Skift Take
How does a brand become a lifestyle, and vice versa? Equinox is an ideal case study for exploring that very concept.
New York City's massive $20-billion real estate development Hudson Yards officially opened on March 15, but it'll be at least another month until it welcomes one of its most anticipated anchors: the first-ever Equinox Hotel.
The fact that Equinox, the brand best known as a luxury fitness chain of nearly 100 clubs around the world, is opening a hotel at Hudson Yards isn't entirely unexpected. Equinox is a subsidiary of The Related Companies, the same real estate developer behind Hudson Yards and nearby Columbus Circle.
But the decision, on Related's part, to evolve Equinox from simply a fitness club brand into a true lifestyle brand — that also happens to now include hotels — was a process that took years in the making. And it's a process that makes for an interesting look into how a brand can change over time.
"Some years ago, there was a very interesting evolution that happened when the brand moved from being recognized as a great fitness club to becoming a lifestyle brand," Christopher Norton, CEO of Equinox Hotels, said.
Norton explained this evolution as one where "people used to go to the gym because they had to go" versus today, when "people go to the gym because they want to go to the gym." Today, it's not uncommon for someone who gets "angry" or "antsy" for missing a workout.
"It's not just going to the gym; it's a lifestyle," Norton said. "And so, Equinox has positioned the brand as a lifestyle brand, way beyond a club or a gym."
That positioning, he said, is already being reflected in how Equinox is building its newest clubs, with the emphasis on hotel-like social spaces, as well as the brand's many provocative ad campaigns over the years. One of them, "Commit to Something" from 2016, showed model Lydia Hearst famously nursing her twins. In 2014, the company debuted the campaign, #EquinoxMadeMeDoIt, echoing the company's tagline, "It's not fitness; it's life."
To market Equinox Hotels, the brand is purposely playing coy for now. The only marketing material to date debuted in February, and it includes a short video featuring model Naomi Campbell in a series of futuristic environments in which she embodies the primary pillars of the brand: movement, nourishment, and dreaming. The final shot reads: "For those who want it all." There are no images of the hotel or the guest rooms, nor any indication that this is a video promoting a hotel brand until the very end of the clip when "Equinox Hotels" makes an appearance.
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