Case Studies

HOTELS & RESORTS

Casa Del Mar Beach Golf & Spa Resort - Los Cabos

This is an award-winning case study every marketer will enjoy.

When Casa del Mar retained MP&A in June, 2003, the hotel was suffering through a steep slump in both occupancy and revenue. With a concerted effort on the part of the General Manager, Director of Sales and MP&A the hotel's new marketing program was launched several months later.

Casa del Mar's new integrated 1to1 marketing program included a completely revamped approach beginning with the very foundation - the resort's database. A customer focused strategy at the resort and through every piece of communication was designed to create an award-winning customer experience before, during and after each guest's stay.

The program incorporated greater focus on the customer at the resort including new positioning, a new brochure, a new optimized web site, targeted direct mail and email, a very limited amount of consumer and trade advertising, some barter, and promotion.

Results
Today, revenue for the resort is at its historical high. More importantly, the resort has been able to raise rates substantially so this record revenue is being generated with fewer occupancy points than at its previous high in mid-2001. As the resort's marketing program continues to mature the resort will continue to realize substantially higher revenue and profits.

Casa del Mar has been able to transform from a hotel traditionally sold on "price" to one that is now sold on "value".

Awards
Casa del Mar was one of only four companies to receive the prestigious 2005 1to1 Marketing Impact Award presented annually by the Peppers & Rogers Group. The hotel won for Customer Strategy, presented for an initiative that effectively identifies customers, differentiates them by their needs or value, and reengineers interaction processes according to those values or needs.

The Peppers & Rogers Group is the world's leading authority on customer based business strategy, customer relationship management and 1to1 marketing. By winning the Impact Award, Casa del Mar shows that producing spectacular results is more a function of having the correct strategy and implementation program than a function of size or budget.

The Reefs -- Bermuda

The Reefs has long been Bermuda's most popular hotel. This award-winning hotel is unique for many reasons, but from a marketing perspective three aspects truly stand out:

• The Reefs, which consistently maintains the highest occupancy levels of any hotel in Bermuda, is an anomaly on the island and in the Caribbean in that it does not use wholesalers.
• Management embraced the integrated 1to1 marketing approach a decade ago when it retained MP&A and has since incorporated it into all its marketing planning.
• The marketing budget allocates very little money to traditional advertising and instead concentrates on personalized communications with customers and prospects.

MP&A and The Reefs have collaborated since 1996. Together with management we have instituted a strong integrated marketing program focusing primarily on direct mail, email, database segmentation and web optimization to help The Reefs build strong customer relationships and revenue.

Results
As a destination Bermuda has not been doing particularly well and over the past decade has experienced a precipitous decline in air arrivals. This in turn has placed a tremendous amount of pressure on individual hotels with the vast majority experiencing occupancy declines matching the destinations decline in arrivals.

This has not been the case for The Reefs. Rather than declining, occupancy levels at The Reefs have remained very steady over the past ten years.

The one period where this was an exception is following the events of 9/11. The Reefs, like all other hotels around the globe did see a dip in occupancies. However, unlike the vast majority of hotels, The Reefs did not drop its rates and it recovered rather quickly.

This phenomenal recovery was a result of the strong relationships the resort had established through its past integrated 1to1 marketing program and targeted direct marketing programs, once again proving

Relationships + Loyalty = Revenue + Profits

The Reefs is taking its marketing to the next level to ensure that it continues to prosper by garner ingmore than its fair share of Bermuda arrivals. It is now using Occupancy Optimizer.

Stonington Beach Hotel - Bermuda

The Stonington Beach Hotel was built to be part of Bermuda College and serve not only as a hotel, but a training facility for students in the hospitality industry. Stonington provided an excellent vacation experience and was soon inducted into the elite Bermuda Collection of fine small hotels.

As a result of it's perception as a "training hotel" the resort found it difficult to charge room rates comparable to other Bermuda Collection properties. Occupancies and revenue were in a steep decline when they came to MP&A for assistance.

The first recommendation was to reposition the resort from Bermuda College's Training hotel to "The hotel for the Hospitality and Culinary Institute of Bermuda".

Following the integrated 1to1 marketing approach we immediately began building the resort's database. Once completed, the resort launched a strong relationship building program inviting past guests and travel agents to become members of the resort's "Alumni Club", providing alumni cards and a long list of member benefits.

Results
The impact on reservations and revenue was almost immediate. Within a year average occupancy levels jumped 10 points. During the same period the major hotels on the island also experienced some growth, but it paled in comparison to the surge seen by Stonington.

In addition to seeing occupancies increase Stonington was also able to increase rates to a point where the price point was in the middle of the Bermuda Collection.

