Best Western - Marketing Communications for Hotels by Magnify Marketing

Best Western Marketing Communications for Hotels Logo • Logo shield with Hotels with Personality copy is main use logo • Three tiers logo block to be used when communication is primarily about the tiers • If three tiers logo block used then the Hotels with Personality copy needs to also appear on the page within the smile graphic • Minimum size for Best western logo shield is 12.5mm

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Best Western Marketing Communications for Hotels Contents Introduction

Hotel Marketing Principles

Focus I 3 Key Messages I Positioning I Size I Repetition I Relevance

Format of Choice

The Customer Journey

Frequency I Message

Hotel Footprint

Areas for Consideration

External I Entrance I Stairs & Lifts I Reception I Bedrooms Lounge & Bar I Toilets I Conference & Meeting space

Walk Your Hotel

Glossary Of Terms

Logo • Logo shield with Hotels with Personality copy is main use logo • Three tiers logo block to be used when communication is primarily about the tiers • If three tiers logo block used then the Hotels with Personality copy needs to also appear on the page within the smile graphic • Minimum size for Best western logo shield is 12.5mm

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Introduction

Welcome to the Best Western Marketing & Communications handbook, created to help you make the most of your opportunities within your hotel. As each of you are so different, the purpose of this document is to guide you through the ‘principles’ and make the most of your venue, to ensure customers are getting the right messages in the right locations at the right times.

This guide was produced following a number of visits and meetings with people like yourself, to understand your challenges and how to apply best practise to deliver real results. Many of the hotels, whilst different in size and shape, shared a number of issues that this book will aim to address. The average consumer will see or hear one million marketing messages per year (almost 3,000 per day) therefore its critical we focus on the messages we want them to see most. Our communications must deliver messages that are impactful, targeted and on brand, to stand a chance of being remembered let alone be acted upon. As we are part of a global organisation, we must ensure we provide brand consistency and single minded messaging as well as making sure our communications are right for the audience - including right choice of format, location and message.

Space will always be a premium and its important to make sure people see the right messages at the relevant times, therefore flexibility is very important. Why go to all this effort, does it really make a difference? The simple truth is, yes it does! By communicating effectively with customers we stand more chance of;

■■ Increase reasons to visit by creating awareness for your own events and activity ■■ Make up-selling food, drink, packages and offers easier ■■ Educate customers about the benefits of Best Western hotels to encourage brand loyalty

By following simple rules you can make sure you are maximising the communication opportunities that drive direct sales to hotel.

For more details visit resourcebase to see how to order point of sale.

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Hotel Marketing Principles Focus If someone threw you a ball I am sure that you could catch it. However if someone was to throw three balls at you I am pretty certain you would drop at least one! It’s the same with messaging; People can only take on board a limited amount of information and digest it.

We have some basic rules or principles when considering marketing within a hotel; ■■ Focus ■■ Positioning ■■ Size

To achieve this we need to:

■■ Repetition

Reduce clutter and focus on key messages!

■■ Relevance

The most powerful advertising now focuses on fewer messages and in a consistent style. This is used to great effect on the London underground – see here how Ford take over a whole platform to build awareness – whatever happens you will not leave the station missing their message!

■■ Location – Customer Journey

Above: An example of Ford getting their message across on the London underground.

Each hotel should focus on 3 key selling messages at one time to ensure you get awareness.

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Hotel Marketing Principles By focusing on our 3 key selling messages we can be confident that we are letting our customers know about our products and services. By repeating these three messages we have much more chance of being remembered and more importantly influencing customers to buy.

Below is an example of how messages can be repeated throughout a hotel to ensure repetition. Our 3 primary messages are repeated multiple times with secondary messages featured but not as frequent â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Think about your revenue opportunities, create relevant messages and ensure frequency of awareness.

