Decadence is Greener than Green
Most New Zealand marketers will currently be experiencing a drop-off in sales, and whilst there is strong evidence for the gains to be made from maintaining marketing in a depression (Inside Marketing, 17th April), many will also be facing decreased marketing budgets.
Many marketers could do well to follow the marketing activities of Tourism NZ, who have to market an attractive yet isolated product to an extremely varied international market. Tourism NZ’s activities provide many exemplary examples of viral marketing, product placement, word of mouth development and event marketing, and are always worth following for marketing inspiration.
Tourism NZ does much more than promote New Zealand overseas however, using its websites to help would-be travellers plan their New Zealand trips, whether they’re interested in breweries, B&Bs or the Beehive. This was brought to mind recently when reading the results of a Synovate survey of over 6,300 hotel-using travellers in nine countries. Although the survey was about hotels, the results reflected aspects of peoples’ decision-making criteria that make interesting reading for all marketers.
For example, it’s worth considering how New Zealand is promoted as being ‘clean and green’ yet only 9% of the respondents said that they will only use hotels that have environmental policies, and 84% said that they didn’t let hotels’ green credentials influence their selection. The least green-conscious respondents surveyed were in Japan, France and Hong Kong. Brendan Shair, Managing Director of Synovate in Hong Kong, explained "While people in Hong Kong care about the environment, it is a long way from being as important as brands and luxury to the Hong Kong traveller. It's not that people are against green, it's simply that they don't think it should get in the way of choosing at the hotel where they want to stay." The lesson? For all the talk of noble aspects such as environmental friendliness, many still just want the luxuries in life, especially when in the leisure mindset of a holiday. The same has long been known to apply in other areas of marketing – be green, sure, but product quality can’t be diminished.
Also of note in the survey was the result showing that 58% agreed that they like trying new hotels each time they travelled. Once again we see that no matter how satisfied people may have been from their previous experience with a product or service, repeat usage of a band such as Accor or Mercure is not guaranteed – satisfaction being a poor predictor of future usage.
The information sources used when travellers select their hotels also bear close similarities to the sources that Synovates sees being used elsewhere. Not surprisingly the internet featured highest, with 32% citing hotel websites, 20% word of mouth, and 18% citing the ‘virtual word of mouth’ of online review sites such as tripadvisor.com – showing clearly how customer reviews are rivalling (and often undermining) marketers’ efforts to promote their brands. Websites now abound providing users’ reviews on everything from bicycle pedals to teachers and even doctors, further weakening the traditional one-way model of marketing. Tourism NZ have embraced this well by fostering and promoting NZ-promoting word of mouth through its exceptional “What do you say, UK?” campaign.
But IT usage doesn’t end once the travellers land in their destination, and the results from the survey reinforce just how behind the times New Zealand is in many technological aspects. For example, 47% of the respondents people overall agreed that a hotel must cater to their technology needs before they book it, the highest levels of IT demand being found in Brazil (68%) and Malaysia (64%). Sheri Lambert, Synovate's Senior Vice President for Travel & Leisure research, says: "We are finding that it is now no longer an added feature to have wireless internet in hotels, but rather it is expected. Travellers, whether for business or leisure, need to be connected. Wi-Fi internet access is becoming a requirement for many guests, as they have fully adopted the freedom Wi-Fi provides in their own homes. I think we will also start to see hotel guests relying more on the internet for local city information even after they've checked in. This may even prompt a gradual switch from a 'real live' concierge to an 'internet concierge'." Given that Starbucks offers better and cheaper WiFi access than many New Zealand 4-star hotels, a local wake-up call is required. This writer’s own summer stay in a Gisborne backpackers’ hostel showed how even the cheap end of the market is continuously logged on.
Finally, the most sobering fact that won’t have escaped any readers is how the current economic conditions are influencing consumer behaviour. The Synovate survey found that 69% of respondents are intending on staying at cheaper hotels for their upcoming trips, a level highest amongst those in Brazil (87%), Malaysia (83%), and the USA (78%). Those least likely to report reduced spending were from the Netherlands (53%) and the United Arab Emirates (52%) – perhaps a new focus for Tourism NZ and enterprising exporters?