Social networking sites and mobile phone applications will be crucial to the future development of marketing strategies for major hotel chains and independents, a Caterer roundtable discussion on marketing issues has been told.
Independent outlets, the experts said, have the edge over big chains because of a lack of corporate constraints.
Marketing professionals, Katie Harvey of Mövenpick, Jumeirah Beach, Laurent Noury general manager of Pullman City Centre Hotel and Residence, Dubai, Stephanie AbouJaoude of Radisson Blu, Dubai, and Dagmar Lyons from the Palace, Old Town Dubai agreed that grasping the full potential of social marketing requires a focused and dedicated approach.
| Advertisement |
AbouJaoude said: “Social marketing is very new here, but it is a definite trend and the way things have to go. To have a successful social marketing campaign you need to invest time and keep communication going – it’s like an informal chat format.”
Katie Harvey said that social marketing and customer relationship management should be a priority for all outlets.
“Now people are very selective. You need the same voice and personality. In marketing people need to engage customer relationship management.”
According to Laurent Noury: “It is more communication with the customer, it is more listening to the market and adopting a concept. We need to sell more to the customer and and we need to be more innovative and closer to them.”
Dagmar Lyons said that social marketing remains “a very green area” in the Middle East, but that it had been very successfully used elsewhere in the world.
“You need all forums. Mostly for the young the trend is towards social marketing,”
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
