn’t it? But did it make family friends? Well, yes it did. In one traditional family group that checked-in to the resort, the daughters-in-law kept a respectable distance from the family patriarch, unable to speak to him openly due to the hierarchy at home. While playing the game, the daughter-in-law asked the father-in-law who his favourite actress was from his teen years. The father-in-law hesitantly told the group that his favourite actress was Mumtaz, who was known as sexy siren of her times. The entire group burst out laughing and teasing the father for a couple of days, daughters-in-law included. The game helped break the ice and start a friendlier relationship between the daughter-in-law and the father-in-law.

Any brand that helps you do this, holds a special place in your heart. And it was the same with Monteria. Creating memories and adding friendship into relationships is a sure shot way to get people to keep coming back to you! And that’s what happened. The disgruntled younger ones also enjoyed themselves so much that they spent family time away from their devices. So much so that the resort was flooded with requests to buy the board game to take home with the families. The game is constantly into production and is now sold at the resort!

But the activation of brand purpose does not stop with just one device. It has to be a continuous engagement with its core as well as secondary target audience. We also had one more task at hand – getting young couples to start visiting the resort. For this, we used Holi as an opportunity. Today, more and more young couples have stopped playing Holi and attending Holi parties in order to avoid the ‘creepy’ men and unwarranted advances on the pretext of ‘Bura na maano holi hai’. Leveraging our family-friendly Resort, we gave young couples the comfort to come out and play holi in a safe environment. This was done as part of the bigger campaign wherein men could be seen bursting balloons on their father’s back, taking an aim and saying “This is for the time you didn’t allow me to go for a school trip” or at the brother’s back “This is for the time you told upon me and my girlfriend to our parents”. Simple creatives that lived the brand purpose ensured that the right audience was attracted and the resort was sold out for Holi.

Brand Purpose needs to be lived in everyday life and not as a marketing task. Living the purpose need not be expensive, need not end at creating a piece of communication but creating the right devices and strategic initiatives that allow for profitability.

What would you want to hear about in our next video? Leave your comments and we’ll be sure to put up a video on the same. Until then, howl!