Augmented reality think tank
View more presentations from Deborah Bomstein.
mardi 19 avril 2011
mercredi 6 avril 2011
mardi 5 avril 2011
Comment about Emilie's article - Managing your online reputation
I totally agree with you. Hoteliers should answer to reviews and especially negative reviews. It helps the hoteliers and the customers to understand the philosophy of each other.
It definitely helps the hoteliers to improve the quality of services and help also to solve several problems that they could have within their hotels.
Online reputation is also about managing your reputation in general by sharing more information with the customers and also the future ones - it is also about joining conversations and understand what the customers need and what are they expected. You can not control everything and each review but you can manage your reputation by inviting customers to share their reviews on your website or on your blog. It can be a first step of managing your online reputation.
Link to Emilie's article
dimanche 3 avril 2011
5 YouTube marketing tips for better engagement
This article is about another platform that the one we constantly use : YouTube.
The article explains perfectly how YouTube can also be very important to enlarge your community and how it it easy to join different conversations. This platform definitely helps the brands to communicate more and to build relationship with customers. Then, those customers will be able to converse with other customers about the content of the video and maybe more about the brand.
Those customers will also be able to become influencers and will be able to help the brand to enlarge its community and spread information more easily with its new services.
Even if YouTube is using videos to interact with others, it allows to create and maintain a real conversation with the customers in general and especially with your community. This platform is one of the first step for the customer engagement by sharing videos with people. The first customer experience is important that it will define the future engagement of the customers.
As for Facebook or Twitter, the article gives 5 tips in order to conduct the best strategy for better engagement from the customers.
- Start with a great content and obviously with something interesting. As they show in the article, it does not matter what you have to sell, what it matters is how you talk about it to create something attractive. The first thing that you have to do is to invite the customers to watch your video in order to try to engage them after watching.
- Don't post your video and run: you have to create something different - posting a video is great but developing other videos around the first one is better ! You have to keep your customers entertain by your interesting videos !
- Know Thyself: define the goals and objectives of your brand in order to reach the right people and to make your videos "in the line" of your objectives.
- Use data to inform your actions : do not hesitate to ask questions to your community in order to know what the community likes and dislike. Do not hesitate to answer also to questions from customers.
Cross-promote: Use all the platforms (Facebook, Twitter) to post your videos and talk about it. Link the video on YouTube to your Facebook page or your Twitter account to let the people know that they can join different conversations on different platforms.
Link to the article
The article explains perfectly how YouTube can also be very important to enlarge your community and how it it easy to join different conversations. This platform definitely helps the brands to communicate more and to build relationship with customers. Then, those customers will be able to converse with other customers about the content of the video and maybe more about the brand.
Those customers will also be able to become influencers and will be able to help the brand to enlarge its community and spread information more easily with its new services.
Even if YouTube is using videos to interact with others, it allows to create and maintain a real conversation with the customers in general and especially with your community. This platform is one of the first step for the customer engagement by sharing videos with people. The first customer experience is important that it will define the future engagement of the customers.
As for Facebook or Twitter, the article gives 5 tips in order to conduct the best strategy for better engagement from the customers.
- Start with a great content and obviously with something interesting. As they show in the article, it does not matter what you have to sell, what it matters is how you talk about it to create something attractive. The first thing that you have to do is to invite the customers to watch your video in order to try to engage them after watching.
- Don't post your video and run: you have to create something different - posting a video is great but developing other videos around the first one is better ! You have to keep your customers entertain by your interesting videos !
- Know Thyself: define the goals and objectives of your brand in order to reach the right people and to make your videos "in the line" of your objectives.
- Use data to inform your actions : do not hesitate to ask questions to your community in order to know what the community likes and dislike. Do not hesitate to answer also to questions from customers.
Cross-promote: Use all the platforms (Facebook, Twitter) to post your videos and talk about it. Link the video on YouTube to your Facebook page or your Twitter account to let the people know that they can join different conversations on different platforms.
Link to the article
mercredi 23 mars 2011
Social Media ROI - How to measure it ?
1. What is meant by 'Social Media is not free'?
. Everything you put into a social media programm has a cost attached to it.
. You need to spend time by joining the conversation and interacting with your community.
. You should hire someone with specific knowledge to develop your Social Media plan.
. Even if the cost of investment is not that high, the financial impact can become huge after taking many actions on Social Media such as creating a Facebook page, a Twitter account and definitely enlarge tthe community by attracting fans and followers.
2. In addition to rooms bookings, what measurements would be effective for hotels?
. By the number of engaged and active followers.
. By the way they share your information.
. By knowing your reputation, your image.
3. How should a hotel, with limited resources, decide what SM efforts to make?
. Establish the goals you want to achieve.
. Which target you want to reach.
. The type of communication you will use.
. Depend also on your competitive set.
. The budget they want to spend in their Social Media campaign
4. What role does SM play in offering customer services?
. By interacting with your community, you can ask questions, opinions and advices about the current facilities and services offer by your hotel. So customer services can definitely improve.
. Be different from your competitors by posting interesting contents.
. Create engagement and satisfaction.
mardi 22 mars 2011
Comments about Emilie 's article - 4 innovative ways to use web video for small businesses like hotel
I totally agree with Emilie ! Hotels really need to focus on attracting customers with videos. Making a video is really a good tool to reach more people and to influence them more.
With Internet, brands need to be faster and faster and videos can definitely attract people who do not want to read a full article as you said. Create contests for the best videos or any other kind of way to involve the customers can become influencers and enlarge again your community.
