From the latest Good Experience newsletter…
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Customer experience investments at Marriott and Netflix
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Which is the better “good experience”, consistency or uniqueness? That’s like asking what’s better, simplicity or complexity? It depends on the context. Both are good at different times and places, for different people, for different reasons. What’s unusual, though, is to see one company try to provide both experiences. Here’s a New York Times article on the partnership between Ian Shrager and Marriott…
http://urlx.org/nytimes.com/7c393
Inevitably there’s some tension between the consistent experience (Marriott hotels) and the unique experience (Ian Shrager’s boutique hotels):
Mr. Schrager, for his part, concedes that partnering with Marriott will likely require some tough compromises. Marriott, for example, will probably require him to brighten the hallway lights a bit for safety reasons, and those stylish notepads he likes to leave in rooms might prove too costly to a mainstream hotelier.
“The properties might not be as quirky or individualized as I might make them if I were doing this alone,” Mr. Schrager says. “But Apple manages to pull off really sleek designs that everyone of all ages responds to. And believe me, I’m not going to have a book of standards. It will be. …” He pauses for effect. “The anti-chain.”
More important, though, Mr. Schrager says that working with Marriott will instantly cast him into his rightful place as a major player in the “lifestyle” market segment, and in the longer term position him to build a mass customer base for his innovations, a la Apple, Nike and Sony.