Marketers have been diligently working on creating a “day in the life of view” of their targeted users, how they traverse both offline and online worlds to satisfy their travelling needs and what they value overall and by channel.

Published: 16 Jul 2010

Marketers have been diligently working on creating a “day in the life of view” of their targeted users, how they traverse both offline and online worlds to satisfy their travelling needs and what they value overall and by channel.

To get this unified view, companies like Cheapflights Media say they have looked at a mixture of traditional marketing techniques such as qualitative and quantitative research and married that with the real-time feedback with their online communities both public and private.

Recently, in an interview with EyeforTravel, Meredith Hanrahan, chief marketing officer, Cheapflights Media, mentioned that the company has created an integrated data platform so that it can understand the user’s path from trip planning to buying, where they engage and spend time and where they “vote with their feet” and abandon. It then integrates the feedback to learn what messages and formats resonate with users, what influences them and what drives conversion behaviours.

However, the company just doesn’t view it from a data-only perspective. It works across departments to get a well-rounded view of its users and their experience with its site. Ultimately, this helps in developing an integrated marketing approach to ensure the company customises the key messages to the channels that work best for users and invite them to participate in its marketing activities. When users get what they need in the manner they want, they stay more engaged with your product and brand.

In order to know more about how the travel companies are going about knowing their customers and marketing campaigns, EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta spoke to Flo Lugli, executive vice president of marketing, Wyndham Hotel Group, and Lewisville, Texas-based Claire Elias, director, multi-channel marketing, STA Travel. Excerpts:

What do you think is critical when it comes to obtaining a defragmented, united view of your consumers and to create a sustained engagement?

Flo Lugli:

It’s critical to understand how your consumers engage with a variety of media, both online and offline, so that you can serve up the right message at the right time in the right mediums.

Claire Elias:

We have to make sure we are visible to our customers throughout all channels – communicating with them where they want, when they want and how they want.

It’s also critical to track and measure and compare results, response and costs across all channels. At STA Travel, we are constantly comparing ROI and overall cost to acquire that customer in one media channel vs another and analysing soft benefits as well (such as brand awareness, additional impact to the brand).

It is being highlighted that the approach of marketers has shifted towards tracking all marketing touch-points and monetising across all online channels at once and not each in a silo. What’s your take on this?

Flo Lugli:

The marketing landscape has changed drastically with the advent of digital media and with it has come online channels that offer more robust tracking capabilities than their traditional counterparts. While this is advantageous, it is important to remember that consumers, more than ever, continue to engage with a variety of mediums, often several at a time. With this in mind, a better solution remains a well developed and executed integrated marketing approach.

Recently, Hilton Worldwide shared that it continues to grow its online presence without drifting away from traditional media. As convergence between online and offline marketing continue, budget fluidity is expected to also increase. What’s your take on offline and online marketing at this stage?

Flo Lugli:

In the best integrated marketing plans, online and offline marketing initiatives reinforce each other. Numerous studies show that online marketing has a positive impact on offline business and conversely, offline efforts also drive people online to research and book. Additionally, it is unwise to think of “offline and online” as completely different disciplines. The basic principles of brand building and revenue generation are the same today as they were before the advent of the Internet and mobile communications—it’s just that we now have more, and different tools in our marketing arsenal.

Claire Elias:

Whether offline or online marketing, it all rolls up under the same budget. While we do specifically have budget attached to each, at STA Travel we also remain fluid in terms of being able to shift from one to another based on trends, results or customer behaviour.

According to Razorfish, understanding the fragmented consumer will require a fundamental shift in how marketers do business in 2010. The agency says 2010 will force you to be smarter about how you leverage and react to new social behaviours, how you listen to your consumers, and how you build these brand engagement expectations. What’s your take on this?

Flo Lugli:

In order to effectively prepare for a future of increasingly fragmented consumer touch points, organisations need to build a solid foundation in CRM, both from a human capital and technology standpoint.

Claire Elias:

We have been continuing to optimise this for some time and it’s an ongoing process. That being said, there are so many emerging technologies (that continue to defragment channels where our core customers are spending time), and this optimisation must occur quite frequently and be adapted when needed. So it can be for continuing to progress our e-CRM process with targeted emails based on customer preferences, customer travel data and more; or finding more and more ways to segment our social media customers as well – locally, demographically or in other ways.

If the last decade was about ensuring consumers have a consistent experience in the online and offline channels, then 2010 ushers new challenges due to the Splinternet. (First defined by Forrester, the Splinternet reflects people’s new media and shopping behaviour — behaviour that has shifted from the desktop and laptop to a transient world that is mobile and much more fluid). How do you think marketers are ready for the chaos of the Splinternet?

Flo Lugli:

Because effective mobile marketing means relevant, real-time communication, marketers who want to get involved in this in a serious way will need automation tools to manage, execute and report on campaigns.

Claire Elias:

I think that marketers have been gearing up for this for a few years now. Whether researching new mobile mediums or testing them, this has something that we’ve seen coming for some time and now that we’re here – and with most customers now transacting on mobile phones, now even iPads – we are going to use, need to be ready for a very, very dynamic new marketing environment.

Do you expect substantial budgets to go to mobile, particularly in local search? Would it be right to say that 2010 will likely turn out to be the year of testing before mobile really takes off in 2011?

Flo Lugli:

While most brands that conduct business online will likely have a mobile version of their websites by the end of 2010, I don’t see substantial budgets going to mobile advertising for any brands in 2010, and in fact some brands might not be able to even begin testing until 2011.

Claire Elias:

I would agree. We are currently in test mode, will likely allocate more dollars to mobile search ads later this year – so that we can properly assess our strategy for 2011.

Earlier this year, mobile network operator Orange launched a new mobile advertising service that enables brands to engage and interact directly with targeted segments of Orange’s customer base. The company then said that it aims to help companies to benefit from real time conversations with customers, offering a highly targeted audience base with no wastage and an opportunity to build an engaging and enduring relationship with customers. How do you assess such developments?

Flo Lugli:

This could be an interesting opportunity to deliver a targeted message, but brands need to be cautious as to how these types of messages will be received by the consumer. A study by Ohio based BIGresearch released in late 2009 revealed that 52 percent of Americans consider mobile advertising to be an invasion of privacy.

The marketing organisation of the future will certainly feature cross-channel campaign management to include media, search, Web, affiliates, partners, email, customer service and social. How do you think one can prepare for the future?

Flo Lugli:

Marketers need to be proactive in learning about and understanding new mediums and how they work. Because technology is moving at such a rapid rate, we’re constantly being given new tools that we can learn and leverage in our future campaigns. That said, we must ensure that as these tools become available, we’re thoughtful in those that we choose to use, making sure that they are relevant to our objectives and brands and make sense for use in a given campaign.

Claire Elias:

Collaboration between the various marketing functions is going to become more and more critical. An email marketer can no longer work in a silo, but must be collaborating with the Web team, social team and more. And the same is true of all of the functional areas.