Minibar Systems, Inc.

About Minibar Systems, Inc.

Minibar Systems was founded in the early 1970’s in and has become one of the world’s leading hospitality companies with offices in Europe, North America and Asia. The company specializes in guest room minibars and safes and offers a large selection of innovative products, quality control systems and profit enhancement tools. The company’s clients include most major hotel chains, as well as many independent hotels and resorts. Minibar Systems’ long tenure and solid operations expertise has earned the company respect for its best-in-class programs and service in satisfying the demands of the global hospitality industry.

Redefining a Brand

After more than 30 years of building the Minibar Systems brand to create a well-established international company, Minibar Systems recognized the need to re-evaluate and refresh its brand. With its corporate headquarters in Switzerland, the company initially engaged a European group to help them with the rebranding process. However, after 12 months of challenges and unmet expectations, Minibar Systems realized the need to find a team that could better address the disparities in message between its European and American clients. Minibar Systems turned to MarketPoint and its affiliate, Graves Fowler Creative, for help.

With experience managing the intricacies associated with global business and a proven process for assessing brands and developing brand strategy, MarketPoint was the right fit. The team went to work interviewing key personnel, conducting market analyses, reviewing competitors and outlining a definitive process for the Minibar Systems rebranding effort.

“MarketPoint got us excited about the project,” says Walt Strasser, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Minibar Systems. “We really liked the team and felt that they understood what was needed. They gave us a clear plan of action, explaining how the process worked and what they could do for us.”

Helping a Company Find Its Point of Distinction

For many companies, defining and articulating the brand can be challenging. Often, they are too immersed in the minutiae of daily operations as well as earlier perceptions of their brand to have an objective and clear understanding of where their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats lie. This was especially true for Minibar Systems’ management team; many of whom had begun their professional careers with the company. As a result, many of their perceptions about the company’s brand were caught in what previously the brand had meant, rather than what was relevant to their customers today. MarketPoint was able to help Minibar Systems by bringing new perspective, focus and objectivity to its rebranding efforts. The process incorporated:

• Conducting an internal audit of existing marketing strategies, materials, strategic documents, media, sales data, research and communications.
• Extracting core values, brand attributes and critical information through a strategic branding session and interviews with key personnel.
• Obtaining external perspective and honing in on Minibar Systems point of distinction based on client interviews, market research and competitor reviews.
• Redefining the Minibar Systems’ brand and creating consistency in application of that brand — from corporate identity standards to internal and external communications.
• MarketPoint helped us articulate who we are and what we do to better reflect what we want our brand to be,” confirms Strasser. “And with Graves Fowler, they helped us effectively and consistently translate that brand into a new logo, tagline and communications tools.”

Building a Framework to Support a Brand

Through its process, MarketPoint was able to not only build a framework to support a stronger, fresher brand, but also was able to bridge a cultural divide between the company’s European and American divisions. Working with MarketPoint, Minibar Systems adopted a strategic brand framework that now serves as a guide to creating brand consistency and brand distinction in the marketplace.

“MarketPoint’s detailed and methodical process to understanding our business and assessing the effectiveness of our current brand image provided new insights about our business. They helped us develop a consistent, concise and effective approach to integrating our brand image and our key messages across all marketing and communications initiatives.”

Minibar Systems now has a common ground upon which to build and maintain their brand across the international span of its division and markets.

top