Join Our Club: BCM and theming

If you can't beat 'em, then join 'em. This is one way of interpreting the speculation surrounding Grupo Cursach possibly allowing the BCM brand to be adopted by a hotel (or hotels). It was generally thought that BCM was one of the principal objectors to the Fiesta Group's Mallorca Rocks hotel, one of the most obvious examples of hotel theming to date, and one very much with a more youthful market in mind. If so, then the BCM attitude has undergone some amelioration. The line now is that Mallorca Rocks (and Mallorca Wave) are complementary to BCM and that concerts finishing by midnight at Mallorca Rocks do not constitute a threat as such.

This was the line that should always have been adopted. The arrival of Mallorca Rocks - responded to last year by the staging of concerts by BCM in its square -marked a real opportunity for Magalluf. Rather than resisting, the impetus that Mallorca Rocks gave needed to be embraced. It now seems as though it has been. Momentum is gathering in establishing Magalluf even more firmly as a "party" resort, one in which the total should be greater than the sum of its individual parts. An incoming competitor, even a competitor whose competition is comparatively loose, which is the case where Mallorca Rocks is concerned, fertilises the ground from which more business can be grown - by all parties.

Cursach says that a hotel theming or branding exercise involving BCM is not a priority but that if the company were to go down that route then it would want to be involved in the management of a hotel; it wouldn't, therefore, just be a branding exercise. If Cursach does decide to diversify, it would be entirely its affair as to how this might work, but the fact that a declaration of intent has been made - in the form of a wish to manage a hotel, if only in partnership - suggests that the company may be closer to establishing such an arrangement than it is letting on. If it is, then good for it. The concept could well make a great deal of sense, not just for BCM but also for Magalluf.

There is a second reason for thinking that Cursach is "joining 'em" rather than trying to "beat 'em". This has to do with the reform of the tourism law which allows hotels to offer so-called secondary activities which would be open to non-guests. One such activity concerns the club sector, BCM's market therefore. While there have been understandable objections to the legal reform (and I have agreed that it can be construed as being unfair), a more positive way of looking at the reform is to try and get a piece of the action. And what better way than being a business from outside moving inside a hotel.

For a business with such a strong brand name and high awareness as BCM, an association with a hotel (or multiple associations) represents a means of exploiting and developing the brand. As such therefore, the reform of the law creates an opportunity. This, in the rush to condemn the reform, was probably being overlooked.

If opportunity there is then, would similar opportunities exist for other businesses and ones not just in Magalluf? They would apply pretty much exclusively to clubs, bars or even restaurants with strong names and reputations in specific resorts, but if I were to take a resort I know well - Alcúdia - I could think of a handful of businesses which might well indeed sense an opportunity; not for hotel theming or branding as such, but as an operator inside hotel grounds. Association with a strong name from outside the hotel could well be attractive to a hotel, as it would give the hotel additional marketing leverage.

But might such arrangements be harmful to the main business? Would it be a case of cannibalising the existing product or of stretching the brand to the extent that neither the original nor the new business benefits? Possibly it would, but not necessarily. Much would depend on the product of the new, hotel-based business, and this raises a question as to how adept some businesses might be in understanding new product development.

To come back to BCM and to Magalluf, if Cursach were to embark on a hotel theming venture, it would be another example of the extent to which the resort is being given a makeover. But there is in all of this makeover, a question mark, and it concerns just what sort of resort is being conceived. The ultimate party resort does not necessarily sit easily alongside ambitions for a more up-market family resort. And party resort brings with it certain downsides, as already exist in Magalluf.

Hotel theming, branding exercises need to be undertaken within the context of a wider and integrated strategy, the branding of Magalluf and how its component parts are organised and if necessary segregated. There is much to excite in Magalluf's rejuvenation, but there is much that also needs to be given careful thought. 


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.


Index for November 2012

BCM and hotel theming - 30 November 2012
British Consul non-replacement - 25 November 2012
Business opportunities: making them easier - 18 November 2012
Can Picafort front line - 9 November 2012
Car hire and tourist taxes - 7 November 2012
Carlos Delgado and the deer hunt - 21 November 2012
Catalonian election - 23 November 2012, 28 November 2012
Corruption and political party system - 1 November 2012
Dogs on beaches in Pollensa - 5 November 2012
Expatriate categorisation - 17 November 2012
Fishermen's guilds - 3 November 2012
Flags: bans on use - 27 November 2012
García surname popularity in Mallorca - 13 November 2012
Holiday lets and national law - 20 November 2012
Hotels and town hall bureaucracy - 2 November 2012
Joan Mesquida - 12 November 2012
Mass tourism - 10 November 2012
Mountains and snow - 29 November 2012
November - 6 November 2012
Palacio de Congresos - 26 November 2012
Pollensa fair - 14 November 2012
Press, Carlos Delgado and Artur Mas - 22 November 2012
Proposta per les Illes (El Pi) - 4 November 2012
Rafael Bosch and Cabrera diving trips - 11 November 2012
Ramon Llull Institute - 8 November 2012
Themed hotels - 16 November 2012
Tourism promotion obligations - 19 November 2012
Trust in politicians: lack of - 15 November 2012