The Tatas-controlled Taj group of hotels, India's largest hotels chain, has appointed the US-based Landor Associates, the WPP group's pre-eminent branding and design consultancy firm, to undertake a brand restructuring of the group.

The Taj group has 65 properties in the country and overseas, and has a presence in three segments of the hospitality sector  --  luxury, business and leisure.

While the luxury division is the largest unit of the group accounting for close to half of the group's revenue, business hotels will be its next big focus over the next three years.

In addition, the group is also looking at acquiring upmarket hotels in leading cities globally to boost the Taj image.

Jyoti Narang, chief operating officer of the Taj group's business hotels, said, "The company has appointed Landor for the hotel's brand architecture exercise."

Landor, a division of Young & Rubicam Inc, is part of the WPP Group. Its clients include BP, Unilever, FedEx, Land Rover, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Siberia Airlines, Austrian Airlines among others. Landor provides a complete end to end solutions in terms of branding and designing.

The Taj group's move is in line with the practice followed by international hospitality chains that have distinct brands for various categories of hotels, especially in the luxury segment where the brand is a hallmark of product and service quality.

For example, Six Continents owns brands such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Parkroyal, and InterContinental, or the Carlson group owns the Regent, Radisson and Country Inn brands.

For the group, most of its hotels are under the Taj umbrella. Be it Taj Residency in Bangalore, Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, Taj Exotica in Goa among others.

The group views the Taj brand as a core asset of its business, which has certain standards, values and service quality levels. Part of the plan is to restrict the Taj brand name to super-premium properties under the luxury and leisure segments.

For others, which would include a range of business hotels and others that do not fit the top-end bill, the Taj tag may be withdrawn.

The group which is planning a major presence in the budget hotel category, will also have a separate brand identity.

The Taj group is planning to add another 12 hotels in next three years as part of its expansion plans in the business hotels category.

Narang added that the expansion will be through a mix of acquisitions and management contracts in the domestic market.

The plan is to up the group's presence in metros, mini-metros and smaller towns. This would lead to an increase of about 30 hotels in the near future.

The business division of the group currently has 18 hotels spread across 17 destinations in the country and has 5 hotels internationally.

The group does not have any immediate plan to expand in this category overseas. This is because of the group's strategy to be a global player focusing mainly on premium properties.