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Hotel Vertical
E-business and traditional commerce have merged to create something new
by Ron Callari
Early pioneers of the Internet claimed that it changed everything. The rules of the game were shaken up. The convergence of technology, business, and marketing were different. Forget ROI, they said; build market share. Forget mass marketing; develop a personal relationship. Forget the make-up of the traditional consumer; focus on how that buyer has adapted to the new third party intermediary channels.
It is clear today that the Internet doesn't change everything. But in the wake of its early beginnings, we cannot forget that it does alter the way consumers behave and how business operates. The power of the new know-how created fundamentally new possibilities for consumers and hotel companies.
In e-business, the dot-com revolution of the 90s led to a frenetic period of experimentation, as companies quickly tested everything that was hot. As investors poured capital into new innovation, we saw one of the most massive experiments in new business models—some good, some fatally flawed, and some that actually led to the bubble and the eventual demise of the “get rich quick” gang of early adopters.
However, the dot.com era also taught us that the successful companies were the ones who didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. They saw the value of synergy where some of the established technologies and practices could be integrated effectively into the new mix.
The same applies to hotel marketing tools and applications. Traditional techniques, such as advertising, PR, and direct mail have not been replaced, but they sure have been impacted by a diverse witches’ brew of blogs, wikis, RSS, video and news aggregators.
“Customers want to call, click or visit with seamless interaction across online and offline channels, in person, by phone, on the Internet or through wireless”, say the authors of Convergence Marketing Strategies for Reaching the New Hybrid Customer. Hoteliers need to chart a course that combines the strategies to address them all. Today, for example, press releases should be written for both online distribution and web site optimization, sent out to different editors and written and distributed in very different and customized ways.
Customers will still respond to more traditional “push” marketing approaches, but increasingly they are better informed, more skeptical and more resistant to a company’s “bullhorn” messages. These customers will seek information for them both on and off a hotel’s web site and will want to communicate to the organization, on their terms, directly, not anonymously. The dynamic has shifted and the “pull” from the guest is what will drive how business transactions will be conducted in the future.
As these customers became more networked and connected, more direct types of communication evolved in the areas of social media and social networking. The objective of this convergence of old and new followed the path of the customer who chose to be more engaged, one inclined to begin a dialogue that will become a relationship. Hoteliers need to heed the call and be ready to accommodate the guest all the way through this relationship, not only during their stay, but also in advance with trip planning, as well as the post-check-out follow-up.
As Web 2.0 and consumer generated media, convergence technologies, mobile technology and web analytics evolve, hoteliers should consider the technology du jour only as part of a comprehensive direct Internet marketing strategy. Together with other important aspects such as search marketing, email marketing, website optimization, strategic linking and link popularity, online sponsorships and display ads, all of these essential line items should be part and parcel of the hotel Internet marketing budgets. The hotel website is a hotelier’s most cost-effective revenue channel.
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