The brand is opening its first London hotel in October. “Today’s traveller is more savvy and sophisticated, and really values an individual experience.” We target sophisticated travellers and well-travelled people, and I think they are tired of the chains, where each of the hotels are more predictable and you go into each hotel under the same brand and it looks the same. This tailored feeling is what sets properties apart from other hotel brands, claims Sonia Cheng, the group’s chief executive officer.Ĭheng says: “We’re focusing on delivering experiences for our guests rather than taking the cookie-cutter approach. Although the brand has only 18 hotels in eight countries to date, with 14 more under construction, its slogan ‘a sense of place’ means each is designed from the outset to reflect its location, including the local environment and culture. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts aims for the same effect with all its hotel locations. Our customers appreciate that newly designed Starbucks stores are intended to fit in with the local community and there are different formats that make the store experience more exciting.” This contrasts with the strategy for Starbucks’ Westfield Stratford City location which has been designed to fit into the modern and futuristic design of the architecture of the Olympic Village nearby, and includes the brand’s largest ’siren’ logo to date.ĭe Hond says: “Our design strategy means we apply our brand’s values and ensure relevance for each market. The St John’s Wood store displays the street address on the corner of the shop front and uses one colour to unify the store and integrate it into the high street.Ĭonsumers are bored with regular advertising and switch to other brands if they can’t identify with one Starbucks in London’s Mayfair, for example, uses materials with high specifications to ensure the store fits in with the surrounding area of exclusive shops, luxury hotels and restaurants. It’s exciting that, when shopping in one city, our customers can experience different sides of Starbucks and define where they feel most at home.” The coffee chain, which has 746 stores and employs 9,000 people in the UK, wants its stores to be designed according to each location, to differentiate itself in a saturated market.ĭe Hond adds: “Location is a key indicator of how we design the store experience so it makes sense to the local community and customer. “Bespoke store design helps us create excitement and diversity in each of the markets in which we operate,” says Ad de Hond, vice-president of store design and concepts at Starbucks EMEA.
This is perhaps one of the biggest examples of a brand tailoring itself to the local area and it a strategy that brands including Starbucks, Puma and Rosewood Hotels & Resorts are also following.
“Every store is different,” he goes on, “and serves a different local community with different tastes and needs.” “The age of the cookie-cutter supermarket is over,” says Tesco’s UK managing director Chris Bush, in a blog post talking about its new Watford store which opened this month.
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