Concept Development

“The art is in creating the right product, in the right place and at
the right time”

Concept development can start as a blank sheet of paper, as with a brand new hotel construction/refurbishment, or it can be the strategic extension of an existing concept which has not reached its full potential.

Inn-telligence has worked on several successful concepts developments with clients ranging from individual small luxury hotels to a larger group of budget hotels. We have also developed our own brands www.bb-collection.com and The Hotel Collection, which is under development.

Inn-telligence can work to a budget to develop a brand and product which will be specifically designed to appeal to the right target market for the location.

There are various stages to concept development, and as with most of the services provided by Inn-telligence, there is a comprehensive shopping list of activities which can be developed and refined in consultation with clients in order to meet the very specific needs of any individual project.

Stage One: The Concept Brief

The concept brief for the product is prepared based on market research. This may have already been undertaken as part of the Business Planning process which will carefully analyse key components such as location, accessibility and competition. Assumptions in respect of the building, planning, licensing, legislation, party wall issues and other practical considerations, if applicable, are made at this stage.

Inn-telligence will produce a Concept Brief containing the following information:

Concept overview and general description
Comparables
Target audience profiled
Initial Product specification (including: list of facilities, special requirements etc)

The Concept Brief is then provided to the Project Team as the basis upon which the concept design is prepared. Depending on the scope of the project, the Project Team would include a graphic designer. For new builds and refurbishments, the Project Team would include an architect and/or Interior Designer, a Construction Project Manager and possibly other professional consultants as dictated by the scope of the project.

The project team would be pre-selected in conjunction with the Clients wishes and based on their fee quotes, expertise, experience and references.

Stage Two: Work Up

Once the Project Team have a clear concise brief, it is then their job to start converting this into plans and/or illustrative graphics. At the end of this process, workable plans, drawings or art work should be approved by the client in a format ready for production.

Planning drawings and supporting documents (This applies to building work where planning is required, and effectively adds an extra step to the process)
General layout drawing
Detail drawings
Colour boards
Logo
Logo applications (e.g. letterhead, website)

Stage Three: Start Up

In the case of new builds and major refurbishments an extra interim stage is required to source suitable contractors for the job. This involves deciding on the best type of contract for the project, researching contractors and going out to tender with comprehensive enough information to get competitive quotes.

In the case of smaller projects this would generally involve the following steps:

Tender documents for any building work
Competitive quotes for branded items
Competitive quotes for all concept related purchasing
Development of related Sales and Marketing tools (PR, website, directories, electronic distribution)

Stage Four: Implementation

As with previous stages, this step is more complicated for larger projects as Contractors work will need to be monitored by an Architect or someone qualified to sign off their work at various stages throughout their agreement.

For smaller projects the main challenge at this stage is to ensure that tasks are completed in the correct order and that quality meets expectations. There is also a transition when the process ceases to be a project and becomes a functioning product. At this stage clear instructions are provided to ensure the integrity of the concept into the future.

Purchasing logistics
Quality control
Sales Marketing (website launch, PR campaign etc)
Product Manual