The renaming of a hotel, particularly one with a rich heritage, requires a careful balance between honouring its legacy and positioning it for a modern audience. This deeply strategic and intricate process goes far beyond simply picking a new name and changing the signage, explains group director of marketing for RBH Hospitality Management, Andrew Farrow.

In recent months, RBH has overseen the exciting transformation of the historic Principal York hotel, rebranding it as The Milner York to honour its rich railway heritage and celebrate its role in the city’s history. As the hotel marks its 145th anniversary, it introduces refreshed branding and reimagined guest experiences alongside a shift in cultural direction, repositioning the hotel as a proud emblem of York’s past and future.

What's in a name?

Naming something can be a complex, thought-provoking process. The very act of giving something a name brings it to life. It doesn't just identify a person, place or object, it turns it into something that can be communicated about, evoking a response to create personal connection that will shape how people relate to it emotionally. Essentially, the name carries the weight of a brand’s identity, impact and future, so there can be enormous pressure to get it right to ensure it resonates with its audience in the intended way.

Arguably, naming something new can be more straightforward since it lacks historical context or established associations, which may allow more creative freedom. However, renaming an established brand, especially one with historical significance or iconic status, is more challenging. In this case, the task involves balancing innovation whilst respecting history and tradition, crafting a rebrand that aligns with the essence of the brand.

Design elements such as logos, colour palettes and typography are the final pieces of a complicated puzzle chosen to visually express the proposition, vision and values across every single touch point to seamlessly unite the brand’s legacy with its future aspirations.

The question of rebranding

A change to the core identity of an established property is a significant undertaking, so it is essential to ensure that it is being done for all the right reasons.

First and foremost is to establish the need for a rebrand, understand the desired outcome and be clear about the value it will bring.

Secondly, it’s vital that all key stakeholders fully embrace the process and are the project’s biggest cheerleaders at every stage. By nature, people are more inclined to support and promote a concept that they have been involved in creating.

Thirdly, strive to keep the momentum. There will invariably be challenges along the way, but enthusiasm is infectious. A continual reminder of the desired outcomes established at the outset will keep the project moving forwards positively.

To achieve this, following a structured process is essential as it encourages creativity and ensures that each detail aligns with the property’s heritage and identity.  Fully exploring each stage creates a process of elimination, aiding next steps. This can be broken down into three stages:

1. Analysis and insights: Establishing the foundations to create an in-depth understanding of the brand includes analysing the hotel’s location, history, USPs, competitor landscape and target audience. Input from diverse sources is crucial to offer a broad perspective, such as from secret hotel shoppers, official tourism data and both senior and broader hotel team members to generate a set of conceptual ideas. These lay the groundwork for identifying a name and identity that resonates with the property’s heritage and target audience.

2. Establishing the brand’s purpose: This stage focuses on building the brand framework to include core elements such as the brand’s vision, mission, values and personality. For example, encouraging staff to challenge hotel norms and create their own standards to deliver a unique and consistent service appropriate to the brand. This is then where the brand story takes shape, creating a narrative that will guide the naming process. In the case of The Milner, it quickly became clear that the vision was to weave the hotel’s identity back into the city to make it ‘the best loved hotel in York’, therefore the new name needed to encapsulate this.

3. Execution and delivery: The final stage focuses on the brand visuals where elements such as colours, fonts and other design aspects are decided. These all need to align with the brand’s story and reflect the brand’s personality to create a meaningful connection with guests at every touchpoint.

Why The Milner York?

Based on the planning and research phase, it was established that various factors should be scrutinised, including historical relevance (going back as far as the Roman settlers), geographical links, railway specific themes given the hotels location just steps away from the station and the importance of the railway to the city of York, the reflection of scale, and more. Each of these factors reflected the brand proposition to make The Milner 'a big part of York’ and therefore needed to reflect the cultural fabric of the city.

All possible routes were explored before reaching a final shortlist. We ultimately found that the alignment with the significant people who really put York on the map, was the most appropriate route to take.

William Milner, a station foreman who died trying to save others during a bombing raid in 1942 was chosen as it’s a name that not only anchors the hotel to York’s history but is also the story of how the railway is embedded into the lives of the people of York and brings great authenticity to the hotel.

From a more practical perspective, which remains key within any rebrand project, the appropriate domains were also available and the registration process with the IPO was straightforward.

Every team member reflects the hotel’s brand and culture, so it was essential to include everyone on the rebrand journey. Staff training throughout to show the decision-making and creative process behind the final result has been key to ensure that they too can share the history of the hotel and engage guests in this new chapter.