REPORT FROM U.S.—Though marketers may be tempted to bury their heads in the sand to avoid the storm kicked up as travel softens and budgets shrink, they can still drive demand with a number of proactive strategies, according to experts.

“If your competitors are all hunkering down to try to wait out the storm, now ‘s the time to try to promote yourself,” said John Ely, senior vice president of marketing for Signature Worldwide, an international marketing and training company, whose past clients include Carlson Hotels Worldwide, InterContinental Hotels Group and Hilton Americas.

“Now is the time to be proactive and not reactive,” said Greg Hanis, president of consultant firm Hospitality Marketers International.

Tailor each marketing plan

While the proactive strategies are numerous, absent from that mix is a single, universal solution.

“Whether you’re in a good economic time or a bad economic time, there’s no marketing magic bullet,” Ely said.

Robert Gilbert, president and CEO of Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, advised tailoring each marketing promotion or strategy to a single, targeted market segment.

·         Corporate travel. “(Marketers) should focus on the sectors of the corporate market that are still growing and have the need to travel,” he said. With the number of bank closings in the U.S., for example, he said that marketers could approach the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with a value proposition that included added values such as free high-speed Internet, airport transportation or complimentary breakfast.

·         Leisure travel. “What are the demand generators (in your market)? How are you working with those attractions to generate leisure business, and what can you do to grow that demand?” He suggested creating packages incorporating area attractions and then targeting them to the appropriate demographic.

·         Meetings and conventions. “What are the markets that continue to have meetings and are growing?” Again, he said to target those growing market segments with individually tailored market propositions.

Stick to your principles

No matter what segment marketers target, Hanis said to remember the four basic principles of marketing:

1. Place. “You can’t move the hotel, but you can always make the hotel look like it’s the most attractive buy for the customer.” He said that simple things like cleaning snow and ice from the parking lot or spending extra time on landscaping could capture walk-in travelers.

2. Product. “The product should be up to date,” he said, adding that down times are the perfect times to do renovations. Additionally, he advised marketers to stress training. “Make sure that when a guest checks into a hotel, whether they have a reservation or they’re a walk-in, they get the best service possible.”

The customer experience is what drives customers to loyalty, Ely said.