Videos definitely add a huge value to your hotel image - even videos than customers made can help you and your future customers to make decisions to book in your hotel rather than others.
Interacting with their customers is more than important so let's do it through videos and share it on Youtube !
Link to her blog
With Internet, brands need to be faster and faster and videos can definitely attract people who do not want to read a full article as you said. Create contests for the best videos or any other kind of way to involve the customers can become influencers and enlarge again your community.
Videos definitely add a huge value to your hotel image - even videos than customers made can help you and your future customers to make decisions to book in your hotel rather than others.
Interacting with their customers is more than important so let's do it through videos and share it on Youtube !
Link to her blog
dimanche 20 mars 2011
10 ways to continue the conversation with customers
The article is about how to continue the conversation with your customers and enlarge your community with a few tips.
This article is also focusing on how to continue the conversation after the customers bought something and how to continue to attract them through social media, emails, newsletters.
It is very important to find the balance of providing good and relevant information and sending too many emails or notifications to advertise on new products. Businesses need to find good ways to continue the conversation and join other conversations by entertaining efficiently the customers and by providing interesting content on social media or through emails.
Other tips are given in this article :
- being constant by posting every day, every week depending of the size of your business
- interacting very often with your customers
- making the customers participating to your "games", your good deals & offers
- answering to any questions: negative & positive
- never abuse of sending too many emails or notifications - never use customers' information without asking their permission
- create a real relationship between you and your customers
All these tips allow the different companies to be aware of the trends of social media and how to interact efficiently with their customers. It is very important to not "polluate" the customers with too many emails or notifications that will decide the customers to delete these emails or put it as spam ! Businesses need to create a tie relationship with the customers and make them being influencers to enlarge the community. Businesses will be able to advertise on their new products and services without spending a huge amount of money on different social media thanks to the customers/fans/influencers.
Continuing a conversation after buying something is more than important : to expand your business, you need to be present everywhere and on any social media in order to create events, good offers, good deals and also to create partnership with location-based service or other tools of social media. Being present and joining a lot of conversation will definitely help you to create an efficient community.
Link to the article
Link to the full article
This article is also focusing on how to continue the conversation after the customers bought something and how to continue to attract them through social media, emails, newsletters.
It is very important to find the balance of providing good and relevant information and sending too many emails or notifications to advertise on new products. Businesses need to find good ways to continue the conversation and join other conversations by entertaining efficiently the customers and by providing interesting content on social media or through emails.
Other tips are given in this article :
- being constant by posting every day, every week depending of the size of your business
- interacting very often with your customers
- making the customers participating to your "games", your good deals & offers
- answering to any questions: negative & positive
- never abuse of sending too many emails or notifications - never use customers' information without asking their permission
- create a real relationship between you and your customers
All these tips allow the different companies to be aware of the trends of social media and how to interact efficiently with their customers. It is very important to not "polluate" the customers with too many emails or notifications that will decide the customers to delete these emails or put it as spam ! Businesses need to create a tie relationship with the customers and make them being influencers to enlarge the community. Businesses will be able to advertise on their new products and services without spending a huge amount of money on different social media thanks to the customers/fans/influencers.
Continuing a conversation after buying something is more than important : to expand your business, you need to be present everywhere and on any social media in order to create events, good offers, good deals and also to create partnership with location-based service or other tools of social media. Being present and joining a lot of conversation will definitely help you to create an efficient community.
Link to the article
Link to the full article
mercredi 16 mars 2011
mardi 15 mars 2011
Comment about Nodira's article - How to create a killer email newsletter
I totally agree with Nodira. This article is very interesting and true: more and more people delete most of the newsletters that they are receiving. And I am also the first perosn who is doing it. We constantly receive too many ads with too many offers. It is essential that company who send these kind offers focus on an interesting subject and content to attract the customers and let them open the email before to delete it.
Key words should be seen first in order to have 1 minute to seduce the customers with offers. It is also very important for companies to create something different to engage efficiently the future customers.
Link to her blog
Key words should be seen first in order to have 1 minute to seduce the customers with offers. It is also very important for companies to create something different to engage efficiently the future customers.
Link to her blog
dimanche 13 mars 2011
The ROI of video on hotel website
The article is about how a hotel can see a good return by spending a little bit more on video on its website. Video can double the budget of a website project so the question is :
- What does a hotel get back in relation to the small fortune its is spending on this thing ?
According to the article many advantages can be taken of using video on hotel website:
- it will allow the hotel to have a strong visual impact
- it will create an emotional hook to engage the users.
- it will also create a story to make sure that the users can continue to dream and travel when they watch the video.
- the key point is also by engaging the future customers : it is also a good way to increase the hotel image and to enhance its popularity.
But the difficulty is in measuring the right ROI made by a video. It is mesured by the number of times it has been shared and by the viewership. When you are building and communicating a message through a video, the mesasurement is difficult. So it is tough to quantify the success of the video and the great impact of it.
In addition, putting a video on a hotel website create new opportunites by launching new innovative marketing efforts. It allow to create an important opportunity to quickly influence the customer and to create intrigue and a real connection to the brand.
Another way to measure can be taking in consideration : SHARING on social media and use different tools as Klout to measure your great influence and maybe have the possibility to see how many times your video has been shared and viewed by users.
I am totally convinced that making a video for your hotel website is more than important. A video create a story, a real tool to communicate with your customers and maybe the future ones and make the customers understand more your philosophy and the magic hotel that you try to develop.
