Shangri-La Group

Shangri-La is a name synonymous with a luxury hotel portfolio, particularly in China, Southeast Asia and the Gulf. However, in less than 50 years, it has grown from a renowned Asian-hotelier to a diverse multi-billion-dollar portfolio of global businesses, capabilities, and expertise – including mixed-use developments, health & wellness and a food and beverage business that brings in roughly $1 billion of revenue each year.

Despite this meteoric growth, Shangri-La recognized that without an overarching corporate brand, it could not effectively address its multitude of audiences (including over 40,000 global staff, government and community partners and investors) in a unified way. Neither could it properly reflect its growth to the global community.

So, Shangri-La engaged Lippincott to help develop a corporate brand that reflected the full breadth and power of its portfolio. Following rigorous qualitative and quantitative research in key segments, including a robust survey of 10,000 existing Shangri-La employees and focus groups with staff at all levels across four continents, we created a brand that is anchored on a new brand purpose: to pioneer new horizons together and create experiences that showcase the best of Asia.

The new corporate name, Shangri-La Group, creates a platform for future growth, strengthening future intentions. And, building on existing equity in the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts brand, we created a new identity using a conceptual mountain inspired by the negative space in the iconic logo of the Shangri-La stay brand. The new logotype uses customized letterforms and characters to achieve a unique expression of the brand.

After developing the corporate brand platform we developed an end-to-end suite of brand assets. This spanned the corporate name and identity, visual system and digital design tools through to value propositions, voice and messaging frameworks.

Based on the new positioning, we helped Shangri-La Group bring the new brand to life. A series of signature design and communications elements were created to enable the brand to grow and thrive across channels, cultures and audiences.