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Online Marketing

NHMC 2017: Winning the online marketing battle

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

NHMC 2017: Winning the online marketing battle

Delegates attending the Hotel Marketing Association’s (HMA) National Hotel Marketing Conference 2017 last week at the Hilton St George’s Park in Burton-upon-Trent were advised how to win the online marketing battle.

Natalie Wiseman of independent research consultancy BDRC Continental spoke about the battle hotels face with online travel agents (OTAs) and homestay platforms. She pointed out that not only does the combined online advertising spend of the five biggest hotel groups not compete with that of the two biggest OTAs, in just eight years the largest homestay brand (Airbnb) has built up a brand awareness to rival Marriott. Marriott, AccorHotels, IHG, Choice and Hilton have a combined online advertising spend of $5.3b, while Expedia and Priceline Group have a combined spend of more than $6b. And in 2016, Airbnb had a brand awareness of 63% – compared to Marriott’s 69%.

Among users of homestays, 23% would have ordinarily gone to a chain hotel and 6% to an independent, highlighting the threat to hotels.

Hotels have a choice, she said – they can concede, put all their rooms on OTAs and let them do the marketing, or they can compete by understanding the reasons travellers book homestay accommodation. It’s not just cost – 42% of business travellers and 43% of leisure travellers said it was due to the comfort of a home, while 46% of leisure travellers quoted the location as the reason they choose homestays.

Or, she added, companies can of course buy the homestay brands, for example AccorHotels’ acquisitions of Oasis, Squarebreak and Onefinestay. “It’s about what works for you and your bottom line,” she concluded.

Thomas Landen of Revinate, which collects data on the hospitality industry, emphasised the importance of hotels’ online reviews and reputation as one of their most important marketing tools.

“Guests are more likely to use your hotel if you have a better reputation and more willing to spend more money if you have better ratings online,” he said – travellers are 3.9 times more likely to choose a hotel with higher review scores given equal prices, and 76% of travellers are more likely to book a hotel with a higher score, even if it means paying a higher rate.

He added that there is a direct relationship between online ratings and revenue – for every point increase in ratings, they found bookings increase by 14.2% and average daily rate by 11.2%.

In online reviews, he pointed out that interactions with staff was a regular theme in positive reviews, but bathrooms in a poor state was by far the biggest recurring issues in negative reviews.

He also urged hotels to think about driving reviews on Google, as hotels with more positive reviews will show up more quickly on Google Maps, and to think about their presence on Chinese review sites. There is a lot of potential for driving revenue from China, he said, pointing out that three of the top five sites for UK hotel reviews – Mafengwo, Dianping and Ctrip – are Chinese.

“Make sure that you’re really well represented on those markets such as Spain and China, where your main markets are, when thinking about investing money,” he said.

[“Source-thecaterer.”]

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Education

The unis winning big from uncapped students places

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Western Sydney University, ACU and Macquarie University are among the biggest winners from the demand-driven system for universities, growing by more than 6000 students in the five years to 2014, a new report reveals.

But the authors have questioned whether universities are being held accountable for ensuring that the rapid growth has not come at the expense of the quality of education they deliver.

 

Australian universities on the rise

Which Australian universities rank among the top 800 in the world?

The report, by Professor Emeritus Frank Larkins and Associate Professor Ian Marshman from the University of Melbourne, also asked whether universities should have to demonstrate completion rates or other output measures, rather than being allocated funding based purely on starting student numbers.

Since the Gillard Labor government instituted the demand-driven system by uncapping student places in higher education in 2009, WSU has gained $120.7 million in domestic student revenues, while its international student intake shrank, according to the analysis.

ACU, which has seven campuses including two in Sydney, gained $123.8 million in domestic student revenue in the same period, and Macquarie gained $106.7 million.

A report by the Parliamentary Budget Office in April warned that the student debt to the government will triple over the next decade from $13.5 billion to $48.1 billion, due to the uncapping of university course places and Labor’s decision to extend loans to vocational education. It said by 2025-26 about $4 billion of the debt is not expected to be repaid, up from $1.9 billion in 2015-2016.

The universities have so far resisted publishing completion rates.

A spokeswoman for Macquarie said “there is no current evidence that the demand-driven system has led to a decline in graduate quality or retention rates. As one of Australia’s top 10 universities we are confident that the graduates that stem from Macquarie are amongst the best equipped to enter the workforce and excel in their career.”

