2016 evidence suggests it's getting harder. by lorraine woellert 10/14/16 05:39 am edt early last week, the trump international hotel & tower vancouver launched a meet-the-trumps contest to publicize its grand opening. as the big day approached, a twitter stream tracked progress on the project<u+2019>s luxe finishing touches. then the world heard donald trump brag about groping women, and the fun stopped. the developer, the holborn group, hasn<u+2019>t tweeted about the property since. the tower<u+2019>s fall opening has been pushed to january. story continued below coincidence? neither holborn nor the trump organization responded to requests for comment. trump the candidate has been tarnishing trump the brand for at least a year. macy<u+2019>s, perfumania, serta and the pga severed ties soon after he kicked off his candidacy with a speech that accused mexico of sending criminals and rapists to the u.s. since then, the candidate has made campaign detours to keep his businesses running, touring his posh new hotel near the white house last month and cutting the ribbon on a golf course in scotland in june. but trump<u+2019>s raw language on sexual assault, exposed last week in a recording from 2005, could present the biggest threat yet to the family name. <u+201c>if there is a game changer, this is it,<u+201d> said gene grabowski, a partner at kglobal, a d.c.-based public affairs firm. <u+201c>until last week, his brand was bulletproof. now i<u+2019>m not so sure.<u+201d> well, maybe not exactly bulletproof. congress by seung min kim market-tracking reports from companies such as redfin, hipmunk and foursquare have already found that trump-branded properties were suffering well before his infamous comments aired last week and new accusations of assault emerged. their research, albeit incomplete, covered everything from condo prices and hotel bookings to foot traffic at his leisure properties. it<u+2019>s tricky to have a founder<u+2019>s name on a brand when its founders or heirs go sideways. martha stewart living learned that the hard way. partying paris hilton famously caused her family headaches. hitch an outsized ego to a presidential campaign, stir in charged rhetoric on race, sex, class and religion, and a founder can be downright calamitous for a business built on the family name. that<u+2019>s where trump has taken his brand, said howard pulchin, global creative director at apco worldwide. <u+201c>before the campaign there was a balance between the brand trump and mr. trump himself,<u+201d> pulchin said. now, <u+201c>the individual has usurped the business, and when the individual strikes this much controversy it can<u+2019>t be good for the brand.<u+201d> mark cuban, an avid supporter of trump<u+2019>s opponent, hillary clinton, was more blunt. "every single @realdonaldtrump hotel and golf course is toast. done. over. bernie madoff now has a better brand," the billionaire tweeted on oct. 7. the trump organization , a conglomerate that includes golf courses, a modeling agency, a line of furniture, real estate in at least nine countries and, of course, the famous brand, keeps most of its finances private. that makes it difficult to know whether its bottom line has taken a hit as a result of the presidential campaign. for decades, everything sold by the company <u+2014> even the water and the sheets <u+2014> bore the trump name. last month, though, the company did an about-face, launching a hotel brand <u+2014> scion <u+2014> that will offer the trump experience minus the trump moniker. <u+201c>we wanted a name that would be a nod to the trump family and to the tremendous success it has had with its businesses, including trump hotels, while allowing for a clear distinction between our luxury and lifestyle brands,<u+201d> trump hotels ceo eric danziger said in a press release . scion will be born without the trump stigma. a july report from redfin, a real estate brokerage, found that the price premium on trump-branded condos had vanished in the year since trump announced his candidacy. the trump organization keeps most of its finances private-- that makes it difficult to know whether its bottom line has taken a hit as a result of the presidential campaign. | ap photo online travel company hipmunk showed that trump properties were a shrinking share of hotel bookings on its website during the first half of 2016, down 58 percent from a year earlier when trump wasn<u+2019>t officially running for president. and foot traffic to trump-branded hotels, casinos and golf courses in the u.s. has dropped since trump announced his candidacy, falling 17 percent from june 2015 through the end of september <u+2014> and 21 percent among women. that<u+2019>s according to foursquare , a location intelligence company. those and other analyses are imperfect, relying on partial data and inputs skewed heavily by demographics and customer preferences of the sites that collect them. nor do they prove cause and effect. <u+201c>hipmunk users tend to be urban millennials, and so our own demographics come into play,<u+201d> the company noted. in other corners of the trump organization, business is surviving challenges brought by the campaign. at the international golf club scotland, which operates a resort and course near aberdeen, operating losses were nearly 1.1 million pounds, or about $1.3 million, last year. but revenue was up and the losses came after years of renovations. bookings have taken off at the month-old trump international in washington, according to a hotel official, despite protests, vandalism and mixed reviews . <u+201c>the restaurant and the bar have done better than expected,<u+201d> said patricia tang, director of sales and marketing. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s the strength of the brand.<u+201d> the trump international, situated between the white house and the capitol, has successfully wooed seasoned industry veterans from the four seasons, ritz carlton and mandarin oriental, tang said. tang is an industry veteran herself whose career includes stints at the four seasons, founded by famed hotelier isadore sharp, and salamander resort & spa, a horse-country getaway built by clinton backer sheila johnson. she says she<u+2019>s not worried about the trump brand being damaged. by louis nelson <u+201c>when i was with the four seasons, there were people back then who didn<u+2019>t want to use the four seasons because mr. sharp is jewish,<u+201d> tang said. <u+201c>sheila ran into issues because she<u+2019>s african-american.<u+201d> <u+201c>you always have some people who are going to be adamantly opposed because they don<u+2019>t like somebody being involved,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>paris hilton <u+2014> it<u+2019>s not like people quit using hilton hotels.<u+201d> brands risk making waves when they dip a toe into politics, or even civics. caffeine drinkers rolled their eyes last year when starbucks ceo howard schultz <u+2014> a clinton supporter <u+2014> added a dollop of social justice to the company<u+2019>s coffee cups. the company<u+2019>s feel-good race together campaign was short-lived but left no obvious scars. the trump presidential campaign is different. americans have been barraged with negative, sometimes shocking, news about trump for more than a year. all the while, trump<u+2019>s candidacy and his brand have become more deeply entwined in consumers<u+2019> minds. it<u+2019>s impossible to say whether the bad taste will linger after election day, regardless if trump wins or loses, and what affect it might have. <u+201c>more and more, businesses are standing for more than what they sell; they<u+2019>re standing for something better for the world. there<u+2019>s great commitment to serving more than the bottom line,<u+201d> pulchin said. <u+201c>the trump business, what does it stand for? if it does stand for hospitality, is he being hospitable?<u+201d> a champion brand requires authenticity and attachment to something bigger, pulchin said. <u+201c>he has alignment with his core followers on the political trail, but is he aligned with his core customers? as an $800-a-night hotelier, i don<u+2019>t think he is.<u+201d> by joshua zeitz by thomas wright by jack shafer by melissa k. chan
can trump the brand survive trump the man? - politico
lorraine woellert seung min kim louis nelson jack shafer