InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).Turning a price increase into a promise: making the case for franchise owners to pay more for security.
Concept Development • Narrative Strategy • Executive Storytelling
01 · The business problem
IHG was raising the price of the shared network security service it provides to more than 4,000 franchise owners across the United States. Owners would have to agree to pay more. Owners are independent businesses watching every cost, and security is a hard sell: it's invisible when it works, and the usual pitch is fear, which clashes with a brand built on rest. IHG needed a case strong enough to win owners over without sounding like an IT upsell.
02 · What I saw
“Owners weren't really being asked to buy network monitoring. They were being asked to protect the thing they sell: a guest who feels safe enough to relax. Security isn't separate from hospitality. It's part of it. So the price increase had to be framed in the brand's own promise: peace of mind for guests, and for the owners responsible for them.”
03 · The strategy
What we decided.
01
Lead with the brand promise, not the threat.
“Rest Easy” positioned protection as part of a good night's sleep, so the pitch felt like IHG, not like a security vendor.
02
Translate features into outcomes owners care about.
Network isolation, encryption and 24/7 monitoring became fewer guest data incidents, less liability, no in-house IT burden.
03
Make the economics clear.
Show owners that the shared service delivers more protection than they could buy individually at the same cost, and that the investment flows back into the brand they depend on.
04 · The work
Then we made it real.
"IHG Protect" concept and identity · "Rest Easy" narrative in the brand's voice · Executive presentation built around the reframe · Owner-facing value story
The cover, IHG Protect, protection as hospitality.
Rest Easy, the concept in the brand's own voice.
The reframe, you're also in the security business.
Peace of mind, value that flows back into the brand.
05 · My role
My role.
As part of an Accenture team working with AT&T, I developed the core concept and led the narrative strategy, facilitating co-creation sessions with IHG leadership to shape the story.
06 · The result
What happened.
IHG leadership bought into the concept and increased cost, and the program moved forward.
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