This past spring, at the American Express Luxury Summit, I had a chance to visit with Jim Taylor, president of Harrison Group, and get beyond the summit agenda. I asked about client interest in word of mouth, among other things.
His reply:
"There's an enormous supplier desire to understand the storytelling issue in travel and how people craft the stories they tell. And there's a lot of mythology about when people come home from a vacation, what they do with their story. Everybody wants to talk 'word of mouth' without really understanding how a person comes to be responsible for a recommendation that important.
"Luxury marketers want to understand how it is a person comes to engage a property, not as a room and a bed but as a story. And then they want to understand the circumstances under which the person will pass the story on to another. And I think that it's difficult for marketers to understand how risky it is to make a travel recommendation to a friend.
"It's one of those things where if you're wrong, it can really hurt a relationship, so you do it with a lot of care. You really have to know what you're doing. And then it's not quite as cut-and-dried as it might seem -- buzz networks and all that -- as if the consumers are willing subordinates in their travel marketing job, and consumers are not. They are doing it as a real favor to a friend, and they're really careful about it."
Conrad: The luxury of being yourself
Conrad Hotels has been around for many years. The brand was created at a time when Hilton Hotels in the U.S. and Hilton International, headquartered in the U.K., were separate companies, and Hilton Hotels was not permitted to use the brand name outside the U.S. Thus, Conrad became Hilton's luxury entry.
After a number of efforts to grow it, the Conrad brand seems to be taking hold, and Richard Blamey, senior vice president of brand management, believes that this time is the charm.
Here are some insights about Conrad from a recent LuxuryTravel 360 interview:
• Being you: Conrad's message to the consumer lies in its advertising slogan: "The luxury of being yourself."
The rationale behind that, said Blamey, is simple: "We provide an individualized guest experience based on two platforms: 1) The hotels are different from one another; and 2) We are intent on tailoring a stay to the guest's needs."
• Attitude, design, architecture: "We don't position ourselves as a lifestyle brand," Blamey said, "but as a contemporary brand. We talk about contemporary attitude as much as contemporary design and contemporary architecture."
• Moving marketing online: "The days of building brand through glossy ads are numbered. The online communication medium is up to 30% to 40% of our budget.
"We invested a lot of resources last year photographing our entire Conrad portfolio, but that's still less expensive than a full-page ad."
• Flexibility: "Travelers are less compartmentalized, so we must provide a greater degree of flexibility in terms of services and amenities. They may be switching from business to leisure to family mode in the same stay, so it's quite a challenge to anticipate in the way we used to. We interact with them before the trip to find out what they expect to get out of that particular trip."
• Enriching experience: "Many of our guests have been to Singapore and Hong Kong dozens of times, but they are looking to enrich that experience. If we can help introduce them to cultural events or new developments in the city, we have created an experience. We have to go beyond the four walls of the hotel."
• Tapping the mother ship: Blamey says it is important that Conrad be recognized as being part of the Hilton "family."
But he adds that much of the benefit of being part of Hilton lies behind the scenes -- "for example, the power of a company the size of Hilton to invest in technology and distribution."
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