If you want to create a great impact with your video (that cost you a lot) then share it everywhere !! On Youtube, on Facebook, on the hotel blog and try to make sure that customers will talk about it. The video needs to be innovative, creative, interesting and beautiful. As a customer of luxury hotel or even motel, I love to look at the video and not only pictures. It gives you a real idea of what you will get during your stay.
It is also great when you look for something in particular like a different ambiance, or a special service.
Video is great, so spend a bit more and do it !!
Link to the article
Link to the full article
- What does a hotel get back in relation to the small fortune its is spending on this thing ?
According to the article many advantages can be taken of using video on hotel website:
- it will allow the hotel to have a strong visual impact
- it will create an emotional hook to engage the users.
- it will also create a story to make sure that the users can continue to dream and travel when they watch the video.
- the key point is also by engaging the future customers : it is also a good way to increase the hotel image and to enhance its popularity.
But the difficulty is in measuring the right ROI made by a video. It is mesured by the number of times it has been shared and by the viewership. When you are building and communicating a message through a video, the mesasurement is difficult. So it is tough to quantify the success of the video and the great impact of it.
In addition, putting a video on a hotel website create new opportunites by launching new innovative marketing efforts. It allow to create an important opportunity to quickly influence the customer and to create intrigue and a real connection to the brand.
Another way to measure can be taking in consideration : SHARING on social media and use different tools as Klout to measure your great influence and maybe have the possibility to see how many times your video has been shared and viewed by users.
I am totally convinced that making a video for your hotel website is more than important. A video create a story, a real tool to communicate with your customers and maybe the future ones and make the customers understand more your philosophy and the magic hotel that you try to develop.
If you want to create a great impact with your video (that cost you a lot) then share it everywhere !! On Youtube, on Facebook, on the hotel blog and try to make sure that customers will talk about it. The video needs to be innovative, creative, interesting and beautiful. As a customer of luxury hotel or even motel, I love to look at the video and not only pictures. It gives you a real idea of what you will get during your stay.
It is also great when you look for something in particular like a different ambiance, or a special service.
Video is great, so spend a bit more and do it !!
Link to the article
Link to the full article
mardi 8 mars 2011
How can a hotel use Klout scores to improve customer communications?
A hotel can definitely use Klout score to improve customer communications. The first point is when a hotel create a kind of community and generate a high score, means the hotel has a higher and higher number of fans – those fans can also talk between each others about the hotel and what kind of service it can make. The exemple of the hotel in Las Vegas is very interesting as they want to create a community around Klout in order to make the communication between the customers higher and higher by offering the opportunity to stay in the hotel.
This kind of practice can definitely attract more customers and enlarge the communication to different communities. It will allow the customers to try their best to get the best treatment in the hotel that they book only if they get a very high score on Klout. The motivation of having a better treatment if you communicate more with other customers can be very effective. A lot of people will be glad to help the hotel to have a better score on Klout, just to have the possibility to stay in a Suite…
It will also help the hoteliers to define the right target and find the people who are really effective by spreading information about the hotel, sharing their experience and telling story about their stay.
A hotel can also set up a program where Klout score will be define by points to attract the customers; More the customers have points, more they will have the possibility to choose kind of gifts like: additional miles, bonus on their next trip, exclusive invitations, room upgrade…
This kind of practice can definitely attract more customers and enlarge the communication to different communities. It will allow the customers to try their best to get the best treatment in the hotel that they book only if they get a very high score on Klout. The motivation of having a better treatment if you communicate more with other customers can be very effective. A lot of people will be glad to help the hotel to have a better score on Klout, just to have the possibility to stay in a Suite…
It will also help the hoteliers to define the right target and find the people who are really effective by spreading information about the hotel, sharing their experience and telling story about their stay.
A hotel can also set up a program where Klout score will be define by points to attract the customers; More the customers have points, more they will have the possibility to choose kind of gifts like: additional miles, bonus on their next trip, exclusive invitations, room upgrade…
Comments about Léa 's article
I totally agree with you regarding the importance of the visuals for hotels. Visuals must be an important step of the construction of the website and should be taking in consideration by everyone. Good visuals can change the mind of the customers and can definitely determined their choices to book or no in your hotel.
For my own opinion I really appreciate the hotel website which post video of the hotel or 360° virtual tour as you said. It is very important for the customers to have a look of the reality and have a real image of the hotels. Of course new pictures are helping but the pictures need to fix to the reality in order to not make wrong promises to the future customers.
Link to Léa's post
For my own opinion I really appreciate the hotel website which post video of the hotel or 360° virtual tour as you said. It is very important for the customers to have a look of the reality and have a real image of the hotels. Of course new pictures are helping but the pictures need to fix to the reality in order to not make wrong promises to the future customers.
Link to Léa's post
dimanche 6 mars 2011
Asian consumers increasingly looking to buy travel online
This article is about the growth of the Asian market on booking travel online. This research is according to industry sources like Expedia. They planned to see the growth of the market of 30 or 40% comparing of the last year. For them, online travel booking should only grow in the next few months and in the next 2 years for the Asian Pacific region.
The result shows a big contrast with the mature US market which is only growing of 5% every year. As per the article, Expedia decides to launch specific websites in different countries in order to make sure to target the right people as a lot of countries are growing really fast. (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea...). Asian consumers are really looking to buy travel online. Even if countries in Asia are still behind the US or the EU markets, a huge opportunity is growing for the online travel companies as Asia will be the continent number 1 very soon to book online.
