Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), a leading Internet marketing consulting firm for the hospitality industry, today announced the firm will present an Internet Marketing Workshop: “Economy Hotel Branding Strategies Online” at the Economy & Budget Hotels World 2007 Conference, May 22-24 at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel in London.
Max Starkov, HeBS’ Chief eBusiness Strategist and Jason Price, HeBS’ Executive Vice President will present a two-part workshop, focusing on building brand equity online in the economy hotel sector and the importance of brand awareness on the Web for increased direct bookings and increased competitiveness.
Some of the topics in the workshop include:
- The effect of the Internet on economy hotel brands and their customers
- Building brand awareness online
- Building emotional connections with customers
- Building positive customer perceptions of the economy hotel brand ethics
- Best practices in growing the brand online
- Defining a corporate and franchisee friendly branding strategy
- Building local brand value at the franchisee/property level:
o Local Brand Ambassadors program
o Build local customer relationships
- De-commoditization of the economy hotel product
- Value vs. Price Equation and brand building
- Methods to structure the budget and maintain control
- Tactics on putting the marketing budget to work
- Case studies
According to Starkov, “In 2006, all hotel brands including economy and budget brands far exceeded their own expectations in hotel bookings via the brand website. These brand website bookings are at the lowest cost point and highest ADRs, and branding online is essential and well within reach by large and smaller hotel brands and independents. This is especially important for the economy and budget hotel market because it is a particularly competitive, dynamic and a robust segment of the hospitality industry. Our goal at Economy & Budget Hotels World 2007 is to describe brand building best practices with a hands-on approach. We will describe the strategies and principles of online distribution and marketing methodologies and explore resources for building a strong connection with customers."
Building a robust online presence and brand equity within the framework of direct-to-consumer online distribution and creating interactive relationships with clients presents substantial opportunities to hoteliers. Developing brand equity can forestall price erosion, strengthen the brand for long term economic health, increase ROIs, and enable direct communication with a loyal customer base to promote the property and its services. As a result, hoteliers are increasingly committing resources to creating pro-active strategies that combine best Internet marketing practices with a comprehensive online brand building strategy and an aggressive direct web presence.
Commented Jennifer Pettinger, Economy and Budget Hotel World Project Manager, “The continued growth and success of this conference demonstrates the strength of the sector and the importance of maintaining a flow of current marketing, financial and business information. The conference brings together senior level managers from the major hotel brands, franchises and financial institutions across Europe, North America and Asia. Our ongoing strategy for this program is to ensure the conference provides an exchange of practical strategies and ideas that directly impact fundamental business concerns. Internet marketing is a critical component of that mix.”
About HeBS
Headquartered in New York City, Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) is the industry’s leading Internet marketing strategy consulting firm for the hospitality vertical. HeBS has pioneered many of the "best practices" in hotel Internet marketing and direct online distribution. The firm specializes in helping hoteliers build their direct Internet marketing and distribution strategy, boost the hotel Internet marketing presence, establish interactive relationships with their customers, and significantly increase direct online bookings and ADRs. A diverse client portfolio of over 350 top tier major hotel brands, multinational hospitality corporations, hotel management and representation companies, franchisees and independents, resorts, casinos and CVBs worldwide has sought and successfully taken advantage of the firm hospitality Internet marketing expertise.
About Economy & Budget Hotels World
Organized by Terrapinn Ltd, a leading global business-to-business media company, delegates will have the chance to hear from over 35 top-level speakers representing operators, brands, franchises, financial and other related businesses from diverse geographies countries. A pre-conference half-day interactive workshop hosted by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies is designed to help organizations understand the importance of building their brand and build strategies for optimizing their online distribution and internet marketing in ways that contribute to building brand equity.
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