Usually, it’s B2C businesses that employ a multi-brand strategy. However, Regus’ marketing approach for its two new brands shows us that a multi-brand strategy can also work within the serviced offices and flexible workspace industries.
Regus is usually associated with big corporations, lawyers, financial consultants, formal environments, and the like. So when it introduced its two new brands, ThinkKora and Spaces (a company founded seven years ago by Martijn Roordink, Frederique Keuning, and Rattan Chadha in Amsterdam, and acquired by Regus earlier this Spring), Regus had to separate itself from them, since ThinkKora and Space’ target market is not their usual share of clients.
Regus is well aware of the fact that young, cool, hip, and creative people may not associate their aspirations with a corporate Regus environment. We’ve all seen various research results that state the hostility that can ensue from different generations sharing the same workspace…it’s a completely different way of working and a completely different concept of what work should be like.
However, what’s mainly interesting from Regus’ approach to market these two brands is that they decided to associate their name with ThinkKora, but not with Spaces. ThinkKora’s website clearly states that they are a Regus brand and their Twitter username is ‘Regus Kora’.
“Created by Regus, we are an international network of inspiring partners, events, and places to work.”
On the other hand, Spaces’ website doesn’t openly associate itself with Regus or with Regus’ social media. It might be an experiment from their part–which will do better with the young, creative, and tech savvy workers: the one with a Regus name or the one without it?
Regardless of the strategy, it’s clear that Regus wants to break into the social side of the flexible workspace industry and that they want to win over the new generation of workers.
It’s no secret that one brand can’t, try as it may, win over all the different niches available within a given industry; after all, we can’t please everyone. Which is why Regus saw the need to create two new brands, one geared towards creative individuals and the other geared towards entrepreneurs and tech savvy individuals.
Without a doubt, ThinkKora is how Regus plans to reach creative types. From the colorful website one gathers that ThinkKora is a space where a connected community that seeks and finds knowledge and inspiration, as well as a space where you will find support for you to grow and scale.
Can the same be said for a classic Regus environment?
On the other hand, Spaces, Regus’ unrecognized brand, is geared more towards entrepreneurs and individuals that like to get straight to the point. Spaces offers the following products: complete office spaces, meeting rooms, and ‘business clubs’ (otherwise known as coworking spaces).
Spaces’ services slogan reads, “You do the important stuff. We do everything else.” This motto does make me think Regus for some reason. Who knows, these might be the young ones that could potentially settle in a Regus office once their startups grow and are successful.
So, should you use a multi-brand strategy to market your office space?
It has its pros and cons. For Regus it’s an approach that can potentially work because their clients, for the most part, fit a particular line of business; and those that don’t fit their typical customer profile usually steer clear, so their risk of market cannibalization is pretty low.
But this is not an approach that works for all; the risk of losing clients is high, especially when the different brands target the same industry.
