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Only a few Asian corporations have successfully built and sustained global brands with Asian roots. Mandarin Oriental is one of them. The firm has built a world-class hospitality brand based on Asian culture and service. Mandarin Oriental operates 41 luxury hotels in 25 countries.

The Mandarin Oriental brand was started in 1963 in Hong Kong and was born out of collaboration between The Mandarin of Hong Kong and The Oriental of Thailand. Both these hotel brands had a reputation for offering excellent service. In 1985, they merged into a single organization and brand under the name Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

The group has built its brand on service excellence with a stated mission to delight the customers. The core of the brand is steeped in offering customers an unforgettable experience by blending local cultures, exotic art, lively ambience and breathtaking vacations. Every hotel under the group offers a unique feel and ambience. The brand equity of Mandarin Oriental was built by creating a strong, distinct personality in line with the organization’s philosophy. The management team has ensured a continuous investment in all aspects of the brand to ensure consistent delivery of all the brand promises.

The fact that Conde Nast Traveler several times has rated Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group the No. 1 hotel in many categories is a testament to the hotel brand’s success of delivering Asian service — even in the Western world.

Mandarin Oriental has been running a consistent and long-term global advertising campaign based on top-notch celebrities endorsing the brand. It is not easy to get celebrity endorsement right. Before any brand signs on a celebrity, they should consider three main aspects:

Attractiveness of the celebrity: This principle states that an attractive endorser will have a positive impact on the endorsement. The endorser should be attractive to the target audience in certain aspects like physical appearance, intellectual capabilities, athletic competence, and lifestyle. It has been proved that an endorser that appears attractive as defined above has a greater chance of enhancing the memory of the brand that he or she endorses.

Credibility of the celebrity: This principle states that for any brand-celebrity collaboration to be successful, the personal credibility of the celebrity is crucial. Credibility is defined here as the celebrities’ perceived expertise and trustworthiness. As celebrity endorsements act as an external cue that enable consumers to sift through the tremendous brand clutter in the market, the credibility factor of the celebrity greatly influences their acceptance by consumers.

Meaning transfer between the celebrity and the brand: This principle states that the success of the brand-celebrity collaboration heavily depends on the compatibility between the brand and the celebrity in terms of identity, personality, positioning in the market, and lifestyle. When a brand signs on a celebrity, these are some of the compatibility factors that have to exist for the brand to leverage the maximum from that collaboration.

Mandarin Oriental has been very successful in carefully selecting and utilizing top-notch celebrities to build and sustain their global brand — celebrity endorsements have been a main vehicle.

The global campaign, which launched in 2000, continues to gather exposure and attract fans from around the world. The campaign connects the Mandarin Oriental’s well-recognized symbol — the fan — with international celebrities who regularly stay at the hotels and are true fans of the hotel brand.

The Mandarin Oriental has successfully demonstrated that strong Asian brands can be created and sustained on a global basis. As Peter Drucker said, the only two functions of any organization are innovation and marketing. Innovation is therefore a key factor to the future of the Mandarin Oriental brand.

Competition is intensifying across Asia in the upper end of the hospitality sector. More and more Asian hotel groups such as Aman Resorts, Banyan Tree and Shangri-La are expanding around the world. What will earn these hotels the loyalty of customers and sustained profitability is a sustained and consistent adherence to the brand promises of service and quality. Therefore, it is important for Mandarin Oriental to continue to innovate and build new tangible differentiators.

The brand equity of Mandarin Oriental is one of the company’s most valuable assets. The hotel is a leading business case from Asia demonstrating the importance of strategic branding, and Mandarin Oriental can easily serve as great inspiration for other Asian firms trying to build and manage their own brands.

Martin Roll is a Singapore-based brand consultant. His Web site is www.martinroll.com/