LP: As we’re talking to owners and
prospective owners, we’d be delighted to see more of the brands come in where they make sense. There are some exciting brands that, right now, are not represented but it would be cool to see them. With those 30 brands, when you asked about the future, we love all of them. You’ll continue to see them refine as we start to make sure we have swim lanes for these brands. They’ll be tinkered with a little bit, just to make sure that they hit the mark with what customers are looking for. RC: What do you think will be the biggest challenge for the integration in the branding area? LP: To effectively articulte the brand
voice to our customers. It’s my job to make sure our sales folks are able to place that appropriately and be able to talk educatedly about those brands and feel it first-hand, to create excitement about those new hotel openings so that our customers want to try them — whether for business or leisure.
Ritz Carlton, the St Regis and W as well as AC, Moxy and Element. There’s going to be a lot of confusion from a customer perspective if we don’t do a clear job ourselves at being able to distinguish these brands. Our job as marketers is [figuring out] how we convey the depth and the breadth of that portfolio and all the experiences the customers can have — regardless of their trip purpose — in a way that resonates with them. RC: What’s your marketing focus going to be on? MB: Destinations and how we talk about them, as well as the experiences our customers have in those destinations, along with the service component they will receive at all these brands. The people they will come into contact with and the amenities we offer them will be part of the memories they keep for a lifetime. RC: What new initiatives will you be launching? MB: We are going to be rolling out a new campaign called “You are Here.” It will showcase the values of the destinations in the portfolio and use real Marriott Reward customers in the advertising to deliver that message in a way that’s compelling and that will help customers around the globe picture themselves in those destinations. The focus is on driving our customers to our direct channels where they will get absolutely the best rate. That’s a message we’ve been talking about a lot when you book on Marriott.com or Starwood.com
MICHELLE BOZOKI, VP MARKETING RC: How will the marketing of the Marriott portfolio of brands now change? Michelle Bozoki: Now that we have an unprecedented opportunity to talk about this expanded portfolio, we essentially have product in the luxury and lifestyle space that are importantto communicate — brands such as the 22
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We are also going to be looking at how we develop key partnerships in the destinations — partnerships that are both global in nature but also localized and relevant, such as Hockey Canada or Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, partnerships we’re developing to spread that portfolio message. We are also working closely with key influencers around the globe who are relevant to our nextgeneration travellers so we can talk
about these experiences in a way that will be compelling. We’ll be working with loyalty bloggers as well who will help spread the word about loyalty programs. In particular, in Canada, we’ve had some great success working with some of the top bloggers who have been helping us to really talk about all the new benefits that come with these programs and the ability to link them together. We are really excited about this campaign because it’s the first time we’ve given voice to our customers by using actual Marriott Rewards members to share their stories. Some of their stories will be featured in (online travel magazine) Marriott Traveler as some future ads. The whole idea with this campaign is that we will target the emotional power of travel through the eyes and hearts of actual travellers so we can make that connection with people. So whether they are sitting at home and watching a commercial on TV, on an airplane going through a magazine, or in their social channels― wherever they are seeing this, they can really picture themselves there. RC: Is there anything else that is new in the marketing department? MB: We’ve got some real cool things we are doing on the innovations side that will be relevant to the nextgeneration traveller. You may not be aware of what’s been done in the movie-making business in recent years [where they’ve] developed some short films that focus on destinations and experiences, and showcase hotels as a backdrop to those expectations. That effort has generated millions and millions of impressions around the globe. We’ve started using captivating and eye-catching techniques in our advertising such as cinema graphics so we can start to stand out from the crowd. We’ve been successful in doing that and getting those headlines and making that connection so we have to expand that effort so our customers in Canada will start to see some of that in the market as well. hoteliermagazine.com