This is so easy, and so effective and makes so much sense, yet…
So often marketing or advertising gurus are referred to in a derogatory way, like their job is to deceive the public. Yes, that happens, but, politics aside, it doesn’t happen for long. It can’t, as a deceived clientele will put you out of business. You see advertising is expensive, extremely expensive. Easily $100,000 for a one page magazine advertisement, one time.
Late one night I could drive no longer and needed a hotel in Boise, Idaho. I pulled off the freeway, passed by the questionable hotels until I found a clean looking hotel with vacancy. It was a little more expensive than the rest, but at this point I didn’t care. I’m not a hotel snob, but I checked in and found my room far less than adequate. I would never have checked in if I had known, in the light of the morning I found it even worse. How did this happen?
The hotel owner thought himself very wise, or sneaky. It was obvious that he thought himself a marketing genius with a sleezy hotel. The front was clean, the sign was very well done, by all appearances this was an acceptable hotel, until you get inside and at that point it is too late.
Did his strategy work? Yes, sort of, but what he didn’t understand is that in his short-sighted strategy lay his eventual demise.
He thought that he had outsmarted his potential clientele . . . but in fact he had sealed his fate.
You see, the trick to doubling your marketing value is to give your customers what they want so that they COME BACK. He did just the opposite. He rounded them up first round, but insured they never return.
You see, people looking for a cheap hotel didn’t stay with him because it wasn’t cheap, and people looking for a nice hotel didn’t stay with him because it wasn’t nice. Who does that leave? Those who have not yet been duped.
Last year a friend asked my to come by the hotel a friend of hers owned. I did, She was pouring over a marketing strategy she was trying to put together. She thought she could squeeze out $80,000 for the year. My suggestion, spend $40,000 on improvements and then spend $40,000 on marketing. She argued with me until I asked her the crucial question. Would you rather have 800 clients stay once, or 400 clients come back over and over again?
Do the math.
When David Ogilvy was asked how to beat Proctor and Gamble. His answer was simple…
“Make A Better Product”
It’s really that simple.
Everytime I’m in Boise I think of that experience. Last trip to Boise I drove be the hotel. It was closed. It was inevitable.
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