Now that we know how WOM works and who’s working it, what can you do to tap into the Power of WOM?
* Engage in “on-line reputation management,” says Henry Harteveldt, with Forrester Research and a highly respected Internet travel observer. He explains, “You don’t have to deny anything that’s bad, but look at it in the aggregate. If there is a consistent negative pattern, it’s time to think about whether you’re guilty of over-promising or under-delivering.”
* Andy Sernovitz , president of the Word of Mouth Marketing
Association, said that WOM in travel is a little different in that it
often involves “after-marketing” – after people have already returned
home. And that means long-term relationships – calling people, writing
a note.
“It’s amazing,” says Sernovitz, “how few travel providers will do
something like send a thank you note or make a follow-up call – this
after a customer spends five or ten thousand dollars.”
* Reach out to the influencers: The influencers are not necessarily
celebrities or the proverbial “hipster influencers” (generating all
that buzz about beautiful women and handsome men being paid by
marketers to order expensive vodka at the hottest bar).
Sernovitz says influencers are regular folks “like you and me. “We all
know someone we ask about computers or cars or travel. The first step
to get WOM is to find the right people to talk. First and obvious are
happy customers. Second are travel professionals – and sometimes those
are inter-related. You should encourage your customers to tell not only
their friends but heir travel agents.”
* Influencers are not always the big spenders, says Sernovitz, who
points out: “If somebody goes to the same restaurant every week, they
don’t talk to their friends about it. But somebody who goes for a
special occasions for the first time – they will tell everybody because
they are happy new customers.”
* WOM tools are not necessarily all that sophisticated, says
Sernovitz – and can be as simple as an e-mailed newsletter “one of the
most awesome WOM tools ever invented.”
* Create ambassador programs. Invite your best customers to get
special access to information so they can spread it around. –
frontload promotions by offering coupons to these folks.
* Some travel guru’s have fan bases – like Rick Steves and Karen
Brown – people organized around authority figures in travel. But you
don’t have to be well known to be authority figure.
Larry Pimentel, CEO of SeaDream Yachts, is a firm believer that
advertising is less believed today than ever, that public relations is
far more powerful at the upper end. Journalists are a prime target for
SeaDream because of the power of third party endorsements.
* Bug the Bloggers: Karen Weiner Escalera, president of a marketing
communications firms that specializes in luxury travel, deals
regularly with bloggers and says “you have to work with them in a
different way. They don’t want a press release; they want an exclusive
item that reflects the tone of the resort - -and it can be irreverent.
It’s more about subjectivity as opposed to traditional media, which is
more about objectivity.”
And Escalera offers what is most crucial about WOM: “you have to be honest and have a product that supports the WOM.”
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 
