The Job Title That Will Define the Next Era of Luxury

Marriott International is hiring a Director, Brand Marketing – Luxury Brands.

This isn’t just a brand marketing hire.
This is a future-facing role.

This is the person who will be in charge of the brand.
The person shaping how luxury is interpreted, expressed, and scaled.
The person trusted with the most valuable asset the company has: meaning.

Now here’s what the role is asking:

• Brand positioning
• Integrated marketing campaigns
• Visibility and engagement
• Supporting openings and portfolio growth

All important.
All familiar.

But notice what’s missing.

The role is framed around marketing the brand,
not 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺.

And that distinction matters more than ever.
Because this role will influence how travelers decide where they belong.

Today’s traveler isn’t asking:
“Is this luxury?”
They’re asking:
“Is this for someone like me?”

This is where most hospitality brands quietly struggle.

The role is still treated like a unicorn.
Not because it’s imaginary,
but because it hasn’t been formally named yet.

The people doing this work are usually operating between titles.
The work exists. The title doesn’t.

They’ve been assembling roles across brand, growth, storytelling, and experience, because that’s where the work has already moved.

Most growth leaders understand distribution, scale, and performance.
Most brand storytellers understand emotion, aesthetics, and narrative.

From here on, this role needs both, but they keep hiring for fragments.

It needs someone who understands:
• storytelling and funnels
• identity and revenue
• culture and conversion

When identity-led thinking is missing, brands still look polished,
but they don’t quite land.

They speak beautifully.
They just don’t resonate deeply enough to be chosen, remembered, or returned to.

Because who you hire to lead brand isn’t just a marketer.

They’re the translator between:
who the brand thinks it is
and whether it reflects who the travelers are are,
and who they’re becoming.

That translation can make the brand magnetic.
Or quietly irrelevant.

The next era of hospitality won’t be won in silos.
It will be won by leaders who know how to turn identity into demand,
and demand into loyalty.

The title says Brand Marketing.

But the responsibility?
That’s identity leadership.

And that role clarity can make, or break, how a brand meets the new traveler.

Is identity-led hospitality driving growth where you are?

If you’d like to explore how identity-led hospitality works in practice, I’ve written a piece about it: https://bit.ly/4qU5oVt

Save this. It’s a lens worth returning to.

Image via Siari, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve