Lead Brand Strategist (Contract) · Third and Grove
Aramark Destinations
Making an invisible advantage visible.
Aramark Destinations runs more than 100 iconic properties across some of America’s most memorable landscapes: national park lodges, river trips, marinas and conference centers. Its competitive advantage was real, but invisible. I led the brand strategy from stakeholder interviews and a competitive audit through positioning and a new brand architecture, and wrote the creative briefs that carry it into expression.
The challenge
The outdoor hospitality category was being claimed from three directions at once: legacy park operators, hotel management companies moving in, and Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt using loyalty programs to own the consumer’s idea of the outdoors. Aramark Destinations had the expertise and breadth to compete on all three fronts, but lacked a cohesive brand to tie its portfolio together.
What I did
I owned the strategy end to end. I interviewed the president and the full senior leadership team, along with leaders across growth, digital, operations and portfolio management. I audited the competitive landscape, led every workshop and presentation where leadership pressure-tested the findings and made the key decisions, built the positioning, recommended the brand architecture, and wrote the creative briefs for naming and identity.
“Everyone leads with the place. No one leads with the people who know it.”Competitive audit finding
Competitive audit
Landscape · Consumer data · White space
I mapped the category across three competitive fronts and profiled the four closest competitors in depth: brand message, positioning, strengths, weaknesses and consumer sentiment. The pattern was clear. Each competitor led with the lodge, the property, the trip or the contract. Meanwhile, consumer data showed that what outdoor travelers want most (expert guidance, going off the beaten path, and nature as restoration) was barely claimed by anyone.
Positioning
Territory · Positioning · Values
Senior leadership pressure-tested three territories and chose one: The Guide Makes the Destination. The workshop sharpened it. Expertise can be hired. What can’t be copied is roots: the river guide, the marina hand who knows where the sandbars hide, the desk manager who has stayed for years. The positioning promises travelers they’ll go deeper into places that matter, guided by people authentically rooted in them.
“You can hire a guide. You can’t hire roots.”
Brand architecture
Program vs. portfolio
The biggest decision was structural. A portfolio brand would put one logo on every lodge and marina. It would make the company visible, but it would promise the same experience at properties that can’t all deliver it, which is the gap competitors were already suffering from.
I recommended a program brand instead: a new consumer brand that properties earn by delivering two guarantees, an authentic human connection and a place-specific takeaway, at one of three depths. The new program brand sits alongside Aramark Destinations, which continues to serve institutional and federal partners. The program lives digitally first, so investment follows proof.
“The portfolio brand makes it visible. The program model makes it true.”
New consumer program brand
Every experience guarantees two things
Multi-day, layered itinerary with a career guide“You came back different.”
A local expert, single day or overnight“You met someone who belongs here.”
Self-guided, with insider knowledge from staff who stay“You learned something others don’t know.”
Properties that can’t yet deliver the lightest depth stay outside the program. The program lives digitally first, so investment follows proof.
From strategy to creative
Naming · Creative briefs
Strategy is only as strong as what it makes possible. I wrote the creative briefs for naming and identity, so the creative team builds on a foundation that’s already decided: who it’s for, what it promises, and what it will never claim.