Ritz-Carlton has rolled out a new branding initiative: “Let Us Stay with You.” The company’s marketing leaders say it’s more than just a campaign, but a platform.

“We made a deliberate decision not to call this a ‘campaign’ or an ‘advertising program’ because we feel this platform is so much more than that,” says Chris Gabaldon, chief sales and marketing officer. “It is a series of guidelines which inform how we interact with our guests, which new products and services we introduce, how we train and evangelize our employees.”

The idea is that signature “wow-moments” stay with guests — “Let Us Stay with You”— long after they’ve left the hotel. A sample of those wow-moments are seen on the company’s redesigned website.

The branding initiative began 18 months ago. “We started putting together a strategy for repositioning our communications platform,” says Allison Sitch, senior corporate director, public relations. “We did focus groups in gateway cities worldwide, looking not just at the brand, but at the evolving travel habits and trends of the luxury consumer as a whole. We looked not just at the dollar point, but the things that they place importance on in their lives and why they make decisions they do about how they spend their money.”

One of the things they observed is that people have changed the way they relate to one another. While they may still be connected by age, culture, religion, they can be connected by, what she calls, passion points. Facebook demonstrates that as people there are often connected because they ‘like’ a certain spa, a cause, a person, etc., regardless of socio-economic position.

“Key for us is what you do with that,” Sitch says. “You start to look at how you talk about the things that you do.”

“The connection point for the consumer is a passion,” she says. And knowing that offers an opportunity to create passionate moments. “You can only create them if you’re able to know people well, assess immediately what’s important to them and act on that,” says Sitch.

Empowering ladies and gentlemen — Ritz-Carlton’s name for their employees — to create those moments is part of the new branding initiative. “It’s not just how we train our people, but how we select our people. We choose people who aspire to serve and give pleasure and satisfaction.”

She says it’s working. “If anything [the branding initiative] has energized and excited our ladies and gentlemen. They are more energized to create these moments and tell their story.”