A few days ago after a good workout at the fitness center in a busy hotel, all showered, dressed and ready to deliver my workshop that morning, I was enjoying a breakfast in the hotel lounge.
You know the type of room reserved for frequent hotel types which makes for a fine place for networking. It is the place where the hotel will market certain items to their loyal guests.
There were a handful of standup triangular placards placed around the room. The main headline was – “Ready to Book Your Holiday Party or Event Now?”
Then in the lower section “Your Bonus Items Are Waiting For You, Book By August 31”
Now we are all MARKETING all of the time – right?
Well we all should be!
Just like we are ALL SELLING all of the time – right?
Well we all should be!
Of course we are all NETWORKING all of the time – right?
Well we all should be!
Great! So here is a multi-million dollar Fortune 500 company on their marketing materials giving this great bonus with a date which expired two weeks ago!
Why were these materials still out in this exclusive lounge?
Better is – why weren’t the materials created to be more purposeful and timely?
A great deal of time, effort and investment were placed into the creation of these marketing materials. A critical review would have flagged the date aspect. This might have been handled in a number of ways.
Here are three examples which come to mind –
- Use a date later out into the fall such as Sept. 30 or Oct. 15.
- Have the ability to add a well designed sticker with a date extension which would then be placed on each placard in this lower section.
- Skip the date for the bonus and have a link written out (such as www.hotelname.com/cityname-holiday-book-now) which would provide the date and booking size requirements and would be easier to update as necessary.
In no way is this meant to slam this one hotel company for their efforts. By example, it is meant to point out that even the best, the smartest, the most experienced and well-funded businesses do make mistakes. The question is what will be learned from these mistakes.
Will the methods and the process be reviewed and cleaned up?
Are they open to learning and hearing feedback or does this type of situation create finger pointing and blaming people and departments meetings?
Here is the main takeaway – when marketing do it purposefully.
Who are you marketing to and for what main result?
Keep It Simple.
If you would like to discuss your marketing campaign and strategy fill out this brief form and let’s book a time to chat.
Mitch Tublin is the CEO and Founder of Wenkroy International LLC a boutique consulting company with a main focus on Strategic Business Consulting, Training and Business Coaching. Our passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their business.
