The case for "been there, done that"

The case for “been there, done that.”

Hotels and resorts will start to re-open before long, and, in a way, it’s unnerving as hell. It’s kind of like we’re standing on the edge of a cliff and about to step off.

That’s some scary territory down there. This is serious “we need to change what we are and how people look at us” stuff. A bigger boat is definitely in order, because that’s a big-ass shark of a challenge headed our way.

So here’s some thoughts on the value of having experience on your side. This isn’t a problem new PPC keywords or cosmetic changes to your website or nudges or teases or even Instagram can solve. It’s a lot more than that and gets down to some basic strategies about who you are and the overall thinking that will drive how you use the marketing communications available to you. You need somebody on the team who’s seen this movie already.

It almost doesn’t matter what sort of hotel or resort you are – tropical, urban, convention, all-suites, all-inclusive, limited-service, suburban or luxury – you’re going to have to re-think a whole lot of things about who you are, how you do business and why the hell anybody ought to come by and stay for a few days.

Experience is going to be an asset here. And someone who has stared into the abyss once or twice already will come in handy. It’s going to take experience to pull the hospitality industry out of its current nose-dive, not technology. The expertise a seasoned hand can offer was damned hard to get and it’s precisely because of that experience that they can help.

Whatever you were, you may well need to be Something Else selling to Somebody Else for the foreseeable future. In a way, you’re starting over, because like it or not, you’re going to have to re-think more than just your Adwords. You’re going to need the kind of 360-degree thinking skill and knowledge of how hotels and hotel marketing works that one simply doesn’t pick up in their first five or six years in the business.

If, for example, you do a lot of groups business or you’re (yikes) a convention hotel, your challenge is about as close to re-purposing as it gets in the hotel business. That calls for some creative thinking.

Here’s another example. Sadly, the younger, more junior people at companies all over the country were some of the first ones out the door when layoffs started. Many Millennials who are already saddled with college loans and not a lot of cash on hand are now out of work – so they’ll probably be travelling even less.

Your target audience just got older.

And you need to have a message (and creative delivery of it) that resonates with that more mature, moneyed group. Somebody who can actually relate to that target is your best bet for getting that particular job done. Sorry, but most 20-somethings simply don’t know how 50-somethings think and process.

There’s more, of course. But the point is, the lessons learned from Brand, advertising, public relations and marketing communications pros who can honestly say “this is not my first rodeo” and the breadth of their experience is going to . . . well, let’s just say it’s almost impossible to undervalue their contribution. As we head out into that post-Covid-19 world, it’s simply not going to just be about advertising or social media.

So if you have an agency, make sure there’s a seasoned hand or two on your team; if you have anybody left in-house, think about getting some outside consulting to help out for a while. And if you use a freelancer, make sure they aren’t right out of art school.

Because you’re going to need a bigger boat.

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Influencers pay double - by Bob Hoffman

(This came in a newsletter from the brilliant Bob Hoffman.)

Influencers Pay Double

"I have a new hero. His name is Joe Nicchi. Joe is an aspiring actor. He and his wife run two ice cream trucks in LA. In their first year of operation they were named "best food truck in the city" by LA Weekly.


"Joe is sick of douchebag "influencers" trying to hustle him. So this week he instituted a new policy -- influencers pay double.

“They love to use the word exposure,” says Nicchi. “They’ll promise me all of this social media exposure in exchange for...giving them all free ice cream.”

"His response? "Are you out of your mind? This is $4.”

"Recently Nicchi was approached by an "influencer" to cater a 300 person party for free. “I said ‘Enough is enough,’" and he put up the sign on his truck -- "Influencers Pay Double."

'I have a suggestion for big brand CEO's. Are you tired of pissing away money on stupid social bullshit? Fire the idiots and hire an ice cream man to run your marketing department."

gibberish

As a card-carrying curmudgeon,I have to post things like this once in a while.

A friend recently sent me a communication from a person involved in a local ad club soliciting input on a FACEBOOK POST she is preparing.

This is part of it. Scary and depressing all at once.


"I would like to open a dialogue around the nuances of visual design that define our branding identity for chapter assets. This will help reduce development and revision time on the front end by dialing into what our do's and don'ts are.

"Design with a clear direction always makes creative much easier to produce because the parameters are known, reducing the need for revisions, which thus saves volunteer time.

"As we continue to refine/define our unique aesthetic and how we represent chapter messaging through visual rhetoric & composition, your voice and interpretations are valuable. This will help me finish the formal aspect of our branding guidelines.

"My approach to creative direction comes from the devised tradition (a stage directing theory). It is akin to the Socratic method, but for creative rather than philosophical inquiry---Discourse as the fertile grounds of discovery via dialogic invention."

Here is proof that - if you want to - you can do creative advertising for anything.

Somebody spent real money to run this thing in the New York Times Magazine.

God only knows why.

  

If nothing else, it's an incredibly stupid headline. Whatever else this horribly-named company does, they seem to have hired a high-school sophomore to do their advertising.

"Thanks for coming. See you next time we have a sale."

We all know Groupon. You buy a coupon for something-or-other at a deep discount.

There’s a lot wrong with that arrangement. Like that the merchant usually takes a bath, having to provide a full value something-or-other at a loss so Groupon can get a cut. The hope, of course, is that the user will be so thrilled with the something-or-other that they will become a full-price customer for life.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. After all, why pay full price when you know there's another coupon around the corner?

That's what grinds us most about things like Groupon. They condition consumers to look for and wait for that next bargain rate. Which is to say, no matter how good the something-or-other you provide is, the consumer is being taught to bounce from discount to discount. Not to be a loyal customer going forward.

Which brings us to specials, promotions, packages, hotels and resorts.

Specials and promotions are a critical part of any hotel's marketing mix. We just don’t think an overreliance on them is the best thing for long-term rate growth. We think Brand loyalty is better than having potential guests window-shop for price. (Certainly that's what OTA listings lead with.) Branded searches have higher conversion rates. And branded searches are driven by desire, not price.

You want people to come to your property because they want to stay at your property, not because it's cheaper than one down the street. We're always excited when we can drive clients' website traffic for reasons other than price. There's a summer campaign doing that right now, in fact.

See below.



So with budget season coming up, maybe it makes sense to plan for some benefits-oriented marketing. Maybe take a look at your Brand and ask yourself if it creates desire for your hotel or resort.

If you’re selling a benefit (and creating desire), price becomes less of an issue, but if you’re selling on price, then price becomes more of an issue. Actually, the only issue.

One of these two scenarios is, of course, better than the other.

Bob Hoffman has something to say

Bob Hoffman's "Ad Contrarian" is a favorite of ours. He's a great writer, blunt, sometimes a bit vulgar and almost always right.  Here's his latest - "A Certain Type of Imbecile."