5 Minutes With: Gordon McKinnon, Carlson’s New Brand Guru
By Jeff Weinstein, Editor in Chief -- Hotels, 10/31/2009 11:00:00 PM
In late August, Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Minneapolis, appointed Gordon McKinnon executive vice president and chief branding officer. McKinnon, along with CEO Hubert Joly, are working to reposition the core Radisson brand, as well as to take advantage of the global reach of the portfolio. McKinnon moves to Minneapolis from Brussels, where he served as the concept developer at Rezidor, responsible for, among other things, creating the Missoni lifestyle brands. Previously, he was among the founding members of the Malmaison brand team in the UK in the early ’90s. McKinnon talks to HOTELS about his new role and goals for the Carlson hotel portfolio.
HOTELS: What are your initial goals in your new position?
McKinnon: Carlson’s hotel business has evolved and in many ways grown into a theater-centric brand strategy, which has resulted in the inconsistencies. This is about trying to take control back of the brands and take the global benefit from all of them where appropriate. This certainly applies to the Radisson and Regent brands, and to a lesser extent by serendipity for Park Inn.
We will begin the process first by getting the hotels to operate from the same position and competitive set. Then we will look at operations and service standards, as well as fine-tune design. It is across the board, top to bottom.
HOTELS: How much will you apply from your experience at Rezidor?
McKinnon: We are looking for best global practices… There are always minor variables, but we will identify cores to each brand and ensure it is replicated everywhere the customer experiences it.
I am still working with Rezidor as an integral part of Carlson from an ownership and brand model point of view. Right now it is interesting to canvass opinion, and the importance of design is coming through quite strong. We are also noticing big cultural components with regard to service aspects to make the brands more relevant.
HOTELS: What did you learn from creating the Radisson Blu and Missoni brands?
McKinnon: With Blu, it continues to be on a journey of working toward a position of lifestyle brand within a big-brand context. The name change didn’t alter strategy, but the graphic took the brand to the next stage and in a strange way made it more up-to-date. We were more defensive about the change because we wanted to ensure continuity and didn’t expect lift from it—but from a perception point of view, it took the brand one step further.
I am still responsible for Missoni, as well, which is already going global. We have five contracts and have looked at projects in the United States and Asia Pacific. Missoni is a global product—not cookie-cutter—and if you picked it up and dropped it into New York City, Los Angeles or San Francisco, I am convinced it would be a big success… As for Carlson, I won’t say never, but it is not on the short-term agenda to develop a lifestyle brand—not to say we won’t pick up lifestyle aspects for the brands we have.
HOTELS: Can you provide more details on your plans for the core Radisson brand?
McKinnon: Once we make it more stable from a positioning perspective, we will move it forward. We look to be in position early next year to start to accelerate the process into something more tangible and to push competitive advantage for the brand.
The first stage is clearly to get Radisson to the level we want as a starting point. We want to build successful brands we are proud of. We should be our own fiercest critics. We are looking for consistency, pooling benefits across the global theater, and want to compete better in the sectors we are in.
HOTELS: How do you like working with new CEO Hubert Joly?
McKinnon: He is a good guy to work with and very open to listen. We have three Europeans in the executive suite now and that is different, as well. The fact that Hubert is new to the position is interesting, as it takes the blinders off and allows everyone to be more open and free in our thinking.
Direct comments to: jweinstein@reedbusiness.com
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