The Kuoni brand will look and feel “really different” from January 2025 following a full-scale business review in time for the peak season.
The operator confirmed this involved a brand repositioning, including cheaper prices, to encourage more consumers to consider Kuoni as well as making its products “more accessible” to a broader range of holidaymakers.
The review has been conducted across the business, from the range of product and types of holidays offered to brand image and perceptions and Kuoni’s commercial terms.
Its peak sales period marketing campaign will demonstrate a “bold” and ambitious new approach under the Kuoni brand, the company said.
Managing director Mark Duguid has overseen the brand review since taking up the role in December 2022.
Speaking at a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast at Abta’s Travel Convention last week, he said: “We have just completed a brand review. We reviewed our commercial strategy [and] will be cheaper but not lose our ‘specialness’.”
He said the operator would “go back to being a global operator”, selling holidays around the world, and drop Kuoni sub-brands launched in recent years.
“We’re looking to appeal to more people – to families. The growth we’re seeing is outside the peak school holidays, in families with pre-school children,” he said, stressing: “The powerhouse is the Kuoni brand. The [other] brands have been retired.”
Asked when agents and customers would see the new branding, Duguid said: “We’ll look really different from peaks [onwards].”
The review comes as the operator expands its range in the Caribbean and announces more adventurous trips for families in response to increased demand.
A company spokeswoman said: “Maybe we are not in the consideration set for [some] people because they think of us as out of reach. The whole point is to broaden our appeal; it’s about growing the business.
“We’ve looked at every division in the business; this is more than a logo refresh. We have done a lot of research, including focus groups, to see how far the Kuoni brand stretches.”
She said that while weddings and honeymoons remained “super-important” and accounted for a large share of Kuoni business, the operator offered much more and was looking at “what else we need to do to broaden our appeal”.
Kuoni would remain a premium operation, she added, but held “a unique space” in the market.