Tui Travel-owned tour operator Hayes & Jarvis is to run its biggest autumn campaign to date to reposition itself as a premium brand and promote winter-sun sales.
The campaign soft-launches this week with traditional classifed advertisements in national newspapers and will be ramped up from October 15 with posters on London Underground and the Docklands Light Railway, outdoor posters in Canary Wharf, London, advertising on Classic FM and online.
Following a brand review and focus groups, the operator has redesigned its logo and put together new images for the campaign and future brochures that holidaymakers can relate to under the strapline Holidays as Individual as You.
In line with this, the key messages focus on flexibility, service and expertise. Certain descriptions of the brand, such as value, will be toned down.
Acting managing director Niel Alobaidi said: “We are positioning ourselves as premium rather than luxury as some product is four-star boutique accommodation. It’s more about the destination.
“We see ourselves as adding value but the feedback was we should not use the word value because it lends itself too much to budget, so it will not be part of our communication. There is no future in competing on lower prices.”
The campaign will run until December with supplier partners including Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Starwood Hotels.
He added: “We have seen relatively reasonable growth over the last couple of years despite a difficult market and think now is the time to push the new brand proposition. This is a key selling period for winter sun.”
The operator has also developed a Facebook page to interact with customers and improve understanding of its breadth of product.
“It came out of our research that there are three customer types: long haul beach clients, city and multi-centre clients and explorers. Each one identifies with the brand but doesn’t necessarily realise we offer the other bits,” added Niel.