From vision to reality: How to operationalize your brand across your organization

Origin: Once your brand was defined, how did you ensure it extended beyond marketing to influence the full guest experience?  

SW: A good brand already has the operational structure, the bones, in place. If it doesn’t, then the brand is just marketing artifice and not a true representation of your business culture. When you think of strong brands in and out of the hospitality space, the architecture is already there. Harley Davidson didn’t wake up one day and say ‘you know what, we’re going to try and appeal to hardcore, no-bullshit motorcyclists and then dovetail, down the road, toward weekend riders with deep pockets by building a marketing campaign.’ Those were hallmarks of their culture to begin with (or at least a few innings into it for them), when they started 100 years ago by drawing a motorcycle on a napkin and started supplying the US Military complex. That core mentality began there and then they leveraged it; it wasn’t the other way around. If you look at Jay Peak (which I’m not equating to Harley), it sort of happened the same way. The mountain, the snow and the approach to letting the guests explore where they wanted to, were all here. We simply took that, packaged it and pointed the mirror both to our guests but also showed that to the public and helped leverage the appeal to those who were drawn to it.

JK: The Taos brand is defined by preserving the soul and spirit of skiing, adopting a Better not Bigger philosophy, and being an environmental leader in the industry. Believing in our brand and who we are as a company is the most important first step. Once we establish alignment in this area, it guides every decision we make. The brand permeates through our daily operations on and off the mountain, guest messaging, and staff training. When guests visit Taos, they will experience the Taos brand through hospitality built on relationships and not just customer service, through an uncrowded and unique mountain experience, through intimate scale infrastructure, and through environmentally driven business practices.

Origin: Travel and recreation brands rely on immersive experiences—how did you translate your brand into physical spaces, digital interactions, and customer touchpoints?  

SW: Through a lot of content creation that we push through the web, onto social, direct via email, but also through printed materials, posters (that we don’t charge for), on-site video boards, and a focus on delivering content that would be considered both endemic (ski and snowboard shots, deep snow, storms winding up – ‘flakes-in-the-air marketing’ we call it.) but also anomalous. Things like kid’s books, pictures of employees on the walls, content that has teammates' children reading testimonials about their parents from guests, and more atypical representations of what would be considered standard of ski resort brands.

JK: We have so many guests after spending a day at Taos relay to us that ‘this is the way skiing used to be and should be.’ It’s hard to get more immersive and interactive with the Taos brand than by simply spending a full day on the mountain. The Taos brand is translated and felt through the only true “Ski Week” left in North America, by enjoying an old school Sleigh Ride dinner to The Bavarian Restaurant via a new school fully electric snowcat, hiking laps on The Ridge with locals, and by staying at The Blake, a slopeside hotel that pays homage to the rich cultural and artistic history of this region.   

Origin: How did you gain buy-in from frontline staff (ski instructors, guides, customer service reps, etc.) to ensure they authentically represent the brand? 

SW: By not telling them how to do it.  If one of the bigger parts of your brand is authenticity and transparency, then you let your staff be authentic and transparent. You also treat them with transparency and authenticity. And then that engenders more of it. In both directions. Honesty is a big part of it, too. If you’re telling the world this is who you are, and the staff makes up the whole of what and who that is, you better be damn sure they see themselves in the brand. 

JK: It’s always been important for us to front-load ideas and feedback on bigger initiatives from the people who are passionate about this mountain and community. These are also the people who know us best. We love to let the initial ideas, suggestions, and input from our staff, our passholders, and our community drive where we are going. Whether it’s the branding of the resort, the Master Development Plan projects with the Forest Service, or the resort’s new 2040 Vision, all of these initiatives started with a conversation with the people who know us best. This year, as part of orientations and community meetings, I spent time sharing and explaining the resort’s market position and brand to all departments. When a staff or community member is able to see how their feedback and ideas are influencing the brand, it develops authenticity and trust. 

Origin: How does your brand influence how you recruit, onboard, and train seasonal and full-time employees?  

SW: This place can be very self-limiting. The geography helps a lot with it. Anyone that wants to drive this far and past other great resorts and hospitality brands is generally calibrated in a certain way. Those calibrations aren’t always easy to put down on paper but generally include things like fun-loving, being appreciative of esprit-de-corps, interested in camaraderie (and how camaraderie is built and strengthened and maintained). They’re looking for a shared purpose and want to be part of a team, first and foremost, and they’re also someone that has fun and wants to show guests a good time. They understand the secret here, but they also want to let more people in on it. That’s a big part of it. Understanding how exclusive our tribe is but also wanting more people to be part of it. There’s something very important in that, I think.

JK: Our recruiting, hiring, and retention success has been a direct reflection of establishing a brand that we all believe in and want to be a part of. I know I’m a little biased, but the staff at Taos are the best in the business. I love working with this team. I’m constantly amazed by their commitment, work ethic, and ingenuity. Just like the guests who are attracted to the Taos brand, the staff who choose to work here are the same way. They are attracted to working for a resort that is driven to support our surrounding community through uplifting the youth, that wants to preserve the essence of the mountain and the sport, and that is required to meet high standards in pay, benefits, and environmental initiatives as part of the resort’s B Corp Certification.    

