Reclaiming the customer journey

: Pestana Hotel Group’s brand strategy in the digital era

Abstract

Pestana Hotel Group, Portugal's largest international tourism and leisure company, has encountered multifaceted challenges navigating a post-pandemic market that increasingly prioritizes digital solutions. This thesis presents a case study that explores Pestana's strategic responses to these changes, focusing on its efforts to balance dependence on third-party platforms, address inefficiencies in its customer journey and loyalty program, and increase differentiation and brand equity across its portfolio. Highlighting the group's attempt to align customer-centric innovations with its strong heritage identity. This real-world scenario follows a pedagogical approach, where it explores the strategic decision-making processes that brand managers go through daily. It presents students with alternative decisions to help mitigate the group's challenges and encourages the use of frameworks that allow for a more in-depth analysis, providing hands-on learning in brand management. Emphasis is also placed on the need to periodically review the brand architecture, given the complexity of the sub-brands defined by the rebranding of the group. This document was based on extensive primary research to provide valuable information and data. The results revealed that the main challenges are an over-reliance on OTAs that limits Pestana's control over customer relationships and data, a loyalty program that lacks engagement, and a fragmented customer journey. Additionally, although the rebranding has introduced the sub-brands effectively, further refinement is still needed. As the title states, this case serves as a platform to explore the interplay between strategy and innovation, offering rich discussions on brand management, digital transformation, and consumer engagement in a rapidly evolving market.

Date of Award	27 Jan 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Kyryl Lakishyk (Supervisor)