The Devil is in the Detail

Design and style are at the heart of the W Hotels brand. Two of the company’s goals are to help travelers “escape to where iconic design and contemporary luxury set the stage for exclusive and extraordinary experiences,” and to mix cutting-edge design with local influences to create “a place to play or work by day or to mix and mingle in high-energy spaces by night.” With such design-inspired goals, it’s no surprise that the company’s design principles have been applied to the brand’s website and social media platforms as well.

As some like to say, the devil is in the details. A perfect example of Starwood taking this mantra seriously is in the redesign of the W Hotel French Quarter in New Orleans. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, every detail of the hotel breaths the life and culture of New Orleans, from the witchy-poo wall paper to the tarot card inspired two dimensional art installations found in each room.

Witchy wallpaper lines a hallway at
W Hotel French Quarter, New Orleans

When it comes to the brand’s online properties the attention to detail starts with the look and feel of each platform. Black backgrounds with pops of fuchsia pink make them appear edgy, stylish and youthful; and the consistency of this look ties each property together to build the W Hotel brand.

W Hotel Twitter page interface.

•  Web: https://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WHotels
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/whotels
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60661210@N03

Each platform - website, Facebook, Twitter, flikr – employs the principles of balance, alignment, grouping, consistency, contrast and cross cultural design. Consideration of cross-cultural design is realized in two instances. First, Starwood enables consumers in the world’s second largest economy – China – to follow the W Hotels brand on that nation’s sanctioned social networking platform, Weibo (http://e.weibo.com/whotels).  Secondly, users of Weibo can enjoy content in language, giving users a “culturally deep” experience as described by Richard Johnson-Sheehan in his book “Technical Communication Strategies for Today,” Chapter 18.

The W Hotel 'Weibo' interface.
Weibo is a Chinese micro-blogging site.

Overall, I find that Starwood has perfected the principles of design when it comes to all aspects of its W Hotels bran, including its social media platforms.

###

Spreading the Word

Starwood Hotels uses a full range of traditional media relations strategies to further the reputation of its W Hotel brand. On the Starwood Hotels website reporters and consumers can learn more about the philosophy of the properties via a traditional media kit, which includes a link to a W Hotels Worldwide Fact Sheet, Property Portfolio and Hi-Res Image Gallery, the latter accessible by other W Hotel properties, Starwood Corporate, third party vendors and regional partners. The site also lists the 2012 awards won by each property, as well as the year’s press releases which can be viewed online or downloaded in PDF format. Each press release is issued over the newswires to gain as much exposure as possible.

One of the recent press releases posted on the 'About W Hotels' section of the website announces the W Hotels Worldwide partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The release was issued over Business Wire and posted verbatim by Wall Street Journal Online and Yahoo! Finance, written about in an original article by USA Today reporter Barbara DeLollis, Leah Melby of Elle magazine, Esquire’s Kurt Soller and others.

W Hotels and CFDA partnership
announcement on YouTube.

Starwood has fully embraced new media relations strategies by engaging directly with consumers via platforms like Facebook, Twitter, flickr, foursquare, Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo, and YouTube. In fact, the partnership with CFDW mentioned above was teased the night before the press release hit the wires via a YouTube video featuring interviews by W Hotels Worldwide Vice President Carlos Becil, Steven Kolb, Chief Executive Officer of CFDA and many of the designers who will benefit from the program.  In addition, with a nod to former Financial Times reporter Tom Foremski’s call for corporations and PR professionals to make the job of a reporter easier (Breckenridge - Chapter 7), on November 6, 2012, Starwood announced the launch of a new media portal, http://www.starwoodmediacentre.com, which provides easy access to news, brand assets and links to tools like Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds.

As with traditional media, Starwood ensures that it promotes the W Hotel brand when using new media strategies. In the YouTube video mentioned above, the association with W Hotels and/or Starwood Corporate is very clear as the video intros and outros with the W Hotels Worldwide logo. The images posted on Flikr are all professional, corporate imagery of its various properties to ensure consistency of quality and message, but consumers are allowed to engage with the brand by posting comments about a given image.



W Hotels 'W Music' mobile platforms lets users choose from a selection
of music characteristic various aspects of their hotel properties.