Origin: In industries with high turnover, what strategies have worked to keep employees engaged with and invested in the brand? 

SW: By living the brand in front of them. Being honest with them. Being transparent with them – and not just when it’s easy to be. By treating the communities they live in with respect and reverence. By genuinely wanting them to succeed as people and co-workers. And by taking some of the success that we have as a business and leveraging it toward improving their place here at the resort.

JK: For employees to invest in our brand, we have to invest in our employees first. This means always evolving our vision, mission, and values. Just as a brand story should not be stagnant, we should never be stagnant with how we are investing in and engaging with our employees. We have adapted programs like peer-to-peer recognition, staff surveys, job positions, and performance-based incentives to incorporate metrics that align with the company's vision, mission, values, and brand.  

Origin: Can you share an example of how your brand has influenced policies around guest interactions, service standards, or crisis management?  

SW: Our brand is transparent and honest and doesn’t take itself too seriously. But it’s also inclusive, which can be anathema to the way some insider-brands present themselves. We want more people under the tent and not just because it makes economic sense but because the brand expands as the people who love it, and self-identify with it, expand. I spend a lot of time on social media interacting with the public, not because I have nothing better to do but because we believe the business should have a voice in conversations about the business. We probably give staff members more flexibility in that space than many resorts. We give staff members the ability to make situations right with guests without necessarily asking permission to do so because we believe they’ll do the right thing on behalf of the guest.

JK: Taos is independent. Taos is unique and far from average. The brand exudes this and the guests who love Taos are drawn to these aspects of the resort and mountain. We build our service standards, training, and guest interactions around this independence to avoid creating a homogenized experience. Staff are encouraged to bring their full selves, personality, and ideas to the job each day, so that their independence is fully reflected in the independence of the resort.

Origin: How do you keep the brand relevant and evolving without losing its core identity? 

SW: If part of your core identity is authenticity, honesty and transparency, and being empathetic, those hallmarks never go out of style. They’re also elements that just about any business could onboard and call their own, not just a ski resort in northern Vermont.

JK: Caring for our people, our planet, our place, and our community will always be at the core of our identity and has been a big part of our brand. The branding process and exercise we went through as a company this past summer was a perfect example of keeping our brand relevant without losing our core identity. Our guests and audience love Taos for this amazing mountain, steep and wide-open terrain, independence, personalized hospitality, and unique culture. We have been able to keep our brand relevant by blending the immersive aspects of the mountain experience with the core values of who we are as a company.

From an execution and marketing standpoint, we have a roadmap planned with photoshoots to keep our imagery fresh and fill gaps in assets needed throughout each season. We plan to do a brand audit after each winter to take inventory of what needs to be accomplished or evolved in future phases of the brand creative rollout. Our marketing team is in a constant state of refining and reinventing our brand creative to both keep it relevant and stay true to our core identity.

Origin: Do you have systems in place to collect guest feedback and use it to refine your brand’s operational impact?  

SW: Listening devices that we use on social, guest feedback programs here on campus, and being out in front of the public in a lift line or making pizzas. Nothing replaces firsthand and face to face interactions and that approach, though maybe not easy, is available to anyone.

JK: Going back to my point earlier, we love hearing from the people who know us best. It’s essential for us to evolve, improve, and refine the brand’s impact. We have comment cards, post-departure surveys, and are constantly monitoring guest feedback on social channels. We use monthly reports to help us identify any opportunities to refine our brand and keep strategies that are working well. We also executed a season pass holder-specific survey. As you can imagine the feedback we receive from our passholders can be very different from feedback from destination visitors. This was a great strategy for us to listen and respond to both of these key customer segments while determining how the brand plays a role in the decisions they make.

Our team takes a lot of pride in responding to feedback in a timely and authentic manner. Online comment cards are shared with the bigger team, with one of our VPs following up directly with the guest to further understand the brand’s operational impact.

Origin: What lessons have you learned about the connection between brand strength and guest loyalty?  

SW: To treat individual guests in a way that makes them feel seen and heard goes an awfully long way. But even before that, and more than anything, that you can be a profitable business and still make sure your staff is cared for and respected. And that if your staff doesn’t, in fact, feel that respect and that care and, ultimately, acknowledgment for how hard and how smart they work (and not just in the form of compensation but in benefit programs and acknowledgment and empathy) your brand will never be what it could be. Your team means more to the brand than anything. More than snow and glades and trams.  Maybe not more than a good, affordable slice of pizza, but pretty damn close.

JK: One of the aspects of working in the ski industry I love and would not change for anything is the passion skiers and snowboarders have for the sport and the mountains they visit. In the same way that sports fans are so loyal to their favorite team, skiers and snowboarders are very loyal to their favorite mountain. It’s important for us as resort operators to bring the same level of passion and loyalty that our guests are bringing. We can’t fake it. Our brand is our identity. It’s who we are, what we feel, what we think, what we say, and what drives us. Guests are loyal to brands who know who they are, stay true to who they are, and who can create a connection built on trust and authenticity.