Branding Lessons Are Everywhere

This is a duplicate post from David Allison’s blog on BC Business

Why is it that some brands do all the right things, but feel forced, while others do all the right things, and feel amazing? I don’t think there is one definitive answer to this question, but from time to time a case study presents itself that is remarkable and instructional.

I’ve been visiting Toronto recently, and staying in a little hotel called the Windsor Arms. It’s got the secret sauce that makes an amazing brand all figured out, and I’ve learned a ton of great things. This place isn’t the biggest, the flashiest, the most expensive, or the most luxurious hotel in the city. But there’s something going on here we can all learn from.

I’ve decided I’m going to stay here every time I come to Toronto. I’m in love with this brand. Why? Lots of little reasons that add up to some big impressions. I’m not sure if all these things happened on purpose, or accidentally. But the combination is a powerful one.

• A welcoming lobby, where you actually feel like you are at home.
• Staff who are helpful and happy.
• Rooms that are comfortable and understated; not trendy and cool.
• A good room service menu.
• A bright and spacious fitness room, with equipment from this year, not last decade.
• Free WiFi and movies.

Those are all things that many hotels can claim, and should be, as far as I am concerned, a cost of doing business in the hotel vertical. But it’s this next list of little touches that are the salt-and-pepper here; the stuff that makes this brand come alive.

• Heavy bridle leather “do not disturb” signs for the doorknobs, instead of those dreadful little plastic cards.
• Leather room service menu covers, notepad covers, desk blotter and etc. All worn to a nice patina, evidencing the guests who came before.
• A little butlers closet beside the door to your suite, accessible from within and without, so room service and laundry can be dropped off without staff entering your room.
• A good collection of Canadian Art.
• Cloth laundry bags.
• Chocolate chip cookies outside the fitness centre.
• Flattering lighting in all common areas, and a good reading light over the bed. You can also control all the room lights from bed, so you don’t have to walk around shutting lights off when it’s time to drift off to sleep.
• Silver salt and pepper shakers, nice cutlery, linens, and a formidable steel tray when room service arrives.

And so on.

Reading back over what I’ve just written it’s not coming across as well as I would like. But I think that inability to write down the exact recipe for this brand is one of the lessons here too.

It’s the big things done right, the little extras thought about with intelligence and grace, and the unplanned organic interplay of them all that make a brand shine.