Historic Brand Marketing Opportunities

This seminar was presented by Jessica Haese and Dan Coyle

Review of programs that are already out there:

Audience: Consumers and Travel Agents

Electronic Communications

Historic Database development

Increase awareness of our Brand HHA

Drive more business to the HHA website and the HE code


And Build the HHA database of consumers

150,000 by end of 2010

One Tank Drive had a 21.5% open rate; industry baseline is 11% which is considered a good rate

Fall Back in Time
Package is themed around time when Hotel first opened
23.8% open rate, very engaged audience. Picked up 4,700 names for database
History travel helped to distribute

Wants holiday offers, still available if packages are loaded by Nov. 25
Working with History Channel again on engaging their database

Historic Database is important, but they need our help to grow it. Engage our guests to ask them to allow their participation in this database.
2010.

Keep your guest program (Second quarter 2010)
Provide our past guest database to PHG
PHG develops and delivers email to past guests (mimics hotel branding) with special offer with invitation to sign up for additional benefits
Cost $500 creative plus 3 to 5c per email delivered (price was clarified as shown)
Guest

Name exchange program (January)

Hotel provides past guest database
PHG develops and delivers two emails on hotel behalf
1) email from hotel name to past guests with special offer, with easy opt out.
2) An additional email to equivalent number of existing consumers in the target area of hotel’s choice with special offer
3) Offer is posted on special offers page for duration of offer plus included in at least one top ten and/or last chance newsletter.

Cost – Complimentary

They clean database, scrub for dupes, etc.

History Channel Magazine

NTHP member rate

Regional campaigns are one of the things they will do after the database is built

Building regional itineraries for travel agents from HHA. (Historic Itineraries, First Quarter 2010)

HE = Historic Experience
PV = Preferred Hotels

PV chain code will have HE chain code underneath it, so we will benefit from hotels who are loyal to independent hotel, especially when there aren’t any other PV hotels in a marketplace except our HE property

Stay tuned for more information coming your way.

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Juli

Maximizing Web Presence

23% more bookings direct to website when there is a presence on OTAs (On-line Travel Agents)

Non-transactional websites are the fastest-growing travel category reviews, destination guides, meta search)

5.6 websites are visited before making a hotel transaction

63% of travelers indicated they had tried to interact with a hotel on their mobile phone

You need to be out in multiple channels with your information -- they will look in other places, so using the niche aspect can only help.

Sabre wants to help us with an integrated approach that will help us measure the effect of our campaigns. See what "look-to-book" ratio is.

Organic is cheaper, and paid is quicker. Sabre recommends a balance of both.

Emerging Channels: Social Media
Monitor
Engage
Share
Build Buzz

Event calendar with links to social media helps your website.

Paolo compared and contrasted the long-tail result of niche marketing against the short-term results of a pay-per-click or similar campaign.

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Juli

Karen Weiner Escalera

President of KWE Group spoke to us, presenting an Industry Update to us, in a presentation called "Luxury Travel and Lifestyle Trends".

The Game has Changed

Insights, marketing strategies and opportunities for the future.

Value rules the day.

Value at all price points. A badge of honor and challenge for the consumers.

People want value-add AND low price.

Neo-tribalism

Fracturing of society into "tribes"

Family, friends and "village" are paramount

Think psychographics, not demographics.

In times of economic change, people tend to retreat to their family, friends, and 'tribes' -- groups of people who share common interests. Social communities, on- and off-line. Some on-line communities are starting to meet off-line.

Think Niche Marketing

Golf, History, Fly fishing, Gardening, Food & Wine, Crafts, Culture are some classic ones.

Niche marketing needs a lot of content -- you need to DIG DOWN DEEP. More content the better.

Family Travel (lots of opportunity)

Family reunions,

Religious Groups

Single/divorced parents

Active families

Gay/lesbian parents

Multicultural families

Grandparent travel

Women

39% dissatisfied with the lodging industry

Women-only travel is up 230% in the past six years

Niche markets by position and interest (i.e. Women & Wine, Adventure Women, Cancer Survivors, Surfing Women, Divorcees (jeweler consulation to redesign wedding rings)

Women's networking groups

New niches

Beekeeping tourism

Grief tourism (hollocaust, Rwanda, etc.)