There are two very important points to be made from the Stonington Beach Case History:

The underlying marketing strategy developed to drive your plan is the most important factor in determining how successful you will be. Strategy drives your product development, your sales approach, your creative, your media selection, your internet marketing and ultimately your ability to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Madigan Pratt & Associates has been practicing the disciplines of integrated marketing in travel since its inception in 1989. It is a discipline Mr. Pratt studied and practiced well before that while working with some of the world's largest and most sophisticated marketers. To us, "integrated" is not the latest buzz word, but our core marketing philosophy.

Nisbet Plantation Beach Club - Nevis

Nisbet Plantation is a 36 room resort on the small and not so accessible island of Nevis in the West Indies.

Following our integrated 1to1 marketing approach Nisbet has been able to record some of the highest occupancy levels of any resort on the island, oftentimes rivaling The Four Seasons.

Nisbet's success is a long story, but suffice it to say it was named the Gold Award Winner for Integrated Marketing at the 22nd Annual Atlas Awards sponsored by the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. The Award recognized the Integrated 1to1 Marketing program MP&A developed for Nisbet Plantation Beach Club in Nevis.

The Atlas Awards are the only results driven marketing awards in the travel industry. They are designed to honor the "Best of the Best" in the field of travel marketing.

If you are the owner or general manager of a hotel and would like a copy of the complete case study we would be glad to send you a copy. Just give us a call or send us an email giving us your full contact information and we'll see that you get one. It runs 30 pages.

DESTINATIONS

Philadelphia - Five Year Tourism Development Plan

In 1997, MP&A developed the marketing analysis and recommendations for the City of Philadelphia Five Year Tourism Development Plan. The Plan called for innovative sources of funding and an unprecedented level of public-private sector partnership.

Results
In May 2004, the City of Philadelphia issued the following statistics concerning the growth in tourism for the five years following the presentation and adoption of Philadelphia's 1997 Tourism Development Plan.

Philadelphia Tourism Jumps 39% Compared to 8% National Average.

The Philadelphia region has experienced steady growth in leisure tourism, with leisure visitors staying longer and spending more in the five-county region, according to a new research study. Compiled by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) with data from seven independent organizations, the report entitled Greater Philadelphia Tourism Monitor, documents, for the first time, the economic impact of leisure tourism marketing but warns that future market expansion will hinge on continued and increased investment.

The study reveals that leisure tourism grew 39.5% between 1997 and 2002 (compared to an 8.8% growth in domestic leisure travel overall), and hotel room night revenue grew 55% between 1995 and 2003 - from $489 million to $775 million. Visitor spending rose from $78 to $98 per day, a 26% increase, between 2001 and 2002. And, visitors are staying longer, from 1.8 days in 1990 to 3.6 days in 2002.

Perhaps the most significant development in the report is the analysis of the economic impact of investment in tourism marketing. Each $1 spent on tourism marketing returned $185 in direct, indirect and induced regional spending, of which $41 represented increased wages and salaries, according to an analysis by Econsult Corporation of three GPTMC tourism campaigns.

Scottish Tourist Board - Market Segmentation & Direct Marketing

When the Scottish Tourist Board (STB) came to MP&A they were concerned costs associated with fulfilling information requests (sending out brochures) had become their single biggest budget item. Fulfillment costs were higher than their media budget thus seriously reducing STB's ability to build awareness for Scotland.

Their marketing program was out of balance.

The first step toward rectifying the situation was to profile the STB inquiries to get a sense for the kinds of people who were requesting information. Since Scotland did not have a database of visitors we matched the inquiry file against MP&A's in-house profile of known international travelers.

This match revealed the profile of individuals asking for information on Scotland tended to be more upscale than the general population, but not as upscale as international travelers.

A profile scoring program was developed for all new inquiries. Those meeting certain socio-economic criteria were immediately sent information on Scotland. Those not meeting the criteria were asked to qualify themselves by stating when they were considering a trip to Scotland. In effect we wanted to turn a simple "inquiry" into a "qualified lead" prior to going through the expense of sending information.

Results
As a result of the lead qualification process and other quality control measures put in place the Scottish Tourist Board was able to reduce its fulfillment costs by 47%.

These savings were used to substantially increase the Board's media and awareness campaign while still delivering relevant travel information to individuals most likely to visit Scotland.

One significant side benefit of the program was that Scotland could now measure different media based on the number of "qualified inquiries" each produced rather than the sheer volume of inquiries. This provided the Scottish Tourist Board with a unique tool to measure the effectiveness of every dollar spent in each media vehicle. The media budget was re-allocated to maximize advertising effectiveness.