The customer never buys what you think you sell. Great quote from Peter Drucker. Have you ever stayed at a Ritz Carlton hotel? Attracted by the Ritz-Carlton marketing strategy?
Do you agree with Peter Drucker in thinking that the Ritz-Carlton doesn’t know what its difference-maker is? More importantly did you decide to stay with this hotel chain because of its difference maker? Not sure? Maybe you will be more certain after you read this article.
Marketing strategy and the Ritz Carlton?
When choosing to learn from other companies’ marketing strategies, it is always helpful to choose one of the unique approaches to marketing.
It’s been nearly half a century since Philip Kotler first published his Principles of Marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since. It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there were no true marketing professionals.
What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science, and analytics, and applied them to the marketing arena. Although that may seem basic now, it was groundbreaking then.
Today technology is transforming marketing once again. Although up to this point, most of the impact has been tactical, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation. This, of course, will be a much harder task because we will not only have to change what we do but how we think.
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Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.
We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important. What comes next?
Meet Ritz-Carlton. They have been successfully executing their marketing plan since the early days of their existence. Their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Ritz-Carlton is perhaps unnecessary. But we’ll give a little refresher just in case. The Ritz is a big brand name for luxury hotels and resorts all over the world.
With 77 locations in major cities and 25 resorts in countries worldwide, they are featured on Zagat Top Survey Lists for dining, hotel, and services. They represent the top brand in the Marriott International list of brands.
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What are their secrets to marketing strategy success? It’s pretty simple. It is it’s exceptional customer service and unparalleled hotel experiences. Their goal is to create customers for life.
Here’s how they strive to achieve this lofty goal, with some great examples.
Brand identity at marketing core
The heart of the Ritz-Carlton marketing strategy is their brand. The brand is built into and reflected by its tag line. It is ‘memories by the Ritz-Carlton’. The brand image is the number one factor that drives business.
Since brand image is so important, it’s crucial for you to cut through the clutter and differentiate your brand. Make a difference as an organization that is truly relevant to consumer needs.
If you want to improve the public image of your brand, then what better way is there to do so than by defining it yourself? The Ritz-Carlton does this by telling stories about the hotel through its online content strategy.
Their Stories that Stay with You page elaborates on ways in which their employees and the greater hotel have gone out of their way to ensure a great stay for guests.
The Ritz-Carlton is excellent at not only framing their stories, but in behaving in such a way. That is by providing great customer service at every level. That is where their that great stories happen.
Ritz-Carlton marketing strategy … understand the value of every employee
If you’ve ever held a job where you didn’t feel appreciated, you understand how frustrating it can be. Well, the Ritz-Carlton avoids this pitfall by valuing every employee.
By empowering the employee, the hotel creates a staff that is passionate about the hotel, its services, and its success. Furthermore, happier employees mean happier guests.
In fact, the Ritz-Carlton has empowered employees so much that they have the ability to spend up to $2,000 to ensure guests have an enjoyable stay without seeking permission from management. Wow, now that is impressive, isn’t it?
Build on reciprocity
In Robert Cialdini’s famous book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he notes that:
The impressive aspect of reciprocation with its accompanying sense of obligation is its pervasiveness in human culture.
It is so widespread that, after intensive study, Alvin Gouldner (1960), along with other sociologists, reported that all human societies subscribe to the rule.
The point is straight forward: Reciprocity is likely something that has evolved in the human brain in order to keep a majority of transactions “fair”.
We often feel obligated to return favors, even if they are unasked for.
This is the ultimate reason why great customer service has such a fantastic value to the marketing objectives.
Ritz Carlton marketing strategy … surprise customers
The research points to this being a universal truth in social interaction and reciprocity.
Small surprises that feel like they were “just for you” can spawn some incredibly strong goodwill from the receiver.
Go the extra mile
Here is a great example of how this hotel staff goes the extra mile for its customers.
A family with three young children arrived at the hotel for a business/leisure weekend. On the last night of their stay, they dined in the hotel’s signature restaurant.
Upon closing of the restaurant, the server attendant found a small stuffed animal tucked underneath a seat cushion. The server immediately recognized that the stuffed animal belonged to one of the young children who had dined at the restaurant earlier that evening.
It was too late to return the stuffed animal then, so they planned a fun way to present the toy the next day. They grabbed the community camera behind the front desk and positioned the stuffed animal to look like it was dining in the restaurant, playing the piano and cooking in the kitchen.
At each location, they captured the moment on camera, and then made a storyline to go with each photo. They then printed all the photos and created a book of “animal adventures” for the young guest.
The picture book and stuffed animal made its way to the guest’s door at 9 a.m. the next morning. The young boy was jumping out of his skin with excitement when he saw his lost companion.
His mother responded, “The Ritz-Carlton always goes that extra mile. This is exactly why my family will only travel to your hotels.”
Fulfill unexpressed customer needs
Ritz-Carlton employees are trained to anticipate the unexpressed wishes of their guests. Frequently the receptionist called early departing quests to ask, ‘We see that you are scheduled to leave very early tomorrow. Can we leave a pot of fresh, hot coffee outside your door?’”
This sort of planning helps employees remember key touch-points with customers. This will in turn aids their ability to provide exceptional service more consistently.
It is a surefire plan to increase a company’s overall customer satisfaction rate.
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Be prepared
One lesson that you might not expect to find, however, is how proactive Ritz-Carlton employees are in planning for mistakes and accidents. Since complaining customers are unavoidable in totality, Ritz-Carlton always focuses on being prepare and ‘planning ahead’.
One of my favorite examples is their practice of “resetting a customer’s internal clock” when the service is taking too long in delivering food orders.
Here is an example. A customer and his wife were staying at the Ritz-Carlton and having dinner at the hotel restaurant. Just when they were about to ask about their order, the waiter appeared and gave them a tomato and mozzarella appetizer.
Notice how this tactic works: With a relatively small gift, the staff can reset the internal clock with a customer by establishing a new time reference point.
While it’s not as the entrée early delivery, it’s certainly better than a waiter returning to a table multiple times to say ‘I’m sorry’.
Perform the unexpected
Here is a great example of doing the totally unexpected. In this case well beyond what was anticipated.
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Because of their son’s food allergies, a family vacationing at the Ritz-Carlton, in Bali, was always careful to bring their own supply of specialized eggs and milk.
In this particular instance, however, the food was ruined en route. The Ritz-Carlton manager couldn’t find any of the special items in town, but his executive chef recalled that a store in Singapore sold them.
The chef contacted his mother-in-law, who lived there, and had her purchase the items, then fly to Bali (about 2.5 hours) to deliver them.
The bottom line
Marketing always has been and always will be about telling stories… stories that influence behavior and convince people to act.
Make sure your content tells a story and that your story is compelling and relevant–especially your headlines.
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it .”
Do you have an idea that will change the world? Well, it’s not worth anything unless you can turn that idea into a reality. So take the plunge and see just how far that idea can take you. Or, you can sit around trading advice over the internet.
The choice is yours.
