Accor CMO targets recalibration between Europe and Asia

The French hotel group wants to balance its business in Asia with that in Europe, which has been a priority over the US and Asia up until now, Champetier said.

Having recently travelled to Beijing for the opening of the Grand Mercure (known as Mei Jue in Chinese), a hotel predominantly targeting upper-end Chinese business travellers and tourists, Champetier said China is the most important market for Accor in Asia-Pacific and that it is expected to drive the group’s growth in the near future.

Champetier explained that 60 per cent of Accor’s revenue comes from Europe. “We want to recalibrate that,” he said. “Asia is key to our future development. China is obviously [our most important market in the region] by far, but I think we’ve lost time there. Our decisions in recent years have not been impactful enough to tackle the market.”

Accor operates 120 hotels in China, but is aiming to reach 400 by 2015. While certain brands, such as Sofitel at the top end of the market, have drawn on their French heritage and the perception of elegance to build appeal among customers and investors, Mei Jue is tailored to appeal specifically to Chinese tastes. Accor hopes this strategy will eventually help fill a gap in the market in first- to third-tier cities.

Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, Champetier said, Accor sees strong growth opportunities in markets like Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. The group’s presence in Singapore, he said, could also be “reinforced”. While none of these markets is expected to generate revenue approaching that of China, Champetier said India is also earmarked for investment and would be “a big part of our future”.

"All this is part of a strong effort to rebalance with an unstable eurozone," Champetier noted. "It's very important to secure our business by being everywhere. In all regions we want to move fast."

Looking ahead, Champetier said it is important to build a stronger association between the Accor holding company brand and its sub-brands. “We want to develop a clear Accor corporate positioning that is going to work with the brands,” he said, adding that the need for strict brand management is heightened in Asia given the disparities among the markets and Accor’s relatively new stage of development in the region.

Digital platforms are expected to be key to brand development as well as distribution. Accor is investing in building the reach of the tools within the Accorhotels.com gateway from being “transactional sites to sell rooms” to “innovative sites where you can discover the hotels and talk about them in a different way”, Champetier said. He added that loyalty programmes and CRM would also continue to be areas of focus. While traditional brand advertising might be fun for marketers, he said, “it is more important to invest in digital tools than a big corporate campaign”.