Why create desire?

  Why "creating desire?"

It's our brand.  

It’s what we do. And, after all, it’s the point of the whole exercise, isn’t it?  

One of us is a regular judge for the HSMAI advertising awards competition. I's was disappointing how many entrants defined their success in terms of how many people saw the ad or post or how many likes they got. Few of them related those results to actual increased conversions or revenue.  

For many, the means alone were the end.  

It just seems to us that defining success on how many people saw your Facebook post or Google ad or Instagram post is kind of like defining success by how many people subscribe to the magazine where your ad runs. It’s important, but it’s not the point, is it?  

Again, the point of the exercise – we think – is to create desire – and desire is measured in things like reservations, and room nights. Conversions rather than just website visits. Desire is what will drive a consumer to one brand over another. Desire is what engenders loyalty. And desire is what will move a consumer to pay a premium rate – or at least not shop strictly on price. 

Rather than just wait to see what's going to happen in the next few months, this is probably a good time to be proactive and to take a look at how you present yourself – in your advertising, on your website, through your social media posts. Do you have a strategy for creating desire? 

We’d be happy to take a look at what you're doing and give you a complimentary, no-obligation, evaluation and recommendation. 

So yeah, creating desire is how we define our company. Because we think that’s the most important thing marketing and advertising can do for a hotel or resort. 

Because, as we sometimes say, lust is a lot more profitable than likes.

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 You don't need a tattoo to be creative.

We've written about how creativity can be of great value to hotels and resorts. But perhaps some of you might be thinking that we only mean “creative” in an "ad-agency-black-t-shirts-and-website-design” sense.

Not so. One of our favorite quotes (over there, to your right) is by George Lois, a legendary art director: "Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act - the defeat of habit by originality - overcomes everything."

Note he said "any problem," not just advertising problems.

So we thought we’d share a few books on creativity and creative thinking that might kick-start or re-start your creative juices. Or show you another way to look at things. There’s also the video below. It’s well worth the time it will take to watch it. Then check out some of these gems:

“Creativity: A Short And Cheerful Guide.” – John Cleese

“The Creative Habit: Learn It And Use It For Life.” – Twyla Tharp

“The Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy” – Tom Monahan

“Predatory Thinking” – Dave Trott

“Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind” – Guy Claxton

“The Trickster's Hat. A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity" – Nick Bantock

“Trust Your Crazy Ideas” – Kobi Yamada

“Leap. A Revolution in Creative Business Strategy” – Bob Schmetterer

Nobody expects you to turn into an ad guy or web designer, but, as George Lois said, creativity can solve any problem. So the more you embrace it, the better off you'll be. Dave Trott calls creativity a "legal unfair advantage." And, of the bazillion books out there on creativity, these are some we think are particularly inspiring and useful. Enjoy.

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Dealing with social media limitations

You don't get a thousand words on social media.

A dilemma.

It’s a fact that any business that can manage to continue to do some marketing and advertising at the depth of a recession (which, in many ways, is what this is) will come out of it faster and better than those who don’t. 

But the hard truth is that it’s tough to come up with money for advertising and marketing when your occupancy is down. Especially if you’re an independent hotel or resort without a brand Mother Ship somewhere. 

As a result, many of you are defaulting to social media. Free and sponsored posts, mostly. 

No mistake about it, social media can be a useful tool. And an affordable one. But everything has a price. And the price of social media is to cede a lot of creative control to the media channel. And, with all due respect, those folks are usually skilled tech people, but not creative people. And creativity is what will distinguish your message from others. Frankly, creativity is never going to be their main concern and it’s not their problem. It’s yours. 

Unfortunately, social media tells you how big your ad can be, how big your photo can be, whether or not you can run type across it, how long your headline is, how long your copy is and it ensures that you’re working with a template just like everybody else’s. Again, their focus is not on making your ad or post stand out so much as making sure it fits in. 

Having spent quite a bit of time in recent weeks reviewing social media campaigns in the hospitality arena, we’re here to tell you, the boxes set up by social media companies beget a lot of lookalike stuff. And lookalike stuff won’t get the job done as far as making you stand out from your competitors. Which is what you need in times like these. 

But there’s a workaround. Three of them, actually. Your photography, your headlines and your idea. 

Let’s start with photography. Your photo is going to be the same size as everybody else running on Facebook or Instagram (and, with only three or so options, any sort of digital display ad, actually). So invest a bit in NON-lookalike photography. You don’t have to spend more – or, these days, even a lot – to get better photography. You just have to hire a photographer who sees things differently and turn ‘em loose. Your creative firm is just dying to get someone like that for you. Or they should be. And any photographer worth his or her salt will relish the opportunity to do something different. 

A client once challenged us to define what we mean by “different, better” photography. Easy. Look at what everybody does and don’t do that. What you want is photography that simply will . . . not . . . blend . . . in. 

Your headline. Sure, there’s a character count limit, but a copywriter can make it fit. A good copywriter can come up with something far better than most of what’s out there. And actually ensure that your words and pictures work together. 

And your idea? Well, let’s just say “buy two nights and get a third free” isn’t an idea. Booking long-term at a resort so working from home isn’t anything like working from home is. Don’t just think out of the box. You need to go way past that. Your goal is to do what the Other Guys didn’t think of. 

A few years ago, a guy named Ernie Schenck wrote a great book called ”The Houdini Solution.” The premise is that the tighter your limitations, the more creative you can be. He wrote it before digital and social media took over so much of the ad world, but he must have seen the future coming. 

