Ms. Knutson

Sales & Marketing

Would Kermit the Frog be a Guest in Your Hotel?

By Bonnie Knutson, Professor, The School of Hospitality Business/MSU

• Do you remember when a footprint meant the mark you left in the snow or sand?
• Do you remember when a footprint meant the trail you left in the mud outside your dorm room when you tried to sneak out after hours?
• Do you remember when a footprint meant the precious, lasting impression left when you had your children gently press their tiny toes into the freshly poured concrete patio?

Well, move over snow, sand, dorms, and concrete. In today’s environmentally conscious world, your footprint is likely to be carbon. Just for fun, I googled the definition of “carbon footprint” and got more than eight million hits. Is it any wonder that Kermit the Frog laments…

For your hotel, the question is, Is it or isn’t it easy being green? The answer is, No and Yes. It is No because no one really knows exactly what being green means. It’s too hard. It’s too expensive. It’s too confusing.

Is going green being eco-friendly by changing all the light bulbs in your property to the ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs? It is estimated that if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, enough energy would be saved to light more than 3 million homes for a year, saving more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. If this estimate is true, think about the collective impact of all our hotels could have.

Is it reducing the use of Styrofoam cups in your food and beverage operation? Is it adopting landscaping practices that are compatible with the natural surroundings? Is being green recycling paper or installing low-flow commodes in all your hotel’s bathrooms? Is it developing a car pooling program for your employees? It is all of these and more. The problem is that green is so vague that it makes it hard for any hotel to claim it is genuinely being green.

And exactly what is a carbon footprint anyway? Or a food-mile? If your hotel is moving towards being green, it is undoubtedly addressing each of the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle. Since I am not even close to being an engineer, how to implement these Rs best left to these experts. I want to put the spotlight on the Yes side of the green question by looking at the most important element in your hotel’s existence – marketing to current and potential guests.

Aside from the long-term ROI of going green, being a green hotel is a positioning tool for the brand. Research by the American Marketing Association shows that the primary reason for any business to go green is to generation good Public Relations; the second reason is to reach specific target markets. Let’s consider the second reason first.

The pressure to go green basically comes from three sources:

1. cost-savings,
2. government pressure, and
3. a growing segment of consumers that is often called “awakened”.

These awakened consumers have the desire to do the right thing or at least think they are trying to do the right thing. According to Unity Marketing, these consumers are concerned about environmental issues that hit closest to home, with women more so than men. Hello! Take notice! What an opportunity to market to the women in your target markets. In fact, recent studies show that saving money will join up with saving the planet as women switch from disposables to reusables.

In addition to using email to communicate with guests, using energy efficient shower heads, or recycling those discarded Fiji, Dasani, and Aquafina water bottles, there is a myriad of other actions that your property can take to make it greener. Here is but one.

Institute webinars and video demos into your website. These web-based communication vehicles are a great way to add value to your brand and stay in contact with guests 24/7 – especially good for hotels who have seasonal markets. If you are a resort, think about putting a webinar series that features your golf or tennis pro on your website to give performance tips, talk about the new product line coming into the pro shop, or even nutrition or exercises that are sport specific. If yours is a full service property, what about a series featuring your chef giving tips on such topics as garnishing, wine flights, or healthy cooking? And no matter what your segment, there is always the message from you on important issues facing the hotel industry, such as other greening practices being adopted. Half of all consumers say they will do more for the environment it they knew more. What a good will PR opportunity for any hotel.

Video demos are similarly effective green marketing tools. These are much more effective than information sent in a newsletter or email. Remember that one picture is worth a thousand words. This new green marketing tool offers several benefits. First, people can watch them at their convenience. Second, they can save these electronic pieces to easily reference again and again – and even download them onto their MP3 players. Third, they can share them with family, friends or colleagues, which is great for word-of-mouth advertising. Fourth, they can immediately respond to offers or ask for further information with a simple click. Finally, because you can customize electronic webinar messages going out, people are more likely to have a personalized interaction with your property.

And as our friendly frog concludes in his song:

So you see, Kermit can be a guest at your hotel. And the greener it becomes, the more your REVPAR will thank you…and so will your heart.

(1) “It's Not Easy Bein' Green" (lyrics by Joe Rapposo)

Bonnie J. Knutson is a professor in The School of Hospitality Business in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. She is an authority on emerging lifestyle trends and innovative marketing. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and on PBS and CNN. She has had numerous articles in industry, business, and academic publications. Bonnie is a frequent speaker for executive education as well as business and industry meetings, workshops, and seminars. Dr. Knutson is also editor of the Journal of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing. Ms. Knutson can be contacted at 517-353-9211 or drbonnie@msu.edu Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.