Expedia expects between 10 to 20% of their booking revenues coming from Asia Pacific in the next 2 years. This expectation really shows that the online travel market is changing very fast and also shows that Asia is the next important and huge market where brands (luxury, hotels, tourism in general) need to develop their image and adapt themselves to the Asian consumers.
Experts also said that broadband and credit card penetration increases in Asia, so consumers will be willing to spend more online. Everything will be easier for them and buy online will allow the asian consumers to arrive to a new market and for sure they will spread the word very fast. Sites like Groupon and Deal.com.sg also make a huge difference. It definitely helps the customers to discover new destinations, hotels through good deals on those websites: the growth in Asia of those websites is big and travel sites should really consider expanding in Asia and make specific websites to show that they really care of the different populations.
Asian market is more and more important especially for tourism. The number of billionaire in China is now very important and just behind the USA so the habits had changed : travel is now important for the new "richs" and with the development of Internet and broadband the travel online in Asia will definitely growth very soon. Time for the travel sites to find good solutions to expand their businesses all around Asia in order to reach all the countries.
Link to the article
Link to the full article
The result shows a big contrast with the mature US market which is only growing of 5% every year. As per the article, Expedia decides to launch specific websites in different countries in order to make sure to target the right people as a lot of countries are growing really fast. (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea...). Asian consumers are really looking to buy travel online. Even if countries in Asia are still behind the US or the EU markets, a huge opportunity is growing for the online travel companies as Asia will be the continent number 1 very soon to book online.
Expedia expects between 10 to 20% of their booking revenues coming from Asia Pacific in the next 2 years. This expectation really shows that the online travel market is changing very fast and also shows that Asia is the next important and huge market where brands (luxury, hotels, tourism in general) need to develop their image and adapt themselves to the Asian consumers.
Experts also said that broadband and credit card penetration increases in Asia, so consumers will be willing to spend more online. Everything will be easier for them and buy online will allow the asian consumers to arrive to a new market and for sure they will spread the word very fast. Sites like Groupon and Deal.com.sg also make a huge difference. It definitely helps the customers to discover new destinations, hotels through good deals on those websites: the growth in Asia of those websites is big and travel sites should really consider expanding in Asia and make specific websites to show that they really care of the different populations.
Asian market is more and more important especially for tourism. The number of billionaire in China is now very important and just behind the USA so the habits had changed : travel is now important for the new "richs" and with the development of Internet and broadband the travel online in Asia will definitely growth very soon. Time for the travel sites to find good solutions to expand their businesses all around Asia in order to reach all the countries.
Link to the article
Link to the full article
mercredi 2 mars 2011
mardi 1 mars 2011
Comment about Agnes's article
I totally agree with you Agnes ! Small businesses should also be involved in the growth of the social media and should participate to it actively. Social media like Facebook can be an excellent tool for small businesses as it is free of charge and the impact can be huge. So money can be saved to develop other ways to communicate with their customers.
But participating to social media means also being implicate where interaction with the fans/customers is very important. Plus being constant by posting actively interesting comments.
Link to her article
But participating to social media means also being implicate where interaction with the fans/customers is very important. Plus being constant by posting actively interesting comments.
Link to her article
dimanche 27 février 2011
Social media influence remains weak in travel
This article is about how users still prefer use traditional media like television or newspaper rather than using social media like Facebook or Twitter.
However social media remains the main tool of holiday recommendations.
The research shows that television, newspaper and travel websites should remain the main in the company campaign without forgetting socail media. Social media should come in a second position after the genral tool. The article also shows that age is not the main factor that company should take in consideration in order to build their campaign. The research also found that familiarity and skills in using computer can be one of the main factor for customers to use internet to check travel websites.
This research is very important as it shows how the different tools can be used and for what types of customers. It will definitely help travel marketers.
I think that this research really matches with the reality. Most of the customers definitely prefer to look for their trips through media like travel websites and not social media. However social media can be very useful to post comments and give your opinions about your trips or about travel websites. It can help other customers to make their decisinons and decide to book through the same travel websites.
But in general customers are hardly looking for advices, or even to book their trip on social media.
About the age, it is also true. Age is not the main factor. My grandmother that is 80 has good skills now in computer and she is still surfing on forum to seek opinion about any trips that she wants to make.
Social media really need to develop their websites in order to let the customers to use only and one media.
Link to the article
Link to the full article
However social media remains the main tool of holiday recommendations.
The research shows that television, newspaper and travel websites should remain the main in the company campaign without forgetting socail media. Social media should come in a second position after the genral tool. The article also shows that age is not the main factor that company should take in consideration in order to build their campaign. The research also found that familiarity and skills in using computer can be one of the main factor for customers to use internet to check travel websites.
This research is very important as it shows how the different tools can be used and for what types of customers. It will definitely help travel marketers.
I think that this research really matches with the reality. Most of the customers definitely prefer to look for their trips through media like travel websites and not social media. However social media can be very useful to post comments and give your opinions about your trips or about travel websites. It can help other customers to make their decisinons and decide to book through the same travel websites.
But in general customers are hardly looking for advices, or even to book their trip on social media.
About the age, it is also true. Age is not the main factor. My grandmother that is 80 has good skills now in computer and she is still surfing on forum to seek opinion about any trips that she wants to make.
Social media really need to develop their websites in order to let the customers to use only and one media.
Link to the article
Link to the full article
mardi 8 février 2011
Comments about Agnes's article
I totally agree with you Agnes. Social media is growing and growin especially within the company.
Now, a company need to be aware of the new trends and be very visible on Internet in order to keep tracking new niches and attract more customers. Being interesting and keeping updated their fans and followers are primordial.
