The industry has entered a watershed year for the region’s hotel marketers. Lee Jamieson explores the technological trends that are set to change the face of hotel marketing further still

The information age is in full swing and it has given rise to new concepts like web 2.0, social networking, augmented reality and microblogging. At a fundamental level, these new developments all share a common characteristic: they are reinventing the ways in which people communicate in their daily lives.

This has presented marketing managers with a whole new set of distribution channels with which to connect with their customers, build loyalty and promote their brand’s values. The astute marketers that have embraced these new developments are changing the way the industry approaches marketing, forever altering the hotel marketing manager’s role.

“In the past few years, I’ve seen the role of marketing manager change a lot,” says Aloft Abu Dhabi online marketing manager Daniel Spijker. “Things like branding, events, online marketing and distribution have added to the traditional role of managing advertising channels and in some cases have seen the marketing role separate from sales.

“Although I do think marketing and sales teams should be separate, I think both departments should ultimately report to a single person overseeing sales, marketing and business development. In the larger hotels or more marketing-focused brands like Starwood’s W Hotels, you will find a separate director of marketing, but in most hotels the teams are smaller and this is simply not feasible.”

Marketing and sales have always worked closely together, but marketers are emerging in the information age as a more active, autonomous group with distinct goals. They have become more aggressive in how they position and differentiate their brand by actively engaging with their customers in new ways. Successful marketing today relies on a hotel’s ability to embrace new technology and use it to foster an open, two-way dialogue with customers.

“According to Trendwatching.com, consumers today depend more on reviews than on adverts when making a booking decision,” explains The Brand Union Middle East executive director of strategy Michael Hughes.

“Historically, people have always listened to the opinions of their friends and family because they are more likely to be honest and share both positive and negative brand experiences. We are more likely to trust the input of fellow travellers than advertising promises from a brand. It’s not what they say, it’s what they do that really matters.”

With the technological infrastructure now firmly in place, it is easy for customers to share experiences on websites like Tripadvisor.com, where users can rate, compare and comment on the quality of a hotel’s hospitality experience. Potential customers can also research with speed and efficiency through online social networks and gather real-time, authentic experiences from around the world.

Therefore, social networking now plays a very important role in communicating the brand’s values and protecting its reputation.

“Hotels must see the social media scene as a chance to engage their consumers with their brand,” continues Hughes. “If hotels are able to keep track of websites and blogs and listen to what their consumers are complaining about, then they can easily address the issues, fix their flaws, know their strengths, explore their threats and pursue their opportunities,” he adds.

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New tools

Hotels have recognised that a huge proportion of their guests are actively using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and want to exploit these channels of communication. A strong presence on these sites enables hotels to open a dialogue with their guests on the customer’s preferred communication channel.

In this sense, social marketing is building upon traditional methods, not replacing them. The new technology simply allows hotels to operate in the same space as their customers, achieve deeper market penetration and develop more focused campaigns around distinct target markets.

“The hotel industry has always utilised the trendiest tools to attract the right audience,” explains JAL Hotels public relations manager Haruya Kusakabe. “At the moment, social marketing and online tools have become a primary focus.

“We’ve seen social marketing become more integrated in hotel marketing strategies because of its ability to attract a diverse clientele, its ease of use and its affordability. Many hotels in the region are now actively using social marketing and are fully engaged,” he says.

New tools require new resources. Although these websites are free to join and use, maintaining large online communities can quickly swallow up resources. Therefore, the greatest challenge for marketing managers is to balance the time spent maintaining presence on social networks with the amount of business generated. While the importance of online presence is a difficult thing to factor into a ROI calculation, weak presence within the online community could damage the brand’s reputation in the long-term.

“I think that the effectiveness of social networking sites is debatable because the maintenance and monitoring of these sites tends to be labour-intensive,” explains Hilton Worldwide regional director of marketing Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean Oliver Schmaeing. “Currently, there is no globally accepted method of measuring results or outreach and everyone is learning how to maximise the potential of these new tools,” he continues.

“The best route to improve your social marketing strategy is to have a dedicated team to manage these sites. Unless the information posted is current and updated regularly, these sites can quickly lose their effectiveness,” adds Schmaeing.