Dawson & Sanderson is poised to undergo a rebrand next year to turn the travel agency into a more diverse business and attract a younger customer base.
Managing director Annelene Hutton said the group had to expand its focus beyond older clients to avoid having “all its eggs in one basket”. She highlighted the family market as an area for sales growth.
“Our customer base is predominantly the older generation but …to attract new and younger clients, that’s something we really need to address,” she said on a Travel Weekly webcast.
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She stressed: “We need to be a bit more diverse. We’ve very much focused on a specific formula, and it’s worked for a very long time but with an older and older customer base. That will leave us with a problem in the future so we do have to start opening up new avenues. It’s about that engagement with the family market, the younger generation.”
But she admitted any rebrand had to ensure it did not alienate existing clients, adding: “We don’t want to lose sight of who we are.”
The company-wide rebrand would look at ways to modernise the company’s image, she said, and could include changes to the company’s logo, its branches and staff uniforms.
The company is already investing in a new project to improve the customer experience on the agency’s website, said Hutton, while a new head of marketing has been recruited from outside the travel sector will bring experience of working for “really big high street retailers” to the company.
More: Dawson & Sanderson considers locations for high street expansion