Priority

Content

Location

Format

Priority

Content

Location

Format

Priority 1

Dinner

External

Banner

Priority 1

Attractions

Rooms

Poster

Priority 2

Event

External

Banner

Priority 2

F&B

Rooms

Poster

Priority 3

n/a

External

Banner

Priority 3

In-house

Rooms

Flyers

Priority 1

F&B

Entrance

Poster

Priority 1

Sport POS

Bar

Poster

Priority 2

Network

Entrance

Poster

Priority 2

F&B

Bar

Poster

Priority 3

Social media

Entrance

Poster

Priority 3

Social media

Bar

FSU

Priority 1

In-house

Reception

Poster

Priority 1

F&B

Dining

Poster

Priority 2

F&B

Reception

Strut Card

Priority 2

Social media

Dining

Poster

Priority 3

Social media

Reception

Foamex

Priority 3

Social media

Dining

Poster

Priority 1

Attractions

Lifts / Stairs

Poster

Priority 1

Sport POS

Lounge

Flyer

Priority 2

Network

Lifts / Stairs

Poster

Priority 2

Attractions

Lounge

Poster

Priority 3

Social media

Lifts / Stairs

Poster

Priority 3

Social media

Lounge

FSU

For descriptions of elements please see the glossary.

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Hotel Marketing Principles Positioning EXTERNAL MESSAGES These need to have direct visibility from drive past where possible and visible from two directions of traffic/footpath.

Don’t clutter POS where it’s obscured or difficult to read – its pointless as the customers won’t see it.

INTERNAL MESSAGES These need to be visible in a crowded room. The average height in the UK is 5’7” (male/female) therefore poster frames should be at this height. The average eye level is 160cm therefore, the centre of the poster needs to be at this height to get maximum visibility.

5’7”

Above: By cluttering nothing gets read or picked up.

Remember ■■ Communicate to guests in the right locations – not where you have space. ■■ Stairs are not good! ■■ Food messages not in toilets – how many cookery books do you find in the bathroom?

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Hotel Marketing Principles

Below: Where possible, avoid putting POS in a frame that is too big as it makes it appear even smaller.

Size INTERNAL

EXTERNAL

Aim for A1 / A2 size for impact otherwise print off locally as A4.

Posters should be as big as possible where allowed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; consider the message (staying at a hotel is a planned decision, so stay here will have little impact, especially as the highest number of passers by may well be local and have their own home nearby!)

People on average only look at POS for 3 SECONDS so you need to grab their attention. Smaller than A2 means you will not read across a room. If using A4 then repeat for impact (as shown by the picture above how TFL work) and ensure design has few words and directs people to get more information.

Above: See how repetition for smaller sizes creates impact.

PAPER SIZES:

A1: A2: A4:

Posters should also only be displayed in frames and that are also the correct size so not to make the POS look smaller as per the example above right. Core message of 6 words or less. Holds a semi permanent message. (You do not want to be changing this frequently) Need to be visible from 50 metes away.

594 x 841mm 420 x 594mm 210 x 297mm

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Hotel Marketing Principles Repetition To get customers to react we need to focus on 3 KEY MESSAGES which we repeat throughout the hotel – so that whatever happens the customer is aware of what we want them to know. This can be achieved by using a number of formats i.e. Breakfast POS displayed; 1 Entrance (A1 Foamex) 2 Reception (A3 Strutcard) 3 Bedroom (A6 Flyer)

Relevance Below: An example for display using a Foamex board that is free standing and double sided.

10pm — 10am

Space will always be a premium and its important to make sure people see the right messages at the relevant times, therefore flexibility is very important. A great example of this is food messaging. Dinner is something we think about from about 4pm to 9pm after that our attention food wise switches to breakfast. Therefore, we need to advertise dinner when people are either wanting it now (impulse purchase or when they are thinking ahead i.e evening for tomorrow (planned purchase)).

10am — 4.30pm

4.30pm — 10pm

WAKE UP WITH US

MEET WITH US

DINE WITH US

Breakfast only £10

Conferences, meetings and events Please ask for more details

Book your evening meal

when you pre-book

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Format of Choice

Format ■■ There is now a greater range of POS to choose from to make sure we are not just limited to posters to communicate our messages.

■■ These include floor standing roller banners, Foamex boards on easels, Correx boards for A-boards, Contravision, vinyls, table talkers and flyers.

Roller Banners

■■ This increased flexibility allows more opportunity to look professional and ensure our messages are displayed more clearly.

