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Xanterra is a travel company with many individual brands. From Yellowstone National Park Lodges to Windstar Cruises, there are many consumer-facing brands vying to get the attention of prospective guests. Xanterra decided to update its brand standards in 2015 and a subsequent update was made in 2019.
There was a fundamental strategic question to be answered – should the company be a house of brands or a branded house? Far from a household name, Xanterra is the management company behind the brands that guests interact with. Many people have heard of Yellowstone and The Grand Canyon, but don’t realize there is a company behind these destinations that provide an array of guest services. The company provides shared services such as recruitment, hiring, training, accounting, IT, sales and marketing, and more. Yet more customers have not heard of the company. Thus, the decision was made to create a clear brand hierarchy by adhering to a house of brands approach. The emphasis when communicating to guests would be from each respective brand. The parent company’s brand of Xanterra would be exposed as guests were on vacation and experiencing the various destinations and subtly introduced to guests. For example, “Explore by Xanterra,” an in-room/cabin magazine was created to cross-sell the brands within the portfolio as a guest would be in their room or cabin. Additionally, rules were created on how to use logos for the parent company, departments and children brands to create consistency and a clear hierarchy when communicating to guests, partners, and employees.
In 2019, another significant change was made. Xanterra Parks & Resorts became the Xanterra Travel Collection. Originally started as a national parks concessioner, the brand had grown to include non-park entities including a cruise line and multiple tour companies. The name no longer fit the broad array of travel experiences that guests could enjoy all from one company. It truly is a collection of bucket list destinations and experiences. A new tagline was created – A World of Unforgettable Experiences. The standards were updated to reflect the evolving company and what it stands for.
