1. Personalization
The rapid speed of technology has changed the way marketers
must keep up with its customers, who now need to anticipate expectations with
new ideas and inspirations. When previously it was to create a product or
service, then sell them to the consumers, now the move is to build the product
and service which the consumers want and with their help, to empower the
consumers to personalize their own experiences. At the same time, it is
important that the story brands tell must reflect the real brand values,
otherwise markets will just be entertaining rather than engaging. To get consumers
to share their personal information, they must realize the value of the
benefits. A case study of Intercontinental Hotel Group shows how its “Guest
Love” ROI index was able to use the personal data of their customers to measure
guest satisfaction, which then translates into loyalty program and priority
club rewards.
In this mass market, customers are looking at not just customization
of products for them, but personalization of experiences for individuals. Coca Cola’s initiatives in this area include
its ‘Diet Coke “It’s Mine”’ where there are over ten million unique designs of
Diet Coke packaging, ‘Share a Coke’ where individuals can personalize their
Coke cans (and bottles) around the world, and ‘Coca Cola Freestyle’ where a
next-generation dispenser lets consumers mix their own drinks from 150
flavours, save the recipe on an app and share it with friends. As Coca Cola says
“We’re allowing consumers the choice to interact with our brands and also go
ahead and customize those to meet their needs as well.” On the other hand, Coca Cola is also mindful
that it needs to ensure product experiences stay consistent across categories
and channels. “The more customization or
more personalization [and] the more touch points you add for somebody to do
their own thing, the more that can go wrong in the experience.”
However, one needs to be aware of the challenge of
understanding and predicting human behaviour, as an understanding of
behavioural science would tell us that. So,
for personalization to work, this means that every touch point must be
specially crafted for the customer. Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of
Warby Parker (Fast Company’s 2015 most innovative company) states that “In sort
of a competitive environment, the most thoughtful person wins. And if you are
thoughtful and create awesome customer experiences, when people are happy they
tell people about you. We like to think that everyone at Warby Parker is an
experience designer.”
2. Community Involvement
Andy Spade once said, “The bigger a brand gets, the smaller
it should act – because no one likes big.” A case study of Sweden shows that
when a country sets out to boost tourism, the team of ad guys unveil a shiny new
campaign saying everything great about that country but often end up saying
nothing. So the Swedish Institute and Visit Sweden decided to nominate the voice
of their people creating “the first democratic twitter handle” @Sweden. Each
week a different nominated Swedish citizen, be it a stay-at-home mom or a
pro-footballer player, took the reins of @Sweden and shared “Life in Sweden” as
it happened to them. All these small viewpoints collated to form a picture of
modern day Sweden, truer than could be captured in any marketing slogan or
campaign. #Sweden now has 67,800 followers from 120 countries.
In Australia, the Queensland Plan, a 30-year vision for
Queensland, was presented to the people of Queensland in February 2013. Its key
imperative was to ensure the Queensland Plan was developed not just by the
government but that it would also include the voices of Queenslanders, their experiences
and their wisdom. The extensive consultation process that guided the plan and
subsequent directions comprised the five community engagement principles:
· Driving awareness and keeping the conversation
alive;
· Maximising community participation;
· Empowering leaders to drive conversation;
· Reinforcing integrity through transparency, and
· Consolidating without losing meaning.
Airbnb recognises that people want to connect with other people,
and visitors want to connect with the host community. So while its core business is lodging, its new
branding campaigns in 2015 “Never a Stranger” focuses on the benefits of
staying with local hosts. The other campaign “Is Mankind” is more value-driven and
suggests “Is man kind? Are we good? Go see. Go look through their windows so you
can understand their views. Sit at their tables so you can share their tastes.
Sleep in their beds so you may know their dreams. Go see and find out just how
kind the he’s and she’s of this mankind are.” Such experiences provide
authentic opportunities in the travel destinations for visitors.
3. Ethical Tourism
Surveys (Delpal
& Hatchuel 2007) have shown that in many cases, consumers are ready to pay
more in order to respect social and environmental issues, and they also have a
generally better view of brands or firms that convey positive environmental messages
(Borin et al. 2011). Today’s new ‘experience economy’ is based on the
production and consumption of ‘engaging experiences’ and as such, the ethic of
responsibility is a good platform for companies to be more competitive. It is a
unique opportunity to strengthen customer relationships by getting involved in the
spirit of responsibility. Ozcaglar-Toulouse (2009) showed that “through
consuming socially responsible products, caring individuals ease their feelings
of discomfort with society’s values”.
So perhaps
it is time to involve tourists, who say “I would like to be part of a truly
important cause” when they travel.
Source: WARC
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