Consumer generated media (CGM) — blogs, discussion boards, review sites,
social network sites, etc., has remained a prevalent subject in hotel marketing
discussions in the past year. How can hotel and travel marketers use this new
medium to their advantage?  Should CGM be considered an opportunity to promote
the hotel product and be part of the marketing strategy, or is it a threat that
needs to be contained?

CGM is a tool that can give marketers unfiltered insights into the customer
experience, helps establish interactive relationships with customers, and
provides a new medium to promote services and products. CGM is also a vital part
of the comprehensive de-commoditization strategy of the hotel, a potent tool to
provide a unique value proposition to its customers.

In our view hoteliers should consider CGM initiatives only as part of a
comprehensive Direct Internet marketing strategy, together with other important
aspects such as search marketing, email marketing, website optimization,
strategic linking and link popularity, online sponsorships and display ads. CGM
initiatives like blogs should become a line item in the overall hotel marketing
budget.

The ideas discussed in this article
could help hoteliers to benefit from the opportunities presented by CGM, and
build CGM into the overall Internet marketing strategy.

Comments on this article?  We welcome your questions and feedback.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 at 3:07 pm and is filed under HeBS Articles & Publications, Social Media & Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.