Un-Branding: The New Trend

I attended the HD Boutique show in South Beach last week and one interesting trend that came out of it is "un-branding". The reason behind it is this, some chain hotels or lodging venues and chain restaurants are exactly the same no matter what their location is. You know exactly what it's going to look like. P.F. Changs restaurant is a good example, I love this restaurant and I know exactly what it's going to look like no matter if I'm in Tampa, Naples or Orlando. The same goes for lodging, there are numerous hotel chains that offer the same design in every city.

"A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brand. Business owners have been told for years to create a brand association for their products. Indeed, Starwood Hotels just hired their new CEO Frits van Paasschen, based on his branding experience - he has no lodging experience. I happen to be a member of Starwood resorts. I know that when I stay in at any Sheraton I will sleep on a SweetSleeper bed, heck, I bought the Marriott Bed and all it's bedding after staying at a Marriott Renaisance resort! I remember staying at a Westin resort and all the sand in the ashtrays were stamped with a symbolic "W".

So what's all the talk about un-branding now? Not to worry, your marketing dollars did not go to waste. Un-branding is about giving the location or setting of the venue much more consideration in the design. Restauranteur Jeffrey Chodorow, of China Grill and Social restaurants, spoke to us about taking the important elements that you find in both Social restaurants; game room, pool table, lounge seating, etc and keeping those elements but creating a design that is site specific and takes in the elements of its surroundings. Karen Daroff of Daroff Designs said the same thing when she spoke of spa design. When creating a new restaurant or spa or hotel regardless of whether you've created your own "brand" aesthetic, the design of the space should encompass the key elements of it's surroundings; mountains, desert, red rock canyons, water, white sand beaches. Miami = Art Deco, beaches, water, Arizona = desert, cactus, Idaho= mountains, stone, evergreen trees. Indeed Social in Miami is white on white, with chrome and clean lines. Social in Hollywood is actually Morrocon inspired. But in every Social restaurant you will find a game area and pool table and other elements connected with being in a Social restaurant.

What they are saying is keep the elements that are unique to your brand, but give leeway for designing for the location. A white on white, with chrome contemporary restaurant in the wild, wild west desert of Arizona would feel out of place. Wouldnt it be great if your destination hotel was designed with the destination itself in mind? If the hotel sprung from the landscape.