Trump’s comments may damage brand, properties beyond election
NEW YORK — Event planner Beth Bernstein decided she had had enough with Donald Trump after his 2005 hot-mic boasts about groping women came to light earlier this month. She removed photos of weddings she had thrown at a Trump hotel in Chicago from her website, wrote to hotel staff to remove her from the list of “preferred vendors” and posted a sort of call to arms on her blog.
“I simply cannot bring myself to walk in the door there any longer,” wrote the owner of SQN Events.
Bernstein is not alone. Rates for rooms at Trump's new D.C. hotel are being slashed as travelers weigh their options, and smartphone data suggest fewer people are visiting his properties compared to rival venues nearby.
The Republican nominee for president is in danger of losing not just the election, but something dear to a man who claims the marketing value of his name alone is worth $3 billion: the many customers, mostly wealthy, who have stayed at his hotels, played a round at his golf courses or held galas at his oceanside resorts.
Experts say the Trump brand is tarnished and at a tricky crossroads as his appeal shifts from the wellheeled, high-income people he has long courted to a more middle-class base, including the fervent fans he cultivated during the campaign.
There is speculation that he could start a Trump media network as a right-wing alternative to major news outlets, drawing money from advertisers to make up for any weakness in his empire elsewhere. But he may have to pivot fast.
“The current trajectory is very harmful to his businesses,” said Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University. “Right now his brands cater to the affluent, who are disproportionately turned off by his activities.”
Ever confident, the business mogul has denied his campaign has dimmed the gilded allure of his five-lettered name and has said, if anything, it has burnished the brand and boosted his business. In a statement, Amanda Miller, vice president of marketing at the Trump Organization, said: “The Trump brand remains incredibly strong and we are seeing tremendous success across business units.”
Evidence of that is hard to see at Trump's new hotel in Washington, which Trump has declared the “best” in the city. It appears to have gotten off to a slow start.
A room at the Trump International Hotel with a king size bed and a city view could have been yours any night of the week starting Nov. 14 for $505 or $555, according to a check of the hotel's website last week. By contrast, five major luxury competitors in the city generally charged more — sometimes hundreds of dollars more — or were sold out.
Some customers are clearly turned off by Trump's derogatory remarks about women and immigrants and the fallout is spreading beyond the hotels.
Some charities, including the Susan G. Komen Foundation, are considering moving events from Trump's properties, including the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach. On Monday, three Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to the U.S. Golf Association urging it to move the 2017 U.S. Women's Open from a course owned by Trump following protests from others.
The biggest test of the brand, of course, will come Nov. 8. National polls show Hillary Clinton with a clear advantage over Trump, and possibly winning even traditional Republican states such as Arizona.
“I think at some point, probably after he loses the election, that we'll do a reevaluation of what the brand means and what the brand stands for,” said Robert Passikoff, president of the Brand Keys research firm. “You can't continue the kind of activities and have these revelations without significantly affecting how the people see the brand. The man and the brand are inseparable.”