Link to Agnes's article
Now, a company need to be aware of the new trends and be very visible on Internet in order to keep tracking new niches and attract more customers. Being interesting and keeping updated their fans and followers are primordial.
Link to Agnes's article
dimanche 6 février 2011
samedi 5 février 2011
Four ways Groupon might work for travel businesses
This article is about Groupon and how it could work for travel businesses. Four reasons are detailed by the article below:
1. Costs remain the same for any companies such as restaurants, hotels, museums...so the article is saying that whatever the number of guests, costs are the same so why not filling the empty seats when the business is very low. It makes a lot of sense now for businesses can fix their high costs. So Groupon can be the solution.
2. The second reason shows that if the merchant can afford to have zero margin by selling his rooms with 40 or 50% of so he can definitely look for a little bit of revenue by the addtionnal products that he can sell during the guest experience.
3. According to the article, it can allow the companies to be in the middle of a big buzz if the experience for the guests is amazing then they can definitely buzz about it. It can allow the companies especiallly the small ones to have a very broad exposure on the web and maybe create a buzz.
4. The last reason is about the impact of using Groupon - saying that it's much better to spend money with Groupon and spread a buzz rather than spending money on a huge advertising campaign. It will also provide a large impact.
Groupon will also be more aand more everywhere by being visible on travel sites as ancillary services and suggest other offers with good deals available on Groupon site.
The article is also talking about the daily deal model: this model is dealing with guests that are waiting for coupons everyday to go out at a restaurant or to go at a museum. I do not think that guests can use the daily deal model forever because you are not interested by all the deals that they can offer you and sometimes guests need to plan in advance rather than being sponteneous everyday by choosing a deal on Groupon. It is like you are buying more a discount price than an experience that you really wish to do !
As we said in class, Groupon can not be used for all the hotels or with conditions. Honestly I do not think that Luxury hotels can use this kind of tool to promote their hotels or their new offers during their low seasons. But promoting some packages for business travellers on Groupon can be a good idea especially for people who are travelling a lot and companies who are looking for discounted trips in order to save money on the travel budget. It can also allow the business travellers to create a kind of buzz in their community, to come back with their family and allow the hotels or restaurants...to have a huge visibility.
Link to the article
1. Costs remain the same for any companies such as restaurants, hotels, museums...so the article is saying that whatever the number of guests, costs are the same so why not filling the empty seats when the business is very low. It makes a lot of sense now for businesses can fix their high costs. So Groupon can be the solution.
2. The second reason shows that if the merchant can afford to have zero margin by selling his rooms with 40 or 50% of so he can definitely look for a little bit of revenue by the addtionnal products that he can sell during the guest experience.
3. According to the article, it can allow the companies to be in the middle of a big buzz if the experience for the guests is amazing then they can definitely buzz about it. It can allow the companies especiallly the small ones to have a very broad exposure on the web and maybe create a buzz.
4. The last reason is about the impact of using Groupon - saying that it's much better to spend money with Groupon and spread a buzz rather than spending money on a huge advertising campaign. It will also provide a large impact.
Groupon will also be more aand more everywhere by being visible on travel sites as ancillary services and suggest other offers with good deals available on Groupon site.
The article is also talking about the daily deal model: this model is dealing with guests that are waiting for coupons everyday to go out at a restaurant or to go at a museum. I do not think that guests can use the daily deal model forever because you are not interested by all the deals that they can offer you and sometimes guests need to plan in advance rather than being sponteneous everyday by choosing a deal on Groupon. It is like you are buying more a discount price than an experience that you really wish to do !
As we said in class, Groupon can not be used for all the hotels or with conditions. Honestly I do not think that Luxury hotels can use this kind of tool to promote their hotels or their new offers during their low seasons. But promoting some packages for business travellers on Groupon can be a good idea especially for people who are travelling a lot and companies who are looking for discounted trips in order to save money on the travel budget. It can also allow the business travellers to create a kind of buzz in their community, to come back with their family and allow the hotels or restaurants...to have a huge visibility.
Link to the article
mercredi 2 février 2011
Measuring Social Influence : Klout
• How the tool can be used to increase brand awareness
- Klout allows the brand to find influencers based on topic or hashtag
- Help your brand to understand your influencers’ network value
- Be focus on people recommendation and not advertisements
• How the hotel can be used to create service differentiation - for influencers
- A free week-end for 2 pax for the most important influencer
- Discounts
- Loyalties
- Special amenities
- A package to use all services of the hotel (spa, room service, fitness center, etc…)
• How the tool can be used to impact revenue
- Target important influencers and their community
- Communicate we them to get more influencers
- Use service differentiation for influencers
• Why this tool is better than others, mentioned in the article
- Focus and specified on Tweeter and Facebook
- Use 35 variables of those social medias measuring True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score
- Real analysis of what is said about your brand, not only a grade
- Klout allows the brand to find influencers based on topic or hashtag
- Help your brand to understand your influencers’ network value
- Be focus on people recommendation and not advertisements
• How the hotel can be used to create service differentiation - for influencers
- A free week-end for 2 pax for the most important influencer
- Discounts
- Loyalties
- Special amenities
- A package to use all services of the hotel (spa, room service, fitness center, etc…)
• How the tool can be used to impact revenue
- Target important influencers and their community
- Communicate we them to get more influencers
- Use service differentiation for influencers
• Why this tool is better than others, mentioned in the article
- Focus and specified on Tweeter and Facebook
- Use 35 variables of those social medias measuring True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score
- Real analysis of what is said about your brand, not only a grade
mardi 1 février 2011
Comment about Léa's article
I totally agree with Léa. This survey is very interesting especially for hotels who can improve their services by reading this kind of survey.
