Loading ...A 2004 Intelliseek/Forrester study revealed that consumers trust
word-of-mouth recommendations far more than they trust traditional
marketing and advertising. Word-of-mouth recommendations represent the
most trusted form of advertising with the highest impact, suggesting
that people would rather hear about real experiences and perspectives
than through marketing speak. Blogs have become the quintessential
forum for the word-of-mouth.
In our view blogs are yet to play an important role as a marketing tool
in hospitality. But blogs are already playing a vital role in
word-of-mouth customer property reviews and peer-to-peer
recommendations. Here are two important aspects of blogs that affect
hospitality today and hoteliers should be aware of:
* Blogs as part of the hotel defensive strategy
* Blogs as a marketing tool in hospitality
Hospitality eBusiness Strategies considers blogs a vital part of the
comprehensive De-Commoditization Strategy of the hotel, a potent tool
to provide a unique value proposition to its customers. A
well-developed hotel blog strategy could provide visibility to unique
aspects of the hotel product and destination, and a differentiated
approach to reach key customer segments.
