With the economy back on track and hotels posting record performance numbers, Choice Hotels on Tuesday unveiled its comprehensive new marketing and advertising strategy that shifts its focus away from value to experience and customer connections.
CEO Steve Joyce and COO Pat Pacious detailed the new direction to some 5,000 hotel owners and operators at the company’s 61st annual convention in Las Vegas. “This is a year of transformation and breakthrough,” Joyce said. “This year’s convention marks the beginning of a new era.”
A cornerstone of the new effort is the marketing and advertising campaign, which was first announced a week ago as the company released earnings that showed RevPAR increased nearly 10% in the first quarter.
In addition to a new logo and website, the company is launching a TV, radio and digital advertising campaign using the iconic song by The Clash, “Do I stay or do I go.”
It is also hiring a new “people person,” whose sole job, Joyce said, will be to spend the summer traveling the United States, attending festivals and posting to social media “to help bring attention to and celebrate the priceless in-person connections we make when we travel, whether it’s with friends, family or colleagues.”
With primetime television commercials featuring people pondering whether to make certain personal and business trips, the theme of the new campaign is, obviously, for them to go. The ads promote the new choicehotels.com and use the company’s new tagline, “You always have a choice.”
“We are coming out as a brand, not just a company of brands,” said Anne Smith, vice president of brand strategy.
As hotels increasingly try to steer more bookings away from OTAs, one goal is also to drive more direct bookings. Choice’s new website intends to help consumers more easily differentiate between its brand with descriptors that range from “Enjoy the Extras” for Choice’s upscale brands to “Travel Simply” for its economy brands.
Joyce said that while the company’s look is different, “the new Choice Hotels is not simply about launching our new logo. It’s about differentiating ourselves in the marketplace, redefining what we stand for and making an emotional connection with guests. It’s about connecting in a way we’ve never done before, to drive more business to your hotels.”
The ultimate goal, Joyce said, is “about making guests feel welcome, wanted and respected.”
During the Great Recession, Pacious said, guests cared mostly about getting a good deal. “So back then, we emphasized the value of staying at our brands … that when guests stay at our brands they get free breakfast, Wi-Fi and workout rooms,” he said. “Today’s economy is significantly brighter. … Our challenge is to cut through the clutter and rise above this ‘sea of sameness’ where you can’t tell one hotel from the other.”