Hospitality Marketing: Listen to Your Customer and Shift to Their Behaviors
Sandra King, Principal and Founder, STKing Associates LLC, a marketing strategy firm, tunes into social listening to monitor changing psychographic expectations and stay relevant.
This article originally appeared on Boston University Hospitality Review.
A BHR Interview with Sandra King, Principal and Founder, STKing Associates LLC
Sandra, what are some of the more effective tools companies use to monitor and measure sentiment, trends, and preferences?
Social listening is increasingly being done to better understand the chatter about companies, products, and services. Employing tools available through various AI platforms and basic site monitoring helps to identify narratives about trends and preferences. Gathered with consistency and analyzed carefully, social platforms chatter can offer insights. Listening is key.
Are there any brands that come to mind which you feel monitor consumer sentiment well in order to modify and shift products or services for customers?
DOVE has its pulse on its consumers. The company engages, listens, and responds to consumer sentiments as is evidenced in their brand messaging strategy about young women and their shifting self-confidence and self-image in their early and mid-teens. They have also run campaigns on aging and skin care as women advance through life. They use accurate size models and strive to make their products relevant and relatable to the average consumer across cultures.
Do you believe the hospitality industry is innovative and responds well to consumer preferences? Why or why not?
It is difficult to generalize about innovation and responsiveness in the hospitality industry as a whole. There are pockets of innovation, for example, in the hotel industry around room sizes, amenities, and on-property services such as ease of check in, in-room features, and more. However, as the industry recovers from the economic ravishes of COVID it is being forced to think about doing business differently. That pressure will foster innovation. In the restaurant sector for example we are seeing shifts towards earlier dining hours, more “shared plates,” cocktails as the hero on menus, and other subtle changes. No real revolution but nuanced responses.
Can you share an experience or case of a brand utilizing innovative consumer behavior tools to affirm or shift its marketing approach?
The retail industry as a whole has had to adapt to shifting consumer behavior. As someone who grew up in the age of catalogue marketing and ran call centers and direct marketing operations, the whole evolution of e-commerce and social commerce is fascinating. The volume of transactions processed in both retail channels – direct (website) and indirect (via social media linkages) – is fueled by changing demographics and psychographic expectations. Many brands are experimenting, value testing, and learning as they go in this emerging marketplace. Smart technology tools across all brands are innovative for ease of use, reliability, and trustworthiness. Apple Pay is a standout example of this. This service has become almost ubiquitous across e-commerce use as well as in person purchases.
What would you consider “innovative marketing,” and what advice would you share with our industry for productive marketing efficacy?
Marketing has the responsibility to always tell the truth. Is this innovative? Not really, but it’s even more important now because of the speed with which audiences view and process information. The basic goal of taking a prospective customer from “awareness” to “loyalist” is still the fundamental challenge. How enterprises use marketing tools to move people down the marketing funnel (awareness to conversion) is always going to be a challenge. Credible, trustworthy products and services that delight users are the ultimate goal. Innovative marketing can help to deliver that experience.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about the future of marketing in hospitality?
The hospitality industry continues to be about experiences. Service providers will need to be nimble, customer-centric, and creative. Competition for customers’ attention, engagement, and loyalty is intensifying every nanosecond. Today’s fad will be tomorrow’s bust. Consistency, reliability, and respect for every segment of the stakeholder universe — employees, customers, investors, and the general public — will continue to require intense listening, responsiveness, and creativity. It’s an exciting time to be in the hospitality industry and it’s a scary time, simultaneously. The champions will be those enterprises that service their niches as if it’s their first and their last.
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