Photography. Headlines. Ideas. Those are the keys to making low-cost social media work harder for you.

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Some topical advice for hotels and resorts

Two bits of advice for hotels and resorts.

We’re all looking forward to an eventual break in this crisis. But there are a couple of useful things you can do right now.

1) Don’t wait to plan, and 2) be aggressively creative.

To the first point: Too often we find ourselves with a marketing problem to deal with and not enough time to do it. Or not enough time to really do it right. You have plenty of time now, time to put together a plan you can launch quickly. Time to keep at it until you develop something innovative.

Something aggressively creative. Which brings us to our second point.

Now is not the time to be passive or to keep on with the same kinds of offers and specials everybody else is probably doing. It’s not the time now and it’s not going to be the time for quite a while.

So resist the usual. Maybe scare yourself a little. Don’t just think “out of the box,” think way out of the box. Maybe even bring somebody on board to help who does that sort of thing for a living.

The market is smaller. A lot of people are going to be fighting for that same remaining slice of pie. Those who can demand attention are going to be the ones getting the most to eat.

And bright colors will always attract more attention than dull ones.

The more you can do now, the better positioned you're going to be to succeed when this health crisis-induced recession eases. That’s a fact. You can look it up.

Seems like everything about the hospitality market sucks these days, but it’s not going to suck forever. How well you plan and how aggressively you respond is going to have a whole lot to do with whether and how quickly you bounce back.

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New ideas and how you react to them

How do you react to a new idea?

Yikes! We're in some uncharted territory right now, aren't we? 

So it's going to be very useful for all of us to be open to new ideas. Especially those of us in the hospitality business. And even more especially for independent hotels and resorts competing with big brands and their big loyalty clubs.
Innovation and creativity have always been important, but now they're critical. 

Your reaction to thinking and ideas that may make you uncomfortable is going to be a key to success. From investing in marketing when occupancy and revenues are down, to innovative compensation approaches for your partners, to looking at different marketing communications channels, to employing creativity that is a bit more aggressive and edgy than you're used to, be open to it.
Which means your first reaction to an idea that you or anybody else has should not be "well we can't do that because . . . "

The most important thing to consider - and consider first - is whether or not doing something can potentially benefit you. If the answer is "No," then drop it and forget about it. Nothing to see here folks, just move along.
Ah, but if there's a potential benefit for the short, medium or long term, you work out how to do it. It's a simple process, really: 

1. Here's an idea. Can it be good for us?
Yes. Do it.
No. Forget it.

2. So the answer is "Yes." Are there any issues with carrying it out?
Nope. We're good. Let's get to it.
Yes. So let's figure it out.

3. Did we figure it out?
Yes. Cool. Let's do it.
No. OK, we'll keep thinking.

4. Did we figure out a solution this time?
Yes. Great.
No. Oh well, there are more ideas where that came from.

This is not to say that every idea has value. Or that every idea will be easy to carry out. It's just that you ought to think first about whether or not an idea can provide some benefit before you dismiss it out of hand. 

If it will, then figure out how to do it. 

When your first thought is why something won't work, you're starting from a negative place. And nothing good ever comes from a negative place.  

We've quoted George Lois before, but here it is again. "Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."
If something is worth doing, it's worth figuring out how to do it.

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"This is what we got . . "

 

“This is what we got.

If you want it, come in and get it.”

That’s how action-hero Jack Reacher described the window of a retail store in The Enemy. Nothing else about that book is relevant here, but the way he described that window reminded us of some websites we’ve seen. Not focused on tempting the user.

Your website is probably on a very short list of marketing tools you still have turned on. So it better be doing more than just showing up. What it better be doing is creating desire for your property.

Pre-Covid, you might have been able to just to sit back with a “Here’s what we got” website and get your fair share of bookings, more or less. Plus there was repeat business. You got some web traffic from PPC, some from advertising or PR and some just stumbled in out of the cold. A website with some beauty shots, room descriptions and special offers was generally serviceable.

Those days are over.

You’re probably advertising a lot less, so when you do get a visitor, you need to work it. Sell the joys and benefits of your property. Don’t just present information and let visitors draw their own conclusions. Even repeat customers need to be sold on coming back now.

The irony is, with revenues down, coming up with the money to re-vamp your website can be a challenge.

So there are two things here. There’s no getting around the fact that finding a way to invest in keeping your brand message alive and in front of people is worthwhile. Not necessarily because it’s going to fill the place up tomorrow, but because if you make that investment now, then you’re going to do a lot better a lot more quickly when things loosen up. That’s a fact. Maybe take a little bit from other budgets here and there. Definitely look into barters, trades and extended payments, but don’t just go totally dark.

Here’s something else. As beneficial as it might be to re-do your whole website, if you even just re-purpose your home page, you’ll be ahead of the game. The cost/benefit equation there can be pretty favorable.

Your home page is like those store windows. Or the guy who works the sidewalk outside a hoochie-coochie show. It’s there to hook your audience and give them a reason to come in and look around. And ultimately, spend money.

Don’t fill it up with mountains of copy nobody is going to read, SEO fantasies be damned. Make it easy for visitors to get the point and remember it. Be creative. Even if you have to get some help to augment the technical skills your web provider brings to the party.

And, while everything you’re doing to address the Covid-19 crisis is important, let’s be honest – that’s sort of expected these days. Everybody is doing it. So it shouldn’t be the lead or the focus of your home page – certainly not at the expense of selling your property.

So open up your website and look at your home page. Does it create desire?

Or does it just say “This is what we got. It you want it, come in and get it”?

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