They automatically check Trip Advisor for hotel reviews, but feel they are very savvy regarding any negative reviews – traditional hoteliers, who panic about these things, please take note!

However, forget all the talk, what struck me the minute they went on stage was that the guys were all seriously dressed-down (jeans, trainers and even shorts) and the ladies were all seriously glammed up (Baby Boomer wear for hitting a disco!). In previous generations, there is a dress code for activities such as sitting on a panel in front of senior business people. Not only was there no dress code, but it intrigued me as to what the significant dress code difference between the sexes suggests. The way we dress sends out messages about us. They were clearly an affluent group, sporting LV handbags, and discussing stays in some very upscale hotels. Yet, the guys clearly felt that they didn’t need to sport serious clothes to be taken seriously. And the ladies? I’m not quite sure. Perhaps it is the celebrity culture that makes ladies feel that they need to look like ‘Posh’ and co. and rather than dress as business women? It certainly suggests that marketers and hotel developers need to keep on their toes if they are to satisfy this discerning group.

It made me reflect that when I’ve done some of my greatest marketing, it’s when I’ve been least popular! Because great marketing campaigns in the hotel industry invariably impact Operations and possibly Sales, and they don’t like change. I have been told so many times ‘we can’t do that’, by which they meant ‘we don’t want to do that and change the way we’ve always done things’  aka ‘you’re taking us out of our comfort zone’.

Great marketing ideas should never be limited by the lack of willingness by Operations to make changes. As a great marketer you should be able to reason logically as to the long term benefits of your campaign. You should have total belief in what you are doing.

Of course not everything you do will be successful, but great people learn from failure. And go with your gut feel. Most great ideas wouldn’t have survived research. And most great entrepreneurs follow their intuition.

What does it mean? What is it meant to say to the reader / potential guest? Is ’stay’ the best thing they can say about themselves? To me there is nothing exciting, intriguing or even interesting about the word ’stay’. Interestingly I googled ’stay you’ expecting Holiday Inn to have a ppc campaign to back up the main media campaign. I found nothing – a major oversight on their part.  The creative execution is also very uninspiring (in my opinion!). I can only assume Holiday Inn are positioning themselves as very middle of the road. A shame, for the brand that for over 40 years pioneered so may great things in the hotel industry.

Considering how many hotels there are in this country and that we are in the hospitality industry isn’t there more that hotels could do to reach out to the lonely in their communities? I have no specific ideas in making this suggestion, but I am a great believer that charity starts at home. Hotels have meeting rooms and public areas that are empty for much of the day. Many have minibuses that are only busy at certain times of the day. Great marketing isn’t just about great ads and fancy promotions, or even doing things just for the media coverage. It could be reaching out to your community and genuinely becoming part of it.

-         what markets are you in?

-         what is your differential advantage in each of these markets?

He clarified that markets should not be defined by demographics or psychographics or even geographical areas, but should reflect customers needs i.e. needs-based customer segmentation. If you don’t have a sustainable competitive advantage in each market, your business will struggle to survive. He backed up his reasoning with the fact that 90% of new products fail and they fail because of marketing!

Food for thought!

A hotel can not control what is said about it on-line, but if this is picked up immediately and then acted upon, a positive comment can become an amazing global word-of-mouth endorsement and a negative one can be dealt with by various means to prevent it damaging the business.

This begs the question of what skill-set is required to do this, and apart from using an agency that specialises in this field, it would be fair to say that the skills do not currently sit with a current hotel team. This situation is very similar to the situation with Revenue Management 15 years ago. Hotels tried to deny the need for this position, and typically expected Reservations or Front Office to become RM experts overnight. Finally it was accepted as a skill-set in its own right, and reflected the inevitable changing of the business. Most hotels now have at least a Revenue Manager if not a team. Hotels that failed to embrace this paid the price with below-market performance.

I believe we face a similar situation now with Reputation Managers. Hotels who are in denial about this could be losing business for years to come as a result of a blog post by a geek sitting in some shady outback – but who knows how to give life to a story.

The skill-set doesn’t currently exist, just as Revenue Managers didn’t 15 years ago, but there are young people who understand how to manage and manipulate the web to spread news and who can learn how to use this to your commercial advantage. The sooner hotels embrace the digital world in which we live and the impact of global word of mouth, the quicker they can ensure that in 10 years time potential guests are not reading a horror story about your hotel from 2011.

Visit www.t-f-m.co.uk for more info.