Danger tourism

Pet travel (despite recession, it has increased) (learning vacations for pets)

Baby hotels

Slum tourism

Cinema tourism

Glamping + flashpacking (glamorous camping= glamping; backpackers upgrade = flashpacking)

Slow food

Target niches -- power of video

Video is a natural tie-in with social media, hence the greater demand of video content

Last year, sites with video averaged 3.53 videos viewed per visit

Sites averaged 6.62 videos per visitor per month (users come back and watch even more)
Average time spent per visit: 6.13 minutes

The average online viewer watched 273 minutes of video in 2008 -- up 40% from 2007.

They need to be content driven, inform, amuse, entertain -- not marketing driven

Viral marketing

Middle Class Values -- from Wall St. to Main St.

Old vocabulary

Over the top
Quantity

Fashionista

High design

Flash

Super-sized

Branded luxury

Status symbols

Spectator

Extravagance

New vocabulary

Value

Quality

Frugalista

Smart design

Substance

Real-sized

Individualistic luxury

Status skills

Pariticipation

Simplicity

Reinvention Revolution

Finely hone, retool or reinvent your USP's

Play to self-enrichment and professional developent

Business travel for reinvention: Educational institutions as strategic partners. Present local professors as speakers to groups. Professional development seminars

Emphasis historic and belook and re-calibrate your look to be fresh and play to needs above.

Altruism & Eco-necessity

Altruism

Saving the planet

Volun-tourism
Literacy, Habitat for Humanity, Give-back vacations

Going green a financial imperative

Authenticity & Provenance

Uniquenss, escaping homogeneity

Locavores and slow food

Provenance: where is it from, especially foods/wines?

Neighborhoods

Concierge mentality
Antidote of "consumer terrorism" and be a citizen journalist
Spread a concierge mentality
Empower employees and staff with power and $$$$
Builds consumer loyalty and brand story advocates
Be sure to monitor the social media and do something!

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Juli

Speakers for the National Trust

Delores McDonagh
Greg Coble

Spoke to us about how reusing buildings such as Historic Hotels is the ultimate 'green' and about issues in front of the National Trust right now.

Their Powerpoint presentations will be on the members' page of the HHA website soon.

Juli

Good Works Had a Place at Our Conference

Doug Browne and John Ueberroth presented a check to Lori O'Brien, Chief Development Officer of St. Jude's Children's Hospital here in Memphis, at our meeting this morning. There was not a dry eye on the room as Doug told us a very touching story involving his hotel and a patient from St. Jude's.

The Peabody donated a portion of the revenue from our gala dinner last night, and that was matched by the Ueberroth family to make this donation.

We were honored to be a part of this event.

 

(left to right: Doug Browne, Lori O'Brien, and John Ueberroth)

Juli

FedEx's Tom Schmitt Speaks to HHA

Tom spoke to us about his philosophies of leadership:

Tools (Left brain)

Management savvy -- work smarter, not harder

People skills --Put people first, every time, and make sure the will & skill set of the people match the needs of the job.

Collaboration -- one big team

Time Management -- Align time with the right goals

Execution -- don't sacrifice good for better

Passion (Right brain)

Ambition -- Be ambition for your people and the cause

Leadership -- Leave a place better than you found it

Vision : Imagine the possibilities

Focus: Use a laser, not a floodlight

Determination: Stick to it.

TSchmitt@fedex.com if you have any questions.

. . . now more than ever:

Transparency
Make sure everyone on your team knows what is going on

Visibility
People need to see you more than ever, show up at meetings, be visible, what's working, what's not working

Manage counter-cyclically
Right now, help people be better, create a spring in someone's step, help out, be the tail-wind for your team members, don't over-challenge people in a down market, help them UP

Left brain-right brain

Customer summits
Several days summits, good customers and complaining customers, measuring service quality the wrong way - not focused on the customers, and needed to change that. Find out what matters to the customer.

People -- Service -- Profit
Take care of your own people, who will then go above and beyond to provide exceptional service to the customers, which will bring an almost unintended consequence -- PROFIT

Find out what your special purpose is -- what is the DNA which makes you stand out to your customer

Become an "Untouchable"
How do you become the go-to person/business/being distinctive?

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Juli

Candid and Amusing Shots

These are the kind of photos for which you need to create your must-fun captions. Have fun!

 
 
 
 

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Juli