SALES & MARKETING
Lobby at the 215-room Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel prior to a US $ 7.5 million renovation
Solving
SHERATON
HOW MARRIOTT IS MODERNIZING A TRUSTED BUT TIRED BRAND .
By CHLOE RILEY , ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marriott International knows it has its hands full with Sheraton , the 80-year-old brand the company landed in 2016 when it acquired Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide . In previous years , even Starwood had admitted the brand was in need of a major refresh .
“ We ’ re trying to balance two things : First , we want to honor Sheraton . It is loved by a lot of people , not only domestically but around the world ,” says Indy Adenaw , Sheraton ’ s vice president and global brand leader . “ We ’ ve actually gone back and done a lot of research to understand the traits and elements that people have come to trust , which is that it ’ s open , it feels welcoming and it ’ s comforting .
But the actual execution of these pieces we have really tried to modernize .”
One indicator of exactly how Marriott plans to reposition Sheraton may come from looking at how the hotel giant initially has handled the brand ’ s marketing .
Just over two years ago , Starwood rolled out “ Where Actions Speak Louder ,” a US $ 100 million ad campaign with largely television-based ads : a move which , if it was trying to target a younger , less traditionally TV-inclined audience , felt conspicuously stodgy .
But in November 2017 , just a year after Bethesda , Maryland-based Marriott got its mitts on Starwood , Sheraton has launched a documentary-style content series , a partnership between Sheraton and Showtime that takes viewers behind the scenes of popular series like “ Shameless ,” “ Billions ” and “ Homeland .”
Though developed by Starwood , the content series ( and Marriott ’ s willingness to move forward with it ) suggests a vision to shift the classic brand into a new era , one in tune with a younger generation that is both business- and leisure-oriented .
Debuting in 1937 in Springfield , Massachusetts , Sheraton – which now has over 450 properties in 75 countries – was in many ways a pioneer . It offered the industry ’ s first automatic electronic reservations system in 1958 . In 1970 , it was
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