More and more hotels need to be different from each other and really make the difference in order to be the top of the market. Attracting guests is also an important points in order to make more profits. Business travelers are more and more important, especially after the economic crisis, so hotels need to also focus on their comfort to make sure to create a kind of engagement with their guests.
Link to her page
More and more hotels need to be different from each other and really make the difference in order to be the top of the market. Attracting guests is also an important points in order to make more profits. Business travelers are more and more important, especially after the economic crisis, so hotels need to also focus on their comfort to make sure to create a kind of engagement with their guests.
Link to her page
dimanche 30 janvier 2011
How hotels create a lasting performance on Facebook
The article is about the content performance of hotel brands on Facebook.
Seventh Art Media identified key factoes to see how hotels develop their strategies on social networks and especially on Facebook.
As the article says, Facebook is one of the most important interface with a huge online traffic. Hotels really need to focus and improve on their marketing online through social networks. They have also to focus on how customers react and not only on their general strategies. As the article explains also, hotels have the capacity to develop their online community and the engagement. The company shows the factors that hotels need to follow up in order to generate amplification and engagement:
- hotels need to maintain "a steady flow" in order to keep the engagement of their fans.
- hotels need to be creative and for every post need to be different - posts must be attractive in order to develop a certain visibility for future customers.
Many other factors are described in the article.
Facebook is now a huge "machine" where hotels can expose their news, attract current and new customers and have the possibility to develop their "business" by featuring their new offers, packages or new facilities. More a hotel is creative and innovative, more the customers will be attracted and will want to participate within the hotel's community. Being on Facebook is also important because guests can interact with you, ask questions, give you their opinions and grow your visibility everywhere on the web. If a guest like your hotel's link so the guest can share it with all his friends and so on...: the visibility can be huge.
The hotels can feature more and more things that happened in their hotels without spending a lot of money especially if someone is handling all the digital marketing inside the hotel's team.
Facebook is a place that hotels need to be seen and need to develop their image in order to extend their name.
Link to the article
Seventh Art Media identified key factoes to see how hotels develop their strategies on social networks and especially on Facebook.
As the article says, Facebook is one of the most important interface with a huge online traffic. Hotels really need to focus and improve on their marketing online through social networks. They have also to focus on how customers react and not only on their general strategies. As the article explains also, hotels have the capacity to develop their online community and the engagement. The company shows the factors that hotels need to follow up in order to generate amplification and engagement:
- hotels need to maintain "a steady flow" in order to keep the engagement of their fans.
- hotels need to be creative and for every post need to be different - posts must be attractive in order to develop a certain visibility for future customers.
Many other factors are described in the article.
Facebook is now a huge "machine" where hotels can expose their news, attract current and new customers and have the possibility to develop their "business" by featuring their new offers, packages or new facilities. More a hotel is creative and innovative, more the customers will be attracted and will want to participate within the hotel's community. Being on Facebook is also important because guests can interact with you, ask questions, give you their opinions and grow your visibility everywhere on the web. If a guest like your hotel's link so the guest can share it with all his friends and so on...: the visibility can be huge.
The hotels can feature more and more things that happened in their hotels without spending a lot of money especially if someone is handling all the digital marketing inside the hotel's team.
Facebook is a place that hotels need to be seen and need to develop their image in order to extend their name.
Link to the article
mardi 25 janvier 2011
Comments about Emilie's article
I totally agree with Emilie. Even if hotels are focusing on leisure or business, they should improve on their facilities and communicate more on what's they have as specific activities.
Hotels should definitely make their specificities their priorities for more visibility and to attrack more the market than their competitors.
Link to Emilie's article
Hotels should definitely make their specificities their priorities for more visibility and to attrack more the market than their competitors.
Link to Emilie's article
dimanche 23 janvier 2011
Sheraton.com named best hotel website
The article is about the recognition of Sheraton.com as the best hotel website for all the categories in Brand image ratings. The report shows that Sheraton.com has a responsive interface with a distinctive color palette, differentiated typography and superior production value.
The Senior Vice President of Sheraton Hotels & Resorts explains also in the article how they spent $6 billion to revitalize the Sheraton.com in 2009 and he is proud to see that their goals have been achieved. They wanted to create a consumer-friendly site with an easy access to all the information.
Analysis of the website:
Sheraton.com is definitely easy to use and very easy to book with the small window that appears on the main page.
Sheraton.com is really focusing on the engagement with a full page about "their community" - with story to share, tips to share also - and an easy access to the facebook page by login with your own account. They want you to be a member of the Sheraton community. They really push you to join their club in order to share your experience and book more in their hotels.
Next to "our community" page, you can find the "Starwood Preferred Guest" - once again, it is another tool to invite customers to be engaged in their programs. You can also leave some comments about the website and how easy is it to use. Their poilitic is definitely look to the engagement of the customers and how they can attrack them by convincing them that Sheraton.com is the best website to share stories and book a hotel.
For the booking, they also guarantee you the best deal by booking through Sheraton.com where you can have numbers of benefits like Starpoints, bonus...
However, the list of all the hotels is not easy to find. The website contains a lot of text and windows to open that can definitely confuse the customers. I like the fact that you can really read a lot of stories, tips and you can have an easy access to Facebook but I prefer the website with more design, less text and more photos to "transport" you to your future destination. But for business, Sheraton.com is ideal especially to book very quickly.
