Ms. Dochen

Social Media & PR

Integrated Marketing Communication for Hotel Owners and Management Companies

By Dee Dee Dochen, Founder & Owner, DDD Marketing Communications

To market you go. In the "old" days, that might have meant hiring a great sales person, an ad agency and a PR firm, and turning each of them out to do what they do best. But how much did they talk with each other? How often did they put their heads together to plan or consolidate initiatives? Was each entity producing 15 great projects, at different times and with slightly different messages that ended up bumping into each other in the marketplace or on the company ledger?

With time, technology and "touch," many smart companies have evolved to the strategic, integrated marketing communication approach, defined as "a management concept designed to bring all elements of marketing communication - such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing - together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation."

Here are the benefits of integrated marketing communication:

Whether your company has four or 4,000 employees - or whether your product is a bricks-and-mortar hotel or an intangible expertise in development, ownership and third-party management - speaking with a unified and consistent voice can contribute invaluably to a company's culture and its bottom line.

Small companies might base their integrated marketing communication plans on initial elements such as a logo, letterhead, a web site, web marketing, SEO, public relations and printed marketing pieces. Larger companies might add traditional and web advertising, direct mail, company-wide training, sales incentives, community relations programs, and PR-based events.

Large or small, applying integrated marketing communication will enhance your ability to achieve your sales and awareness goals among all of the audiences that are important to you: guests, clients, associates, investors, third-party management companies, local communities, and franchisors.

So you want to take this approach. How do you get started?

From the very beginning, involve all of your key stakeholders in the planning process: owner, management company, sales director, project manager, public relations professional, advertising director or agency, web designer, HR director. Guided by a professional marketing communications facilitator, put your heads together to answer these questions:

1. What do you want your intended audiences to say and know about your company?

2. Who are you trying to sell? market to?

3. How can you convey your message?

4. Where should you take your message?:

5. By when do you want to realistically achieve your goals?

I first tasted the value of integrated marketing communications while working for a major hospitality company in the early 1990s. There we were - a PR director, advertising director, sales director and our boss, the VP of Marketing - sitting around a conference table, talking about the next year. Each of us reported out on our current-year marketing plans, and impressed each other by how aggressive they were, how our individual plans were filled with lots of creative ideas, and how much each of us felt we had accomplished.

But then it struck us that, while the projects had truly been great, they had rarely had any real link to each other in terms of consistency, theme or timing. While we had achieved some great results within our individual initiatives, we realized that each of us had been going in our own independent direction, sending lots of messages out into the marketplace that weren't really that connected to each other. And we also realized that we had planned so aggressively - that we'd gotten so caught up in all the creativity - that we hadn't actually achieved all of the initiatives on our respective plans.

We agreed that day that we would do something we'd never done together: agree on top messaging and sales goals and then integrate our initiatives.

As a team, and with each of us representing a different spectrum of the marketing mix, we took the first step of agreeing on and defining our key messages. Then, we brainstormed in each other's shoes, creating initiatives for and with each other that resonated those key messages. The sky was our limit as we created our heads off.

We then went through the process of, "Okay, if we want to launch this ad campaign in April, how can we take that same message and turn it into a PR project that launches at the same time? And then, while the messages are getting out there through purchased and earned media, how can we help our salespeople deliver that consistent message to customers?"

We felt productive. We were in sync. We were having fun. We had become an integrated marketing communication team.

What a great list we had! All ideas were great, all were linked through advertising, PR and sales, but - could we really accomplish al of these initiatives in a year?

That's when our VP of Marketing gave us pearls of wisdom that I quote to this day: sacrifice for focus. Instead of trying to do 15 things well, he said, focus on doing five things excellently.

We took our master brainstormed list and prioritized, based on each initiative's perceived value and by considering our resources of time, people and budget.

And then, voila: our in-sync, integrated marketing communications plan was born. We landed on five significant projects for the year that we all supported because, through the planning process, we came to embrace the wonderful saying, "people support what they help create."

We decided how the implementation of our projects and campaigns would be coordinated among all marketing elements, with concurrent timing intended to perpetuate and reinforce the messages.

For the first time, our ad and PR campaigns, our direct mail, our sales programs, printed materials, editorial, and even our internal communications were totally in sync. At the end of the year, we celebrated the fact that we had indeed accomplished all of our initiatives and that we had achieved our goals of doing more, selling more, and communicating better. Our bottom line was proof.

That was 17 years ago, before web technology exploded the realm and reach of communication distribution channels. That explosion only helps plead the case for the importance of an integrated marketing communication approach.

Taking the integrated marketing communication approach will help you make unforgettable and positive impressions on the audiences that matter. You will be one of those companies that just seems to have its act together; that sells more, does more, and communicates better.

Dee Dee Dochen, Principal of DDD Marketing Communications since 1994, utilizes a mix of marketing communication strategies to help companies sell more, do more or communicate better. Working with hospitality since 1980, Ms. Dochen helps companies "manage their message" by working solely or with a network of affiliated professionals who share a commitment to excellence and enthusiasm for results. Ms. Dochen is an active community leader, involved with organizations that support the arts, children with special needs, human and civil rights, and education. Ms. Dochen can be contacted at 713-432-7575 or ddd@dddmc.com Extended Bio...

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