Last week we addressed the WOW! In Word of Mouth Marketing.
This week we take a look at what some luxury suppliers are doing –or not doing—or saying they are not doing) to generate WHAM! in the luxury sector
But first, please notice all those neat Who’s Doing What That Works stories we post on our web site. Every one is designed, it seems to us, to generate word of mouth—the buzz that counts among guests themselves, the consumer press appeal generated by imaginative initiatives, and the stories told back home.
Sea Dream Yacht Cub, with two small ultra-luxury vessels, is less disdainful. Its ships have their own at-sea bogs, with passengers posting photos on it. CEO Larry Pimentel says that even elderly passengers delight in posting photos so their grandchildren can see them. He said that on a ship with 55 cabins, the blog might get 3000 hits in a day.
Not quite a luxury brand, Sheraton, a legacy brand if there ever was one, has prominently on its home page photos of recent guest with links to a photo/journal by those guests.
Several well-known traditional luxury brands, when contacted, seemed to disdain WOM marketing, while welcoming – well – word of mouth.; Spokespeople for Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Crystal Cruises replied to the effect that “we do not use that technique (WOM marketing),” Typically, at Crystal, a spokesman did say, “We receive a very high percentage of first time cruisers with the word of mouth factor by delivering a superior product, although we’re not making any move per se in that direction.”
Related—all those Real People, Real Results stories here
Next Issue-How You Can Win at WOM—Part 3 in our series
We began our recent report on ‘Family Travel Rising’ with the following:
“All the evidence -- whether you are looking at the Amex-Harrison Group study we reviewed in our last issue, or the Ipsos Mendelsohn Affluence Report completed in September, -- shows Family First when it comes to disposable dollars.
We believe family focus is going to be front of mind for a long time to come, long after the punishing economic climate has subsided. Provider brands will be hard pressed to provide much more than kiddie or junior, or young adult activities. Smart travel agents will have to rise to higher levels of creativity and performance on the family front to sustain customer loyalty and earn the benefits of word of mouth in the neighborhood.”
And last week we caught our favorite global traveler-editor-writer-commentator during a quiet moment at home in England, the home of The Gostelow Report. She shared these thoughts:
• The hotel industry has been very slow to realize that this big expansion in family travel was going to happen. We’ve had “connecting rooms and you can put the kids next door”. They moved on to two swimming pools rather than one. One was kid friendly and one was not. But we really haven’t had anything more than that.
• We are seeing more and more bigger family groups. Operators are having a real challenge coping with such groups because it’s not a group per se, but they form their own groups. They want to be private. They want their own thing. .They tend to do their own excursions. They suddenly want a bus to take them all out. So it’s a real, real challenge. And so far the hotel industry has not realized this is happening. Now, it’s not only families. We’re also seeing more and more groups of friends traveling. And the hotel industry is not incentivizing enough – say a pair of DINKs come- Double-Income-No-Kids. There’s no incentive to them at the moment to bring along two other friends or even four other friends. And there’s big potential on the marketing side there.
Everybody knows her, but her bio is worth repeating.
Mary Gostelow, president of Gostelow Travel: Hottest Hospitality News Worldwide, is an inveterate traveler on the road more than 300 days a year. She owns and publishes the definitive Gostelow Reports, monthly market intelligence briefings to the top levels of the hospitality industry. She is the editor of KIWI's online Wow! Magazine, and also sends out a monthly update to top travel professionals worldwide.
At the same time, she is contributing editor to such publications as Elite Traveler, enRoute, Hotels and Le Magazine.
Nat Ives, in Ad Age Online Sept 6, cites new data from Ipsos MMR which assures that well-off readers read print publications just as much now as they did 5 years ago.
Also, survey respondents making more than $100,000 annually said their average hours online had grown to 22.1 each week from 10.7, while the time they said they spent watching TV sunk to 18.6 hours from 23.7 in the 2003 survey. Read the full Ives story at http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=130685. Lux 360 attended the client briefing this week and will provide additional perspective in our Sept. 30 issue, interviewing Ipsos MMR President Bob Shullman.
Imagination Marketing 
