Web Watch: Brand management
by Andreas Roell
May 14, 2008
Brand management is undoubtedly complex. It
evolves from past choices, current cultures and future goals. Because every
hotel and casino strives to separate itself by providing a unique experience to
guests and visitors, it is imperative that marketing managers have an accurate
perception of how their brand is received and perceived by their many
audiences.
One of the biggest hurdles I predict the hotel and casino industry will face in
implementing a brand management strategy is switching from a reactive to a
proactive mindset. Being a rooted industry with a long-standing, successful
history gives your brands a solid platform from which to build marketing
campaigns, but there is always room for improvement. Most hotel and
casinos can be more active in the online conversation and have more control
over their reputation by monitoring the online chatter about their brands.
On a day-to-day basis, brand management gets pushed to the bottom of priority
lists, but ideally, marketing teams should be monitoring brand reputation
regularly. In most cases, this only seems necessary in a crisis situation when
a brand is at risk for losing its reputation or respect within the industry;
however, if assessed frequently, brand management can actually help marketing
executives stay ahead of negative publicity in the event of a
crisis.
Because the hotel and casino industry relies so heavily on customer/visitor
satisfaction, it is imperative to maintain a positive brand reputation to
attain overall business goals. On the hotel side, customers must be confident
that their information will be secure when booking rooms online, and customers
want to be reassured that they will enjoy their stay. People visiting a casino
or staying at a hotel are utilizing their expendable income, and for a casino
to create loyal customers, the visitors must feel it was worth spending their
money. This is going to become especially important with the current economic
slow-down.
Managing online reputations
Managing the brand of a hotel and casino will
take a great deal of effort across many different fronts. With so many forums
like travel booking sites, guest reviews and industry blogs, there are
countless platforms where contented and disgruntled guests can voice their
opinions. While these sites may seem like an Achilles heel of sorts, from a
brand management standpoint, they are pre-established channels of communication
straight to your ideal consumers. They are people who have either previously
been to your hotel and casino, are interested in going there or interested in
your competitors, and an added bonus is that they care enough to share their
feedback.
If resources allow, it is best to respond to dissatisfied visitors personally
after they vent about their stay at the hotel or casino — especially if their
comments are on a blog. Because blogs are so easily accessed, it will be easy
for a disgruntled poster to either retract their comments or update their
readers after you contact them. Whether it’s via e-mail, phone or their own
blog, respond to it positively so that they have the chance to spread positive
publicity about your establishment to the very same people that read their
negative comments.
I also recommend proactively reaching out to the big blogs covering this
industry to generate amicable relationships with these thought leaders before
there is a crisis. This way, if your hotel and casino does experience a
backlash or brand tarnishing, you can easily reach out to them because the
contact already exists. When attempting to rebrand or counteract unflattering
publicity, it is hard to get official, balanced information to cut through the
online clutter, but having access to thought leaders will help get your message
out.
Crisis management
If your hotel-casino does experience some
brand-damaging press, the first thing to do is respond strategically. In the
absence of information, people will listen to whoever is doing the talking, so
it is important to be apart of the conversation. This can be releasing a video of a top manager explaining the situation on an
aggregator site like YouTube, MSN Video, or metacafé; disseminating a press
release to the media; or sending out a personalized e-mail to every customer
who receives your newsletters.
Once there has been an attempt to counteract unflattering publicity, one way to
gauge a campaign’s success is how long it takes to create a different news
cycle. If you are able to generate different news about your hotel and
casino and essentially push the negative information to the bottom of search
results pages, you have accomplished quite a feat. Similarly, how long it takes
to regain your previous ranking within search engine results is an additional
way to benchmark a brand management campaign. If your property has been
proactively managing your brand online, you can use prior Web site traffic and
blog post rates as a comparison during a negative news cycle.
Another important aspect of proactive brand management is to utilize the
information learned when negative sentiments do surface around your hotel and
casino. Using an example outside the hotel and casino industry, JetBlue serves
as a prime illustration of how to turn negative publicity into positive. After
planes and passengers were
stranded for hours on runways around the country, customer backlash erupted and
the brand’s reputation was at risk. To counteract the negative publicity,
JetBlue created a passenger bill of rights as a step to ensure that similar
events would not happen again. When searching for blog posts and online news
articles, the establishment of the bill of rights gained great traction and was
a hot topic of conversation even in light of the original critical publicity.
The main objective when facing negative publicity
is to address the problem and reinforce your strategic messaging and
re-establish brand confidence. The overarching goal with online brand
management is to have control over your reputation before there is a crisis
situation, so there are more options and communication outlets through which to
combat negative press. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose, but with effective
online reputation management, your hotel and casino’s brand is in a better
position to address negative concerns and to keep your reputation intact
after the situation is under control.
Andreas
Roell is president and CEO of Geary Interactive, a
full-service digital marketing firm founded in 2000. With offices in Las Vegas,
San Diego and New York, Roell has built a successful
online company specializing in Web development, media buying/planning, search
engine and e-mail marketing. He can be reached at (619) 239-5953 or via e-mail
at andreas.roell@gearyi.com.
Andreas Roell
is president and CEO of Geary Interactive, a full-service digital
marketing firm founded in 2000. With offices in Las Vegas,
San Diego and New York, Roell has built a successful
online company specializing in Web development, media buying/planning, search
engine and e-mail marketing. He can be reached at (619) 239-5953 or via e-mail
at e-mail at andreas.roell@gearyi.com
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