Case Study

Accor – La Maison EVP

This was about more than creating one global employer brand. This is how we united four brands, each with their own unique identity, to help achieve their collective goal of redefining the luxury hotel industry.  

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Employees

300,000

Hotels

5584

Countries

110

The challenge

In 2023, Accor created La Maison – the new luxury division of Accor hotels.  

La Maison brings the hotel brands Sofitel Legend, Sofitel, MGallery and Emblems together to redefine luxury hospitality. Not only in curating exceptional experiences for guests, but by being a positive, responsible and impactful presence in the communities where their hotels are based.  

To achieve all this, they needed to build a strong people culture and grow their reputation as a destination employer. Before they could do any of that, they needed an aspirational global EVP.  

This was a complex project, with several challenges. Each La Maison brand has its own unique identity. Each hotel recruits at local level. Accor were developing a new EVP, while Sofitel and MGallery were refreshing their own brands. Everything had to align. And in different languages.  

The solution

Comprehensive pre-development research – Desk-based research included a social listening exercise, competitor audit and candidate experience diagnostic. We also conducted brand immersion workshops, leadership interviews, ED&I focus groups and story-gathering interviews, to inform the development of La Maison’s EVP messaging (Culture Themes, People Promises and narrative).  

Gaining stakeholder sign-off and wider engagement – We carried out a range of consultation activity including EVP validation focus groups and a global survey. As well as giving insight into global and talent segment nuances this encouraged wider EVP engagement, ensuring colleagues had a voice in its development. 

Creating a distinctive employer brand to reflect a distinctive culture – We assessed each brand’s existing guidelines, identifying any shared visual themes. We looked at which elements we could adapt to create the La Maison overarching visual style, while enabling nuances for each brand.  

All Accor employees are known as Heartists®. Headlines celebrate what it means and how it feels to be a La Maison Heartist®. It’s the passion, care, creativity and attention to detail they bring, no matter what their role, to create extraordinary experiences for guests.  

The Heartists® set La Maison apart. So our photography focused on them, engaged in their work and interacting with guests, highlighting their commitment and charisma.  

What we delivered

It was about enabling each hotel to feel part of something bigger, while reassuring them they’d still have their own identity under the La Maison umbrella.  

La Maison Employer Brand Playbook (English and French) – Supporting hotel General Managers (GMs) with internal activation and awareness-raising, the Playbook tells the cultural story and development journey of La Maison’s EVP – promoting its importance for everyone in the business.  

Employer Brand Toolkits for La Maison, Sofitel & Sofitel Legend, MGallery and Emblems (with translations) – We consulted with the marketing leads at every stage of development, to ensure the Toolkits were correctly nuanced for each brand. With flex for different audiences, roles and locations, the Toolkits contain suites of digital, social and print assets designed to support attraction and engagement – embedding the brand at every touchpoint. Templates and instructions on how to use the brand enable GMs to create their own collateral, tailored to their hotel’s unique offering.  

A platform for building a strong people culture – More than a tool for recruitment, La Maison’s EVP is now the guiding light for every hotel General Manager to follow, across every brand and location, to maintain a people culture of authenticity and belonging.  

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