InterContinental Hotels Group CEO banks on branding

    How did you begin to figure that out?

    There was one famous afternoon and I was in one Crown Plaza in the Amsterdam airport. There was no one in the hotel over the age of 35. These were young, trendy European business couples charging around. And the music playing was Meatloaf. I think it was "Bat out of Hell," but it might have been "Dead Ringer for Love" -- I'm not sure. It's a very inappropriate song to be playing in the middle of the afternoon. And I said, "Who chooses the music?" and nobody could answer the question.

    We figured out it was Gus the barman. Gus the barman's this big 50-year-old guy with a handlebar mustache, and if he had liked Gregorian chants, we would have had those on. This industry doesn't get it, sensory engagement is very important -- how it smells, how it sounds, how it feels, how it looks. It's common sense. If you go into a retail supermarket, it smells of bread. That's because people buy more food if they smell bread because it makes them hungry. We've known that for ages, but no one's thought to actually put that in a hotel situation.

    So what does an American Holiday Inn smell like?

    Gorgeous. It's lemongrass and perilla leaf with some ginger notes to it. So it's not spicy, but it's got something in it that just gives you a sense of freshness and a sense of place.