A report in April warned that the student debt to the government will triple over the next decade.
A report in April warned that the student debt to the government will triple over the next decade. Photo: Louie Douvis

The universities highlighted benefits the demand-driven system had brought to disadvantaged students.

A spokesman from WSU said “a key focus of the demand-driven system was to address the under-representation of students from low SES backgrounds, and while regional differences remain, significant progress has been made. Western Sydney University’s growth in the five years to 2014 is a direct response to this policy.”

The spokesman said WSU’s drop out rate was in line with the national average.

The acting Vice-Chancellor of ACU, Dr Stephen Weller, said: “The demand-driven system has provided an opportunity for more than 100,000 Australians to receive a university education, enabling students who have previously been excluded from higher education – including many who are the first in their family – to attend university.”

The unis which grew the fastest to 2014 nationally are Deakin, ACU, RMIT, Curtin, Swinburne, Western Sydney and Macquarie.

Southern Cross, Murdoch, Victoria, Federation, Charles Darwin and ANU reported marginal or low growth of less than 1500 students in that time.

The universities that made the largest gain in domestic student revenue are Deakin ($166.5m), ACU ($162.6m), RMIT ($141.3m), Curtin ($134.5m), Queensland ($133.4m), Swinburne ($128.1m) and Western Sydney ($120.7m).

The universities with the highest overall revenue growth in the five years to 2014 – combining domestic and international student revenue – were Melbourne at $242m, Queensland at $226m, Sydney at $211m and UNSW at $195m.

[Source:- smh.au]

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Internet

Andrew Yang Keeps Winning The Internet Primary

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

HOUSTON — Andrew Yang kicked off his third appearance at a Democratic debate with a throwback to the Oprah show: promising to give away $120,000 in campaign funds by extending a pilot program of his universal basic income plan to 10 Americans across the country by promising to give them $1,000 a month if they’d just go to his website and register for the chance to randomly win a spot in the program.

“In America today, everything revolves around the almighty dollar,” Yang said in his opening statement. “Our schools, our hospitals, our media, even our government. It’s why we don’t trust our institutions anymore. We have to get our country working for us again instead of the other way around. We have to see ourselves as the owners and shareholders of this democracy, rather than inputs into a giant machine.”

“It’s time to trust ourselves more than our politicians. That’s why I’m going to do something unprecedented tonight. My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families, someone watching this at home right now,” Yang said, making his pitch.

But Yang wasn’t just talking to a television audience; he was barely talking to them at all. Instead, he was, as he has been since he announced his campaign in 2017, playing for the retweets and the redditors, reinvesting in the extremely online approach that’s propelled him into both the September and October debates.

“That’s original, I’ll give you that,” South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg told Yang before his opening statement, while other candidates laughed in the background.

Buttigieg’s dismissiveness — and reporters’ raised eyebrows about campaign finance rules — didn’t register on the platforms where Yang is actually running. In the first hour of the debate, “Andrew Yang” was the fourth-most-trending phrase on Twitter, and “#YangsDebateSurprise” was the 11th-most-trending hashtag. Yang’s digital director tweeted that over 116,000 people had gone to the campaign’s website after the announcement.

Before the debate, a Yang campaign staffer told BuzzFeed News that Yang planned on mapping out the human aspect of a universal basic income rather than a policy idea. Yang tied the plan into answers about education, saying that the answer to spending cuts in school districts is to put money directly into the hands of families and teachers across the country.

“The data clearly shows that 65% to 70% of our students’ outcomes are determined outside the school. We’re talking about time spent at home with parents, words read to them when they’re young, stress levels in the house, income, type of neighborhood,” Yang said. “We’re saying, you’re 100% responsible for educating your kids but you can only control 30%. They all know this. The answer is to put money directly into the families and neighborhoods.”

The Yang campaign said it had seen bump in support over the past month and that it had raised more money in the 48 hours around the second debate than the campaign did in the month before. “We feel very confident we’re on track to double last quarter,” BuzzFeed News was told by a senior Yang adviser, who said they’d incorporated suggestions from Reddit users from an “Ask Me Anything” session he’d done after the first debate.

His supporters have used memes, group chats, and their Twitter accounts to help propel #YangGang and their candidate in post-debate polls, pull small donors into the campaign, and spread Yang’s message about UBI.

“Andrew’s said it before, but the plan is to ‘peak at the right time,’ and that’s what I think we’re on track toward doing,” another Yang staffer told BuzzFeed News. “We’re going to continue down that path of steady growth.”

