Something that Starwood Hotels and Resorts always does very well is promote and publicize their brands.. Unlike a lot of other hotel firms who don’t really differentiate their different brands and tell the customer WHY they should stay at one hotel vs another (as I’ve said before – what’s the difference between Hilton & Doubletree? What’s the difference between Candlewood Suites & Staybridge Suites?) Starwood does a great job of differentiating their brands, while simultaneously advertising ALL their brands in almost all marketing material; even if it’s a small logo in the bottom corner – its still branding. And don’t even get me started about Hilton’s missed marketing opportunity on the bottom of their website.. I wrote about that awhile back. It still boggles my mind how they didn’t take the extra step to market their brands.

For example, the first aloft & element hotels are not scheduled to open until mid-2008, yet since mid-2006 the aloft logo was visible on the bottom of almost every single web page within the Starwood Hotels umbrella, and since late-2006, the element logo has been visible as well – over zealous marketing department? I think not. Unlike Hyatt which is launching their Andaz brand in one week, and has done ZERO marketing on the web, in print or anywhere, about the brand, or their first hotel, Starwood is making sure the world knows about their two new hotel brands, so that when they finally open – customers know what to expect from the hotels, and hopefully are very eager to give them a try.

Now it looks as though Starwood is about to expand their brand footer at the bottom of their webpages & throughout their marketing materials – with the addition of the Bliss Spas Logo.

Starwood’s Current 9 Logo Spread (Click to Zoom)

Starwood’s 10 Logo Spread which is starting to make its rounds in marketing material

Bliss Spas was purchased by Starwood in 2004 and has been integrated in to a lot of newer and future W Hotels within North America; only not too many people know that Bliss is 100% owned by Starwood. The Bliss Spas brand consists of actual spas, of which there are currently 8 locations as well as a complete line of body care, skin car, footwear, even clothes which can be found in mainstream stores such as a local Sephora, Macys or of course, inside the actual Spas themselves. Plus Starwood put a little spin on the individual shower shampoos, conditioners, soaps that every hotel has in their rooms – instead of using some no-named oddly smelling, skin-drying shampoo, conditioner and bar of soap – Starwood has a “bliss sinkside six-pack” which includes a face wash, “soapy sap” (body wash), “body butter” (moisturizer – I think), shampoo, conditioner and a “small but still fab” bar of soap waiting in every guest room throughout the entire W Hotel chain, as well as the new aloft chain. If you purchase that six-pack from a store – it sells for $25 dollars; it’s ingenious how Starwood is essentially giving away free samples – that almost every single W & aloft guest will actually use.

I first noticed this change in an advertisement for Element Hotels, then in Starwood’s Sheraton & Four Points Development Brochure, where the normal spread of the 9 Starwood Hotel brands was changed to reflect the Bliss Spa logo in addition to the 9 hotel brands. Most people may think this is a minor change that doesn’t really have any bearing on anything – but I think that its an indication that Starwood is trying to increase market share and increase brand recognition of Bliss Spa. It’s a great move by Starwood – associating another one of their brands – which happens to be an ancillary service to hotels – with everything Starwood. I think its simply an extension of Starwood’s strategy to expand in ancillary services that closely compliment hotels and lodging – I’ll mention more on this in another post very shortly.

I think in the next few months Starwood is going to update their footer on their website’s with the Bliss Spa logo which hopefully will indicate that Starwood is doing more to expand the brand – it seems to be pretty stagnant over the past few years.

I’m a big fan of branding – I think that having a well known, well marketed brand is one of the most valuable things a company can have. Wouldn’t you say it’s more valuable for someone to say Starwood Hotels and automatically think, Sheraton, Westin, W, etc? or think – W Hotels, then automatically think Bliss Spas, or Sheraton?

In today’s marketplace – a company needs a brand to stick out, to differentiate it with the competition – an art that Starwood does perfectly. I cant wait to see how Starwood will evolve under their new CEO, Frits van Paasschen, who brings with him years of experience with international, lifestyle brands as he was formerly President and CEO of Coors Brewing Company and was once in charge of Nike’s show business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Once Paasschen gets settled into Starwood Hotels, I think we’ll see some great great things – no other hotel company is putting an emphasis on branding like Starwood does, it will ensure that Starwood sticks out and becomes even more hugely successful.

andrew@alconic-inc.com