Foamex

Flyers

Banners

Format Right message, right time, right location, right size, right format and repeated

Correx

Vinyls

Window Graphics

Table Talkers

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Building on the communication the customer has already seen during the booking process we look to continue this at hotel level. What is the customer journey? A customer approaches a hotel, walks in through the front door, checks in, goes to their room, leaves and maybe gets something to eat and drink before leaving…. this is referred to as the customer journey – the journey they take from the minute they walk in to the minute they walk out.

The Customer Journey Exit

Entrance

H Leisure

Reception Bar area

Why is it important? By tracking their journey we can identify all the key areas we can communicate with them, the type of messages that will be impactful in each area and the frequency in which messages are seen. This gives us a chance to cut through all the message noise the customer gets (both ours and external) and gives the key messages a fighting chance of being recognised.

Lift

Corridor

Areas for consideration

• External

Room

• Entrance / Exit • Stairs / Lifts • Reception

Conference Room

Corridor

• Food areas • Bedrooms

• Toilets • Lounge & Bar

This is where we look to repeat our messages

Breakfast

Hire

Dinner

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

The Customer Journey Frequency

TIME TO READ

AWARENESS

AWARENESS DETAIL DETAIL DETAIL Ask staff for more details

Full details as time to read and already engaged

Top line information

The amount of detail your POS should contain depends on where it is located. 9

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

The Customer Journey Message Our message is our activity or offer and needs to achieve the following;

Main image

■■ Have a single focus ■■ Grab attention with the headline ■■ Amount of content depends on the medium ■■ How long will the guest be looking at this? ■■ Pictures are really worth a thousand words ■■ Clear call to action – What do you want your guest to do?

MEET WITH US

Key message

Conferences, meetings and events Please ask for more details

Message detail

Branding

Screens Many of you will have screens already in place – they are a great place to communicate to your customers via a system installed or a computer or USB stick with images. Rotate your content to suit the best time of day. Ensure the messages are consistent with your existing POS.

Top right: An example showing main elements of a message.

Above: The same example replicated on a screen format.

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Hotel Footprint Zoning is key to making sure your hotel is putting the right type of information together in the right areas. Supermarkets are very good at this – segmenting goods and putting like minded products together i.e. Dairy for milk, yogurt and cheese – if they scattered these products it would make it harder for the customer to find and therefore they would be less likely to buy them.

Here is an example of where it’s mixed thus diluting the impact. The customer has to look in several areas to get the whole picture. It becomes weak and loses its impact. People’s attention span is very, very short, so the key is to ZONE.

Lots of message types - no cut through.

By zoning your hotel you make it easy for your customers to navigate information that they want to see. Firstly you need to agree for your hotel what you need to zone (Usually – hotel information, hotel attractions and hotel ancillary sales) and where it should go –

your hotel hotspots (where people can easily find things). Using our supermarket example – products that are on offer are put together in a zone, this zone is created close to where you walk in and at the end of the aisles because these are their hotspots (this is where they stand out).

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Areas For Consideration The best External communication Where permitted (& relevant) use external messaging to make the tools are banners customer aware of one of your key messages before entering the building. i.e. Wedding venue- if they leave not knowing anything else they should know you are a wedding venue. Bear in mind staying at a hotel is planned rather than impulse and people who drive past you everyday are unlikely to stay so think about your message and its objectives – communicate either an event, activity or another hotel in another location. ■■ Visible from 50m ■■ Direct visibility from drive past where possible ■■ Visible from 2 directions of traffic/ foot path ■■ Can be read in 3 seconds ■■ Core message of 6 words or less ■■ Holds permanent message – you do not want to be changing this frequently!

Entrance This area, dependent on your layout, can be the first or last thing that customers notice when staying with you. As an entrance point is a prime opportunity to communicate what you can offer within the hotel (i.e. F&B). As an exit point it is valuable space for promoting hotel activity and the network in general (i.e. other hotels to visit). Messages should be focused on the hotel and the brand itself rather than any third party or local area activity. Free standing floor displays add impact.

CRITERIA FOR MESSAGE: Because people are passing, images and headline grabbing are key.

