Hotel Marketing Association Blog » Uncategorized

A global success without marketing?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:43:51 +0000

As I was channel-hopping last week I heard a fascinating fact on a documentary i.e. that the market for cocaine globally is worth more per annum than the turnover of Google, Coca Cola and MacDonalds added together. Personally I was appalled, as the havoc wreaked by drugs is horrendous both with the users and in countries such as Mexico, where it is grown. However, as a marketer, I couldn’t help but say ‘Wow!’. Such a phenomonal global succes with no marketing support! It was always said that just because you have a great product, people won’t beat a path to your door: you need great marketing. Cocaine disproves this – not that I’m saying it’s a great product, but I guess in the eyes of users, who crave the massive dopamine fix, it is. Its success is solely attributable to global word of mouth. Could the aforementioned companies have achieved their success without massive on-going global marketing campaigns? In fact, could any other product or company have achieved such amazing worldwide success? It intrigues me as a marketer and saddens me as an individual. It would be fascinating for someone to research this in-depth. What bold student would like to take this on for their MSc or PHD? Please let me know if you do.

QHotels launches corporate rooms

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:47:17 +0000

QHotels researched 3,000 of its guests and found that the 3 most important factors for business travellers when choosing a hotel were unlimited free wi-fi access, a king size bed and luxury bedding. I hope they didn’t spend too much money on this research, as firstly these shouldn’t be a surprise, but secondly I would have thought that these were more likely to be factors that are most important in producing guest satisfaction rather than influencing choice. Hotels are often poor at differentiating between these 2 lists of factors, though the annual BDRC hotel guest survey has always done an excellent job of highlighting how these 2 lists are often very different. Q are now launching new corporate bedrooms based on providing ‘home from home’. I thought that was what hotels had been doing for the past 30 years!

Can you really believe celebrity tweets about products?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:43:27 +0000

It has come to light that Range Rover gave a free vehicle to 40 celebrity ‘trendsetters’ to tweet about the vehicle. Now this blurs the boundaries between marketing and non-marketing and has the potential to mislead consumers, who assume that tweets reflect genuine individual views. Is this paid-for space? If so, it is covered by the ASA advertising code and it must be made clear that these are effectively ads. This has already been regulated in the USA. And let’s remember that new ASA regulations come in force in March covering on-line marketing. So, don’t always believe what your idols tell you!

Great marketing from the Bedruthan Hotel

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:42:45 +0000

It is only 2 days until the winners of this year’s HMA Hotel Marketing Awards are announced. There is always at least one independent hotel winner each year, but it is a shame that more of the small privately-owned hotels don’t enter. I am on the mailing list for a family-owned hotel called the Bedruthan Steps Hotels & Spa in Cornwall. It has been owned by the same family for 50 years and so many of the things they have done have been ground-breaking, because they dared to be different. They had the first solar-heated pool in the country and the first hydro spa in Cornwall, and their seasonal newsletters are a joy to receive. Check them out! And someone please suggest to them that they enter the awards next year!

Bidding on rivals brand names – ethical or not?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:54:20 +0000

Am I alone in totally disagreeing with Google’s policy of allowing companies to bid on competitors brand names? As a professional marketer I have a problem with this. To me it’s almost marketing piracy. And as a consumer I am now getting increasingly annoyed that when I google something very specific , most of the first page is now taken up with competitors, whose products I am not interested in. Similarly I often get listings of companies who don’t actually represent the hotel I want to book or sell the product I want to buy. So, as a consumer Google doesn’t meet my needs as it used to. Perhpas consumer pressure will eventually change things? Or perhaps Google’s competitors will take a more ethical stance, so that we increasingly bing things rather than google them?

What’s in a job title?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:21:21 +0000

There are some strange job titles around, but I think I’ve just seen the craziest and it comes from an ad agency. Lorna Hawtin of TBWA Manchester is Disruption Director. I can’t begin to imagine what she actually does. And who came up with the title? Human Resources??? She must go down a storm at social gatherings when she announces she is a Disruption Director. Mind you I can think of organisations that seem to be full of disruption directors. Perhaps that’s the problem with English football? Too many disruption directors in the FA and at club level – perhpas I’ve hit on something here!