Link to the article
The Senior Vice President of Sheraton Hotels & Resorts explains also in the article how they spent $6 billion to revitalize the Sheraton.com in 2009 and he is proud to see that their goals have been achieved. They wanted to create a consumer-friendly site with an easy access to all the information.
Analysis of the website:
Sheraton.com is definitely easy to use and very easy to book with the small window that appears on the main page.
Sheraton.com is really focusing on the engagement with a full page about "their community" - with story to share, tips to share also - and an easy access to the facebook page by login with your own account. They want you to be a member of the Sheraton community. They really push you to join their club in order to share your experience and book more in their hotels.
Next to "our community" page, you can find the "Starwood Preferred Guest" - once again, it is another tool to invite customers to be engaged in their programs. You can also leave some comments about the website and how easy is it to use. Their poilitic is definitely look to the engagement of the customers and how they can attrack them by convincing them that Sheraton.com is the best website to share stories and book a hotel.
For the booking, they also guarantee you the best deal by booking through Sheraton.com where you can have numbers of benefits like Starpoints, bonus...
However, the list of all the hotels is not easy to find. The website contains a lot of text and windows to open that can definitely confuse the customers. I like the fact that you can really read a lot of stories, tips and you can have an easy access to Facebook but I prefer the website with more design, less text and more photos to "transport" you to your future destination. But for business, Sheraton.com is ideal especially to book very quickly.
Link to the article
mardi 18 janvier 2011
Comment about Lauriane's article
I totally agree with Lauriane. Especially for the first paragraph about the myth of planning. A lot of marketers try to plan in a long term but as you said social media are changing too fast to have the possibility to plan for the next few months.
Social media give the opportunity to develop your brand to a different level and make a better visibility to another world. Social media are growing and growing and hired people who have the real skills to develop this kind of marketing is very important for any brands. I totally agree with Lauriane for her last paragrah - It is much better to hire a great marketer and train him rather than a good networker.
Link to Lauriane's article
Social media give the opportunity to develop your brand to a different level and make a better visibility to another world. Social media are growing and growing and hired people who have the real skills to develop this kind of marketing is very important for any brands. I totally agree with Lauriane for her last paragrah - It is much better to hire a great marketer and train him rather than a good networker.
Link to Lauriane's article
dimanche 16 janvier 2011
TripAdvisor adds airline ratings to flight search
The article is about TripAdvisor who launches a new feature to allow the travellers to leave feedbacks and comments about airlines.
TripAdvisor Flights can allow the passenger to reate various aspects of their flight experiences. The aspects are about baggage handling, check-in experience, in-flight amenities, the service, the punctuality, the value, the comfort...
Travellers can also be able to see which airlines are recommended by others while they want to book a trip. If the traveller is already a member so he can also comment on his experience.
Why is it so important now to be able to read feedbacks and comments about airlines ? It is as important as hotels - sharing your experience about airlines offer the possibility to other travellers to make a better choice or to reassure them about some "clichés" that they can have about low-cost airlines for instance.
Why can it be important for the airlines : it will offer them the possibility to have a larger visibility especially for the low-cost airlines or the new airlines or the airlines with a bad reputation. They can have also the possibility to increase their service by stating the number of comments and their importance. They can "discover" the opinion of their customers without sending them a survey.
It will allow them to reply to their customers if they posted bad or good comments about their experience. It will permit to understand the opinion of their customers and maybe improve the quality of their flights.
To conclude, I can say that it is a good initiative from TripAdvisor to launch this new feature. I do not have the feeling that airlines try to improve their service by asking the opinion of their customers. I booked many trips and any airlines had never asked me my opinion or my feedback about my experience - only hotel or 3rd Party like Expedia asked me about my whole experience during my booking or my stay in the hotel. So maybe airlines should improve on that. And to have the possibility to know more about the other airlines before to book is a really good thing for the travellers in general.
Link to the article
TripAdvisor Flights can allow the passenger to reate various aspects of their flight experiences. The aspects are about baggage handling, check-in experience, in-flight amenities, the service, the punctuality, the value, the comfort...
Travellers can also be able to see which airlines are recommended by others while they want to book a trip. If the traveller is already a member so he can also comment on his experience.
Why is it so important now to be able to read feedbacks and comments about airlines ? It is as important as hotels - sharing your experience about airlines offer the possibility to other travellers to make a better choice or to reassure them about some "clichés" that they can have about low-cost airlines for instance.
Why can it be important for the airlines : it will offer them the possibility to have a larger visibility especially for the low-cost airlines or the new airlines or the airlines with a bad reputation. They can have also the possibility to increase their service by stating the number of comments and their importance. They can "discover" the opinion of their customers without sending them a survey.
It will allow them to reply to their customers if they posted bad or good comments about their experience. It will permit to understand the opinion of their customers and maybe improve the quality of their flights.
To conclude, I can say that it is a good initiative from TripAdvisor to launch this new feature. I do not have the feeling that airlines try to improve their service by asking the opinion of their customers. I booked many trips and any airlines had never asked me my opinion or my feedback about my experience - only hotel or 3rd Party like Expedia asked me about my whole experience during my booking or my stay in the hotel. So maybe airlines should improve on that. And to have the possibility to know more about the other airlines before to book is a really good thing for the travellers in general.
Link to the article
mercredi 12 janvier 2011
mardi 11 janvier 2011
Comments about Alia's article
Your article and your comments are very interesting. It is quiet convenient to have this kind of application available on our Iphone especially if we are travelling and we did not book a room before to arrive in the city...