[“source=buzzfeednews”]

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Blogging

On Blogging, Cheating, and Winning: Business Lessons From Seth Godin

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for On Blogging, Cheating, and Winning: Business Lessons From Seth Godin

Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner may spend a lot of time working for his goal of helping us all invest better, but that’s just part of his ambition. Really, he wants to help us all live better, and financial security is just one piece of that.

Another piece: Introducing us to fascinating new ideas and the authors who share them. So this month, the Rule Breaker Investing podcast’s theme is “Authors in August,” and to lead off, he’s got author, entrepreneur, blogger, and marketing guru Seth Godin, whose popular nonfiction books include The Dip, Purple Cow, and Free Prize Inside.

In this segment, Godin talks about his views on why everyone should be blogging, plus why businesses and entrepreneurs should be “cheating” — though his definition of that might not be what you’d expect.

A full transcript follows the video.

David Gardner: Let’s shift now a little bit from marketing to business, just some thoughts. I think that was a nice transition right there, helping us along. Seth, your blog, I’m thinking about your blog, maybe the first popular blog that I learned about. When did you officially start Seth’s Blog, and what are your reflections on it?

Seth Godin: My recollection is, it was an email newsletter in 1990 or ’91. I had a little bit of a head start, 27 years. It didn’t reach its official current form until maybe 15 years ago.

For me, what it represents is, anyone can be a columnist now. They give Pulitzer prizes to newspaper columnists, but anyone can be one. Anyone who has something to say or share can put that into the world. If you’re not doing it, I think you’re being selfish, because there are people who want to hear from you, there are people who want to be connected by you. If you’re not showing up to do that, I feel like you’re taking things from people.

Gardner: Does blogging pay?

Godin: Pay cash money?

Gardner: Yeah.

Godin: Using a StairMaster pays, because you’re not going to have a heart attack, and that’s really expensive. I think having a blog will get you a better job in the long run, it will help you make better decisions, it will do countless things for you. But if you’re trying to run a blog on Tuesday so you make money on Wednesday, you’re going to be a lousy blogger and not a very good citizen, either.

Gardner: Seth, I want to go to a page. We’re going to stick with business here. I’m thinking of page 38 from Purple Cow, which you mentioned. Besides your book coming out this November, This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See, but, you mentioned Purple Cow in addition, being a great one to start with, and I agree. On page 38, at least of my edition, you write a short chapter, I think it’s about one page, and it’s called Cheating. I’ve always loved this concept.

Cheating, for me, as an investor, I’m looking for businesses, in your words, that cheat — basically finding businesses that have some unfair competitive advantage. I’ll give two quick examples. Old Dominion Freight Lines, which is a less than truckload trucking company, and a very fine one for more than a century, basically doesn’t have any unionized workforce in an industry that’s dominated by unionized workforces. They’re cheating, in your parlance. Or, Netflix being able to bid on TV show content based on its voluminous customer data that its competitors simply lack. Netflix is cheating. And so on.

First off, I love the concept. It’s always helped me pick stocks. Second, do you have some newer examples today that you think of when you’re thinking about the good form of cheating?

Godin: What I mean by cheating is, what business is supposed to do, which is to create an asset that, when they use it, gives them leverage over everyone else. Otherwise, everyone’s in the commodity business. So, most of the people who pump oil out of the ground are pumping oil out of ground the same as everybody else. It’s a commodity. You don’t care, when you fill your car up with gas, what kind of gas you’re putting in. The goal here is to find an institution that has that asset and can put it to work.

Think about the ratchets that Amazon has been turning for the last ten years. Now, they have two or three ratchets all working in the same direction. They have a brand that people trust. They have the lowest cost of doing certain kinds of operations. They have the most efficient web services. When you add those things up, that’s an unfair advantage.

But it’s also a kind of cheating if you have permission to talk to people. If I can send an email to a million people and say, “My new book is ready,” I’m cheating. I can put my new book in front of 50 times as many people as an author who waited until the last minute before they started to build an audience. So, what my books are about is, which assets will we choose to build? Not just because we’re good humans and good citizens, but because once we build one of those assets, then we have the privilege of doing ever-better work, and we can use that asset to advance our head start.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. David Gardner owns shares of Amazon and Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Netflix. The Motley Fool recommends Old Dominion Freight Line. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

 

[“Source-fool”]

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