Stairs & Lifts You have a captive audience within a lift however people are only in it for a few seconds (unless it breaks down!) Do not bombard them with information – focus on short punchy awareness. Lift doors can be branded up – make sure that this is a long term activity as although it is high impact, it is expensive. Stairs are hard to read as you’re focused on walking up or down them – Suggest focus at the top or bottom and keep size to A2 where possible. If you do wish to use your staircase more then repetition is key. Focus on just two alternating posters.

Reception Again a captive audience. Focus on your key messages displayed clearly. This is an easy opportunity to over clutter, remember less is often more. The timeliness of the message is key here (Remember Breakfast at Breakfast time!). All hotels should have the front of house display in their reception area. Reception is also a great location for any local information or attractions, but make sure these do not interfere with your key messages. Zoning is a good way of providing information and useful advice without over cluttering the area. Additionally this gives guests one clear place to go to for information.

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Areas For Consideration Reception Lots of message types – no cut through. Same leaflets repeated multiple times

Before

✘

After

✔

When leaflets are available, group them together for impact in blocks

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Areas For Consideration Bedrooms

Lounge & Bar areas

These are a great place to go into more detail with your guests as they have time to read and are less distracted with things going on. Best communication method here is via a flyer. By being flyer size it can be taken away and used for reference later on. It can also contain web details which many customers can check on their computer or phone.

Make your customers want to spend more by making them aware of the great value BW offers within F&B. 44% of drinks purchased are based on mood or what is available- communicate what you have to offer. Consumers remember 70% of information on table communications so ensure all your menus are out.

Additionally this is a good area for upsells such as toiletries as this is often when guests realise what they have forgotten.

Toilets Another time with a captive audience! Educate guests on upcoming events and offers. Do not display food messages â&#x20AC;&#x201C; THE TWO DO NOT MIX!

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Walk Your Hotel Now you have the knowledge of what to look for, you need to walk your hotel and identify any areas for change. Start with the outside and imagine you are visiting your hotel for the first time by walking in through the front door. By walking in your customers shoes, fresh eyes and your knowledge gained from the manual walk through your building and establish what needs to be done.

Remember There is more to it than just posters â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Do you need something that is freestanding? Do you need something double sided to allow changes for different times of the day? Does it need to be waterproof? Here are some examples of best use of space that may give you some ideas.

Lift doors

Free standing unit

Roller banner

Best Western: Marketing Communications for Hotels

Glossary of Terms Contravision

FSU (free standing unit)

One way film designed to be printed on one side and “see through” on the other. This allows for people inside to see what’s happening outside while those outside only see the signage on the windows.

Stand alone (free of support or attachment) i.e. roller banner. Especially useful in sites with building restrictions or limited poster space.

Correx Lightweight rigid board made of corrugated plastic. Primarily designed for outdoors use with good stability. Best used on Aboards.

Flyers A6 in size, great tool to use in bedrooms and lounge areas to communicate local activity.

Easels Used to display foamex boards. Free standing and can be used on counters (A3 size) or high visibility areas (A1 size).

Foamex Hard wearing material, more rigid than card. Suitable for both internal and external use. Available from A0 to A4 size.

Roller Banners Free standing poster highly impactful and perfect for semi permanent messaging.

Strut Card Artwork printed onto card, mounted onto backing board with cardboard strut fixed to the reverse to enable standing. Useful for table communication.

Table Talkers Small, freestanding POS that can be located on tables and other suitable flat surfaces.

Vinyls Sticky graphic that is affixed to a number of surfaces. Self adhesive and works well on existing frames that may be currently chalkboards.

Window graphics See contravision.

Best Western Hotels Great Britain Central Office Consort House Amy Johnson Way Clifton Moor York YO30 4GP Telephone: 01904 695 400 (9am-5pm: Mon- Fri: GMT) www.bestwestern.co.uk

For further information please contact; General marketing Paul Filler: 0207 625 7328 email: paul@magnifymarketing.co.uk

Print and elements Zoe Sleightholme: 01751 434615 email: ZOE@ryedalegroup.co.uk

Best Western marketing Lisa Cosquer: 01904 695 428 email: lisa.cosquer@bestwestern.co.uk This document was created by Magnify Marketing, a customer communications agency that specialises in the leisure, retail and hospitality market. Visit www.magnifymarketing.co.uk for more details.