It’s been a busy few months for the W Hotels brand: the W Dubai — Al Habtoor City opened to the public on June 20, 2016, and just three months before that, W Hotels revealed its renewed brand positioning, and approach to guest experience.
W Hotels Worldwide global brand leader Anthony Ingham was in the region to reveal more at the Global Brand Summit during Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME) leadership conference in Doha in March.
When we meet him at the new Al Habtoor City complex in Dubai, Ingham is relaxed despite jet-lag after a flight from New York, and tells Hotelier about its new position: “We have identified an evolved target consumer, an evolved positioning for the brand, new core values that underpin the way that the brand is delivered, and some additional passion points. Our traditional passion points are fashion, design and music, and we are going to expand that with an additional one that will encompass other aspects of what consumers are really after today.”
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Ingham continues: “The fourth passion is called ‘Fuel’; Fuel is the energy to look good, feel good, go longer, stay later. It’s W’s perspective on exercise, living well, and healthy eating.”
Discussing how this would reflect in W’s offering, Ingham says it’s about breakfast ingredients that can power people through the day, bar snacks that are not fattening, and low calorie cocktails.
He stresses that while the regular options will always be available, the move with ‘Fuel’ is to give consumers the power of choice.
Further to this, the brand has evolved its target consumer to reflect the trends seen in the last four to five years.
“There are some fundamental shifts in the way that consumers are behaving, so [we will have] much more importance on exercising and healthy living, and much more importance on having a point of view on sustainability and social causes,” explains Ingham.
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