PTG Consulting

Communicating an integrated approach to travel consulting.

Sister company to the world’s largest independent hotel brand, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, PTG Consulting sought a rebrand and website redesign to better communicate its integrated service offering.

Role

UX & Brand Strategy, Copywriter

Activities

In-depth interviews - competitive analysis - user personas - user journey maps - information architecture - wireframes - brand strategy - copywriting

The Challenge

Create a more compelling, and clearly defined brand presence in the global marketplace that communicates PTG Consulting as a cohesive, integrated boutique consulting agency for travel and hospitality, backed by the global scale and resources of Preferred Hotel Group.

The Process

Understanding the why

The first step of our process was understanding the issues PTG Consulting was facing in the marketplace under its current branding and communications strategies – why they were in need of this rebrand. Through in-depth interviews with cross-functional stakeholders across the globe, we learned that PTG Consulting is:

Perceived as North American-centric. vs. a true global organization.
Perceived as a large shop vs. the boutique agency it is.
Misunderstood to perspective tourism clients given its association with Preferred Hotel Group.
Convoluted in terms of service offerings.

Defining the what

Next, we needed to clearly define PTG Consulting’s differentiators in the marketplace in order to conduct a SWOT analysis to uncover opportunities for repositioning and updated messaging. We uncovered these differentiators as well as proof points to be used as validation throughout marketing collateral.

We also conducted an in-depth competitive analysis on key players in the market, understanding service offerings and how they are bucketed, brand positioning, personality, voice and tone, as well as visual identity. This was also incorporated into our SWOT analysis and how we could carve out a strategic niche for the brand.

Defining the who

We conducted in-depth interviews with internal stakeholders including subject matter experts and sales team members in order to understand primary audience groups. The result? Our two personas:

Hospitality Decision Makers: primarily managers or directors at independent hotels looking to increase revenue, optimize operations, build brand awareness and improve reputation.
Destination Decision Makers: primarily managers or directors of PR or marketing within tourism bureaus looking to increase tourism revue, brand awareness, their network of key travel players, and improve or establish their reputation as a must-visit destination.

We also crafted customer journey maps for our two personas in order to uncover opportunities in terms of where and how to promote the business, as well as how to better retain clients.

Crafting the how

Once discovery was complete, our first step in the rebrand was to develop a new brand personality, voice and tone that would guide all messaging moving forward. We crafted personality traits based on what we heard from stakeholder interviews in terms of who the company was to its core. Personality – as well as our competitive analysis –was used to inform voice and tone, ensuring our lexicon would be truly unique to PTG Consulting.

Redesigning the website through information architecture & wireframes

Following the rebranding work we did as strategists, as well as the visual identity rebranding work our stellar design team did, it was time focus on what PTG Consulting’s goals meant for the website redesign. Some highlights include:

Header

Before: The existing header reinforced that narrative that PTG Consulting’s service offerings were mutually exclusive between Travel & Tourism and Hospitality.

After: To communicate PTG’s integrated service offering, as well as their expertise that encompasses both hospitality and travel & tourism, we leveraged a mega navigation under the phrase, “what we do” that clearly outlined the two distinct areas, while showcasing individual offerings that spanned both.

Services

Before: PTG Consulting had a large number of service offerings that felt more like an a la carte menu of options versus a focused set of integrated solutions.

After: Taking what we learned in discovery through interviews, competitive analysis and persona development, we revised PTG Consulting’s offerings strategy, positioning each service area as a solution versus siloed and independent. We decreased the number of total solutions down from 16 to a 8, which also helped to improve cognitive load while viewing the list.

Expertise Child Pages

Before: Expertise child pages (Travel & Tourism and Hospitality) were extremely verbose in content, with no ways for a user to quickly understand why they should choose PTG Consulting. Case studies were featured, but with no context as to the actual work. Again, service offerings were featured in a long, overwhelming list with no information around approach or how they worked together as an overarching solution.

After: We cut down / consolidated text on the page quite a bit, choosing to augment it with relevant and compelling statistics, as well as targeted KPI’s that a user could immediately connect with. The condensed list of relevant service offerings featured text for additional context. We also included a thought leadership piece to build extra credibility. Our featured case studies cards were designed so that titles were informative and results were clear.

Service Child Pages

Before: Existing service child pages were either very text-heavy, or had virtually no text. Text-heavy pages were difficult to scan and provided no ways for a user to continue their journey, either to take the next step towards working with PTG Consulting, or to explore related content like case studies or blog posts.

After: New service child pages were designed to first give information around the service and the individual deliverables and work involved. This was a way to boost SEO with more key word opportunities, as well as provide users insight into what they should expect. Next, we included a branded messaging component to ensure PTG Consulting’s unique voice was captured. Finally, we included a section that walked users through the process, again to reinforce credibility and build trust.

Bringing the brand to life through copywriting.

The client added copywriting services after a successful team engagement from rebrand through web design. We had just over 2 weeks to conduct interviews with subject matter experts, write initial drafts for 16 in-depth pages, and complete 2 rounds of revisions. I oversaw this project to its successful completion, reviewing all copy to ensure it met strategic objectives, as well as was in line with the brand’s new personality and voice. I also pitched in with writing a handful of pages myself.

The Outcome

PTG Consulting’s new brand and website successfully work to communicate its two distinct areas of expertise, while making offerings feel integrated and the company’s differentiators, knowledge-base, and breadth of experience feel all-encompassing over both sides of the business. With new branded materials and an official personality and voice, consistency was achieved across the brand – both globally and cross-functionally.

Learnings & improvements for next time

We crafted customer journeys primarily from stakeholder interviews. Although the engagement wasn’t scoped to include audience surveys or in-depth interviews, employ other programs like HotJar, or leverage purchased industry reports, we learned that they are truly crucial for the success and accuracy of customer journeys.
Brand lexicon included essentially various aspects of the brand’s overarching positioning statement. Breaking these aspects up in the way we presented them made it confusing and difficult to grasp the point. It would have clearer to first present the full positioning statement, then call attention to it’s various parts that make up the way in which the brand addresses itself.
When it came to copywriting, we realized that not all service areas had precise processes, which made it difficult to write copy for that section of the service child pages. We learned that although clients might like the idea of a component, they must be pushed to truly assess the feasibility of content that would go inside of it, or else it might not be useful.