Recently we attended a symposium about Brands and their relevancy in Commercial Real Estate. During the event, someone asked,

"Are vertical communities the future?"

An interesting question, and we believe it is an excellent solution for high-density locations. The opportunity to properly brand these live, work, play communities would be monumental, to say the least. Don't take our word for it; look to the world's best hotels; they've been practicing this for decades now.

Cities within cities, essentially.

Properties that contain multiple destinations within, each promising a unique experience. Think Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, The Palm Springs Yacht Club at The Parker Palm Springs, or The Palm Court at The Plaza. These are all destinations that enhance the overall brand and further cement the brand promise in the guest's mind.

When adopting this strategy, hotels have excelled at building and operating offerings that make no concessions. In other words, they have set out to provide offerings that not only rival but exceed the experience of other like businesses that operate individually. For example, when building the spa brand at Shore Lodge in McCall, our aim was not to build the best spa in McCall. It was to build a spa that would rival the offerings in the biggest cities around the world.

We never compromised,

and the results spoke for themselves. See more about The Cove here.

Commercial buildings need to adopt this mindset of building unparalleled offerings that make no concessions when considering their brands. The idea of creating a "Branded House" (i.e., "Restaurant," "Fitness Center," "Conference Space") is not only counterproductive but also lazy.

A "HOUSE OF BRANDS" STRATEGY ALLOWS YOU TO CREATE TRULY UNIQUE EXPERIENCES THAT DIFFERENTIATE YOUR BRAND FROM YOUR COMPETITOR. ONE WHERE THE WHOLE TRULY IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS.