By EFT Correspondent, recently in MunichContent is now a marketing investment and no longer "fancy stuff" for already happy customers.

Published: 23 Oct 2008

By EFT Correspondent, recently in Munich

Content is now a marketing investment and no longer "fancy stuff" for already happy customers.

This statement came from Thomas Reiter, Country Manager, Opodo Germany, a speaker during the Sales and Marketing in Travel Summit Europe 2008 in Munich.

Elaborating on the same, he said, "As Google controls a good part of the undecided buyer's navigation in Germany, effective placements are a must."

He added, "Being found at a reasonable price is essential for trading in the Internet in 2008. Unique content is the single best driver for qualified natural traffic."

From business perspective, Reiter propagated that standing on more than one leg could be a good idea.

"Growing your business today can also mean entering more business models than just your initial home turf," he said, referring to the online travel segment and relatively established business models in this business.

"We think commerce and content work on one platform. Holidaycheck is an example of a content site migrating towards e-commerce platform to improve results. Tripadvisor as example of extra brand that is generating leads to others (not just Expedia). Opodo in Germany going the reverse way of Holidaycheck, by enhancing a strong e-commerce site with content such as hotel reviews and community features like user photos and travel tips and guides. "Opodien" as home base for content within the opodo.de website is more efficient than running a secondary domain," said Reiter.

According to Reiter, the best content is a blend of UGC and traditional formats. "Only a blend of content can ensure "one stop shop" consumer relevance as a travel distributor," he said.

He further added, "If you start with quality content, people are astonishingly willing to write quality content themselves. Also, honouring best content with rewards has proven effective to drive this level of self control."

Consumers are becoming ever more demanding, particularly in recent years with the explosion of the Internet and online web 2.0 applications. With social networking inherently encouraging the sharing of information among the user community, on how the expectations and the attitude of consumers is changing accordingly, he said, "Most people today know they can look behind the fancy marketing messages they are surrounded with by means of a short web research. Consequently, they expect companies and their brands to get back to the "real" product benefits and value an honest way of communicating in general."

On when do consumers seek out UGC in the buying cycle and what do people actually look for in consumer generated content, he said, "We see two kinds of behaviours in using UGC contents. People who want UGC as an inspiration upfront before they buy, thus very early stages of the buying cycle (search phase) and people who just use it as an optional side information, where this is just another info level regarding the quality they expect to get like a regular hotel description."

And what users get back in return for being part of an online community, he said, "I assume people like the idea of "producing" to an (in theory) unlimited audience. Some also seem to want to help out when an information helped them make a choice beforehand. Some want to meet like-minded persons. Likely, there are many further reasons. But clearly, taking part in a community is more about human recognition rather than commercial interests."