Given the brand’s edgy, young and stylish personality that seeks to be “inspiring, iconic, innovative and influential,” the new media strategies it employees are a perfect fit. In addition to connecting with consumers on some of the most popular social media platforms in existence today, Starwood uses various mobile strategies that offer unique opportunities for guests and/or brand devotees to engage with the brand. The Mobile Website, Starwood Preferred Guest (frequent guest points program) application and W Hotels application all allow users to book a stay, explore a particular hotel, interact with staff, get directions and more. The W Hotels app includes extras like allowing users to listen to music mixes from the W Hotels/Burn Studios DJ Lab and shop the W Hotel online store.

Jonathan Adler-designed 'Kitty Krack' animal treats jar
available for purchase online at the W Hotels store.

 

With the creation of the Starwood Media Center, I’d say that Starwood has embraced both traditional and new social media relations tactics to reach media professionals and consumers at every level. Perhaps the only tool I did not see employed by them was the Social Media Release template espoused in our readings by Foremski  and perfected by Shift Communications (Breckenridge – Chapter 7), but from their use of the traditional press release, RSS feeds, to video and mobile applications, Starwood has left almost no stone unturned in its efforts to promote the W Hotels brand.

###

What’s All the Fuss About?

Starwood’s W Hotel chain is unique in concept and design. The parent company has filtered the reliability and predictability of a mass-market hotel through a boutique hotel experience. The result is a string of hotels with “a mix of vibes and elements” that delivers everything a traveler expects from a large chain “for exclusive and extraordinary experiences.” In that sense, Starwood hasn’t forgotten that W Hotels must ultimately deliver a safe space for travelers to rest, but with this practical purpose the creators make every effort to bring an authentic voice to each property to reflect the environment’s heritage and style.

In July I traveled to New Orleans for the 10th annual Tales of the Cocktail®, which brings together the world’s top spirits producers with the country’s top mixologists to explore innovations in cocktails and cocktail culture. My group of colleagues and I stayed at the W Hotel French Quarter. I was immediately struck by the unique way the hotel’s decorators manifested their vision of New Orleans   culture with unexpected and whimsical witch-inspired wallpaper that played on the city’s long association with voodoo and witchcraft and floor-to-ceiling, two dimensional art installations representative of the reign krewe kings and queens hold over the populace during Mardi Gras.

Hallway at W Hotel French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, with black and white 'witch' wallpaper.

The aesthetic was stylish and brash all at the same time. So much so that I was compelled to snap photos of these elements and text them to my friend Carine Francois, who studied textile design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, to get her take on the unexpected design elements.  This is a perfect example of Starwood creating an experience that gets guests talking. After reading Bhargava’s writings on a brand’s ‘Signature’ and the ‘UAT Filter’, as a marketer and PR professional, it’s disconcerting to know that I got played. I did exactly what the masterminds behind W Hotels wanted me to do. In fact, this entire blog plays into their dastardly scheme to brainwash me into a W Hotel devotee, which has obviously worked.  (Bummer…)

Bedroom at W Hotel French Quarter with city-inspired art installation.

In most cities to which I’ve traveled and at most W Hotels at which I’ve stayed, I’ve found that the spirit of ‘cool’ created by the chain’s creators permeates not only the design aesthetic, but the attitude of the workforce as well. Among a certain demographic, ‘W’ symbolizes cool and affordable indulgence. Although most guests realize that the hotel can’t really deliver whatever you want whenever you want it, they buy into the idea that they’re treating themselves to something only the wealthiest travelers are able to enjoy – what they want, when they want it, no matter the expense. And in my experience, the staff sometimes has a mischievously cocky air seen often among New York City bouncers, club promoters and those girls with clip boards who confirm whether or not you’re on the list for some hot party or another.  Though W Hotel staff are as helpful as anyone in the service industry should be, knowing they hold the key to your whatever/whenever moment seems to give them their own unique buzz.

The creators of W Hotels have turned their property, their brand, into that cool kid in high school who everyone – secretly or overtly – wanted to be friends with. W Hotel is what Starbucks was when it burst onto the coffee house scene. It’s what Jet Blue became to the airline industry and what Virgin America has recently perfected. When I walk into a W Hotel in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami or New Orleans I feel the buzz of energy, of excitement, of all the cool kids hanging in the ‘Living Room’ bar – reveling in their coolness, eager to see what other cool person has joined their midst, but pretending not to do so.

###