It also allows the hotels to have a better visibility and to improve their communication media through a new tool : application on phones !
Good news I found the same application for France ! It is called "Hôtels" and it is almost better than this one. It shows you where you are on a map with all the hotels around with the better price that the app can find. Very convenient when you do not even know where you are in a city that you do not know !
Link to Alia's comments
It also allows the hotels to have a better visibility and to improve their communication media through a new tool : application on phones !
Good news I found the same application for France ! It is called "Hôtels" and it is almost better than this one. It shows you where you are on a map with all the hotels around with the better price that the app can find. Very convenient when you do not even know where you are in a city that you do not know !
Link to Alia's comments
dimanche 9 janvier 2011
Expedia promotes vacation packages on Facebook
This article is about Expedia who launched a contest on Facebook to find a better attractive name for its package.
After a few years, Expedia thinks that this name might be confusing for its customers wo book most of the time their trip separately: hotel on a side and flight on another side. expedia explains that if the customers use the "Vacation packages" they can save up to $ 450 but unfortunately they are "spoiling" this potential by booking their trip separately. The different prices can be very attractive for people who just need to name a package and pos it on Facebook.
Comments can be made after reading this article:
- This article shows that customers become more and more important for a website like Expedia. It shows that Expedia really cares of the reviews, comments or opinions of its customers. They also want to integrate the customers in the company's life and ask the customers to play a role in the future of the company by organizing this kind of contest.
- It also shows that using social media like Facebook become very important. This tool is very useful for the marketers who want to attract more and more customers. And using this tool is very smart when we know that a lot of people like to play on Facebook. So Expedia knows that organizing a contest on Facebook will definitely attract people.
- It will help Expedia to understand why customers hardly used the "Vacation packages" by giving the opportunity to customers to find the new name of the package. The winner will also be chosen by a large number of contestants.
So go online, check it out and maybe earn a vacation package worth up to $ 10,000 !
mercredi 5 janvier 2011
mardi 4 janvier 2011
Comment about Aude's article
Expedia offers free rooms upgrades for top customers
I totally agree with Aude too ! The service is the key success of the hospitality industry. If one customer leave the hotel happy with a good appreciation of the hotel then it can be sure that the hotel will "win" ten new guests. However, if a customer leave the hotel with bad impressions then it can cause some damages.
Expedia and all the other companies should make some efforts to make some agreements with hotels, airlines to offer free upgrade or any other gifts to their best customers. It will reinforce the desire to book through expedia and it will definitely reinforce the customer loyalty.
I totally agree with Aude too ! The service is the key success of the hospitality industry. If one customer leave the hotel happy with a good appreciation of the hotel then it can be sure that the hotel will "win" ten new guests. However, if a customer leave the hotel with bad impressions then it can cause some damages.
Expedia and all the other companies should make some efforts to make some agreements with hotels, airlines to offer free upgrade or any other gifts to their best customers. It will reinforce the desire to book through expedia and it will definitely reinforce the customer loyalty.
dimanche 2 janvier 2011
Are customized prices next for the travel industry ?
This article shows how the travel industry can choose to customize their prices, why they should do it and how they can do it.
The article is not considering the whole travel industry but is talking about more the airlines and the price differences between a frequent customer and a customer who will choose the airline because of the good deal. The airlines are "defending" themselves by saying that it is normal to offer different rates to different customers according to how often the customers use the airline. I think that the article should also talk about the low cost airlines who really customize their prices or even a large number of hotels.
Air Asia (for instance) a low cost airline really customize their prices according to the customer characteristics: you can add anything like a second meal, have a bigger seat, fast & first boarding. So each customer can customize their prices. It is the same for Accor or Club Med who show online different prices with different options and you can choose to pay the price that you want according to the risk that the customers want to take. (refundable or modify...)
Actually, the travel industry already customize their prices and let the customers know about it. However it will be really unfair to "defraud" the customers and let them pay a higher price for those who book through other websites like they explain in the article.
I really think that every customer understand how the prices can be customized - the travel industry and the customers can find their advantage and make it profitable for them.
The revenue management is already a form of customized price. Each company within the travel industry customize their prices by changing the prices according to the seasons, the day of the week, the event and so on...Customized prices are already in the customs but depends how fair are the company by using it.
Link to the article
link to the full article
The article is not considering the whole travel industry but is talking about more the airlines and the price differences between a frequent customer and a customer who will choose the airline because of the good deal. The airlines are "defending" themselves by saying that it is normal to offer different rates to different customers according to how often the customers use the airline. I think that the article should also talk about the low cost airlines who really customize their prices or even a large number of hotels.
Air Asia (for instance) a low cost airline really customize their prices according to the customer characteristics: you can add anything like a second meal, have a bigger seat, fast & first boarding. So each customer can customize their prices. It is the same for Accor or Club Med who show online different prices with different options and you can choose to pay the price that you want according to the risk that the customers want to take. (refundable or modify...)
Actually, the travel industry already customize their prices and let the customers know about it. However it will be really unfair to "defraud" the customers and let them pay a higher price for those who book through other websites like they explain in the article.
I really think that every customer understand how the prices can be customized - the travel industry and the customers can find their advantage and make it profitable for them.
The revenue management is already a form of customized price. Each company within the travel industry customize their prices by changing the prices according to the seasons, the day of the week, the event and so on...Customized prices are already in the customs but depends how fair are the company by using it.
Link to the article
link to the full article
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