CHEVY CHASE, Md.—The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. unveiled today a newly designed brand logo and brand voice that will be implemented across all guest touch points over the next year. The move to clarify, simplify, and amplify the luxury brand’s identity comes after a decade of brand evolution and has been created to purposefully maintain the company’s position with a new generation of guests globally. This is the first time in the 32 year history of The Ritz-Carlton that any changes have been made to the revered lion and crown.
“Today we celebrate a defining moment in the legacy of The Ritz-Carlton with an updated brand logo, and a new blue,” said Herve Humler, president and chief operating officer, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. and one of the brands founders.
The Ritz-Carlton assessed the need to evolve and over the last ten years, significant changes made have seen positive corresponding shifts in key brand metrics. Everything from the brand’s design strategy, the locations selected to open new hotels, the service style, grooming standards and the removal of the formal dining experience have all been re-designed, re-invented, or replaced. There is evidence to suggest that by identifying shifts and leading change, the brand had, and has, the potential to continue to benefit today just like it has in the past.
At its inception, The Ritz-Carlton was known exclusively as a hotel company. Today, the organization has developed several brand extensions which include Residences, Destination Clubs, Ritz-Carlton Reserve, a Leadership Center, Retail, Golf Clubs, and a philanthropic foundation, Community Footprints.
The new brand voice represents a more modern understanding of legacy. While rooted and inspired by the past, it has purpose and meaning in the present. For global brands, one of the best ways to signal continued relevance is to evolve the inherited symbols of their past, in the case of The Ritz-Carlton, the lion, the crown, and the color blue.