What we can learn from Zappos!

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:16:57 +0000

Web-based footwear retailer Zappos may now be owned by Amazon, but it has an amzing reputation for its customer service and now turns over more than$1billion. It’s 10 core values start with ‘Create WOW through service’. But do you know what I really like? After new employees have completed their initial training they are offered $2,000 to resign. This is to ensure that noone works for the company for purely mercenary reasons. Now I’d love to see a hotel chain try that – or would they risk bankruptcy??? It’s a bold test of how much people really want to work for you. Come on Premier Inn, give it a go!

Why are my Ebay purchases in the public domain?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:43:01 +0000

Am I the only person who is horrified by the recent ads from Royal Mail, promoting their new ‘Insight Tool’? This tool gives access to 140 million eBay transactions ‘telling you who’s buying what at postcode level’ . Where is the indiviudal’s right to privacy in this? The data may be aggregated at postcode level but I think I share a postcode with just 10 of my neighbours. So if I get bombarded with ads for football memorabilia or saucy undies, I’ll be wondering which of my neighbours is into those things! To me this smacks of Big Brother watching You. And did I not have to give permission for details of my eBay purchases to be used in this way?

King’s Estate Marlow – clever marketing or totally misleading?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:04:11 +0000

At what point does clever marketing become marketing that is totally misleading, and which makes the customer believe they are buying something they aren’t? I know that under English law we have caveat emptor i.e. buy beware, meaning that the customer should check that what they are getting is what they have been led to believe they are getting. But a recently produced video from GRE Portfolios Ltd, based in Oxfordshire really pushes things to the limit. Is this a scam, or is it up to customers to check their facts before they buy?

My house and office overlook fields, which are green belt and designated for agricultural use, formerly known as Daisy Lee Farm. Now, according to a video produced by GRE it’s suddenly become King’s Estate! And according to a plan on their website consists of 147 plots. These plots are for sale at £35,000 plus. This is agricultural land that isn’t even very good grazing quality and is worth no more than a few hundred pounds per plot. AND IT IS LAND WITH NO PLANNING PERMISSION OTHER THAN FOR AGRICULTURAL USE, AND WITH NO LIKELIHOOD OF THAT CHANGING, IN MY OPINION! The GRE video may show, that the field has road access, but neglects to mention that this is only authorised for agricultural vehicles and any form of track stops on entering the field.

Their video cleverly says ‘The rapidly expanding population continues to demand more houses and these could be built on King’s Estate’. Well in theory they could – If anyone could ever get planning permission for such a development! But that’s a bit like me saying ‘I could be captain of the England football team’! In theory I could, if I have a sex change, become a great footballer, knock a few years off my life and make Fabio Capello aware of my amazing talents. So, is this misleading and some sort of scam? In my opinion it is. I think people will buy plots under the misbelief that they are buying a building plot, when they are buying a bit of a scruffy field that they can only get to in an agricultural vehicle and currently can’t even lay a lawn on – the prescribed agricultural use is very limited!

So, is this very clever marketing? Oh yes! GRE stand to make millions out of selling bits of the English countryside, to people who should have the sense to carry out due diligence and realise what they are buying – but overseas investors probably won’t. If some of you are reading this, I suggest you do!

Link between advertising spend and brand performance?

Pam Carvell, Marketing Consultant — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:06:52 +0000

I read with interest in a recent issue of Marketing magazine that sales of Budweiser lager have fallen by 32% between 2004 and 2008, so that it is now the 8th best-selling lager in the UK rather than the 5th best-selling. It made me think back to Louis the frog (he was the meerkat of his day!) and those great ads, never mind the series of ‘Waaassssup’ ads that made grown men the length and breadth of the country walk into pubs shouting ‘Waaassssssup’ to a load of strangers. Bud was an iconic brand then. I’m sure there are many other factors contributing to the downfall in sales, but it doesn,t surprise me that the brands that have shown growth invest heavily in advertising and sponsorship.

Bring back Louis the frog!!!!!