Short on time? Here’s a collection of quick-hit notable quotes excerpted from the in-depth interviews that ran in February issues of Travel Weekly PLUS.
You don’t have to be cool or charismatic to outsell competitors
“Toyota is a great company, but it's not a cool company. Honda is much, much cooler. But Toyota's Prius not only outsells Honda (Civic Hybrid) by six to one; it outsells all the other hybrids in the market. The point is that the company doesn't have to be cool. And you don't have to have a charismatic leader. You can learn these ideas; Nestle has, Eurostar has, Toyota has. This is not about a charismatic leader or a cool company. This is about understanding the hassle map of my customer. What makes them angry? What makes them frustrated? Where do they waste their time and money? And how can I, and my team and my organization, radically change that hassle map for our customers and build a powerful emotional connection with them?”
Excerpted from Capture Customers’ Emotions to Create Demand, an interview in the Feb. 6 issue with Adrian Slywotzky, partner with Oliver Wyman, and author of Demand. Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It.
Think globally, travel locally
“The revival of local economies is probably going to be the most dominant theme affecting business. For the last decade it’s been about finding your niche in the global economy. The new mantra for business is reconnecting to the local consumer, that your competitive advantage is in your knowledge of your local market, and that triple-digit oil prices have the same impact as huge tariff barriers did 20 or 30 years ago.”
Excerpted from Forget About Booming Economic Growth. Welcome to ‘The Big Flatline,’ an interview in the Feb. 27 issue with Jeff Rubin, economist, energy expert and best-selling author.
With bloggers, you don’t control the message
“The key thing is that you cannot control the message. You have to be prepared for the blogger to say that something was wrong. In my opinion, you should not only be prepared for that, you should welcome it, because that is your opportunity to address an issue that you may not have known existed. If the blogger is talking about it, you can bet your customers are talking about it, too.”
Excerpted from To Work Well with a Blogger, Get Real and Relinquish Control, from an interview in the Feb. 20 issue with Mary Jo Manzanares, blogger and conference director for Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX).
Don’t fret about ROI on digital engagement
“We're going to get better analytics and understanding about how [digital engagement] drives sales. But I wouldn’t worry too much about seeing exact, hard revenue from engagement; if you wait for the metrics to be perfect you will miss the boat. There are some companies that may have a hard time with that, but that's kind of the reality of where we are. The analytics are immature, but the opportunity to engage with people in a meaningful way is very real and very powerful, and we'll see the analytics mature along with that.”
Excerpted from Walgreens’ Digital Maven Says Speed is Key, an interview in the Feb. 27 issue with Rich Lesperance, Walgreens’ senior director of Digital Wallet and Rewards.
Get on top of leveraging big data
“Your closest competitor is a click or two away, so as more and more business moves to the Internet — or “smarter commerce” as we refer to it — it's going to be more important than ever to leverage big data. Clearly, consumers are in control. They have access to a lot more data. They have real-time access to how your prices compare to your competitors’. As a result, it’s critical for companies in travel and other industries to have access to at least that much information or more. If companies are going to be successful, they really have to get on top of this.”
Excerpted from Big Data and the Rise of the Empowered Consumer, an interview in the Feb. 13 issue with Michael Schroeck, partner and vice president of IBM Global Business Services and author of “Analytics: The real-world use of big data.”
Marketers are best blogger liaisons
“Speaking from my own personal experience, working with someone who has a marketing background is a good fit. They understand a little bit more about what they're trying to accomplish in terms of being goal oriented. From a blogger's standpoint, you want the project to be successful, but if you don't have a good articulation of the goals from the company, it's hard to know what to do.”
Excerpted from Brands and Bloggers: Partnering for Fun and Profit, from an interview in the Feb. 13 issue with Mary Jo Manzanares, blogger and conference director for Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX).
The magic of mobile
“Our core businesses have been around for a very long time; we've been in the pharmacy business since 1901. I think the biggest thing that mobile in particular has done for us is to have us look at the businesses with new eyes, seeing that innovation isn't so much about adding a channel, like adding another arm or a leg. It’s really about changing the way you do business.”
Excerpted from How Walgreens’ Digital Marketing Group Translates Innovation Into Action, an interview in the Feb. 20 issue with Rich Lesperance, Walgreens’ senior director of Digital Wallet and Rewards.
Why there’s such a big buzz over big data
“Today there are over 100 billion Google searches every month. In 2007, that number was about 2.7 billion, so it’s gone from 2.7 billion to 100 billion per month in five years. Today there’s an hour of video uploaded in YouTube every second. There are 140 million tweets via Twitter every day. That gives you a sense of how these numbers are growing geometrically and will continue to grow. The challenge is, how can organizations do a better job of taking advantage of that information?”
Excerpted from Big Data Basics: What It Is, What It Means for Your Business, an interview in the Feb. 6 issue with Michael Schroeck, partner and vice president of IBM Global Business Services, and author of “Analytics: The real-world use of big data.”
When working with bloggers, collaboration is key.
“Approach a blogger in a collaborative way. Tell the blogger what your offer is and why you think it’s great. Then ask them what they think, because they're experts; they talk to people all the time. Then you’ll probably get a really great response. We want to have these authentic conversations, but you can’t do that by constantly trying to force information on people.”
Excerpted from Hip Travel Mama Blog Focuses on Fun Family Travel, an interview in the Feb. 27 issue with blogger and media specialist Anne Taylor Hartzell (www.HipTravelMama.com)