What Online Travel Shoppers Want: How Visual Merchandising Drives More Bookings

Transcription

1 What Online Travel Shoppers Want: How Visual Merchandising Drives More Bookings Author: John McAuliffe, Chief Marketing Officer, VFM Leonardo, Inc. The world of travel shopping is changing in ways that reflect overall trends in Internet commerce. Online hotel shoppers like online shoppers more generally value rich visual content that informs and supports their buying decisions, according to market research. As their expectations grow, they are gravitating to hotels that most effectively present themselves online. Recognizing these trends, hotel marketers are now moving aggressively to visually merchandise their properties and convey the unique value they offer their prospective guests. Like the online retailers that have pioneered visual merchandising, hoteliers are leveraging the growing capabilities of online media to make their offerings more clear, vivid and compelling. Whether they are targeting business travelers, leisure travelers or meeting planners, hotel marketers are discovering that visually rich content photos, video, virtual tours can drive bookings and average daily rates to new levels. To achieve these impressive results, hoteliers must have both relevant content and extensive distribution. They must, in other words, target the right prospect with the right message in the right place. They ll also need reliable guidance to ensure their visual merchandising strategies are successfully executed. p1

2 Visual Merchandising is Transforming Online Commerce Visual Merchandising is a now a key factor in online commerce overall. Some of the most significant early advancements in online merchandising have occurred in retail. That s not surprising. The retail industry pioneered merchandising long before the arrival of the Internet. Retailers recognized that presentation is a key driver of sales and success. It s the element that clarifies a product s distinctive benefits, stimulates interest and provokes a buying decision. Now, retailers ranging from J Crew to JC Penney to QVC are displaying products with high definition photos, multiple camera angles, zoom and full-screen features, and video. In many cases, compelling and evocative copywriting tells the story of the product and what makes it stand out. Automotive companies such as Ford, GM and Toyota also have made impressive strides in this arena, enabling online shoppers to see styling and features in vivid detail and even configure their future cars long before entering a dealership. Real estate firms offer another compelling example. They provide three-dimensional walkthroughs that help home buyers see an array of properties and narrow down their interests before entering the final stages of a decision. p2

3 Just as store merchandising has been essential over the years to the success of retail, evidence suggests that visual merchandising is driving conversions and generating sales in the online world. But the shopper s growing expectations must be met to produce these results. In one study of shopper behavior, Adobe found that shoppers need to feel like they are getting an in-store experience when they re browsing online High quality, large images, with zoom, spin, and color options emulate the touch and feel experience of shopping in-store, while the use of video can show products in real use, simulating a knowledgeable in-store clerk s live demonstrations. 1 Such trends are now beginning to reshape online travel shopping, particularly with regard to hotels. Online buyers are looking for rich and descriptive information that will support their travel purchases distinguishing one option from another. Forrester Research argues that content-sensitive travelers represent some of the most profitable travel customers in today s market typically spending more for a hotel experience than the average customer and booking more trips online. 2 p3

4 Interestingly, both leisure and business travelers are heavily relying on video and other rich visual content to support their purchases. According to a study by Google and OTX, travel shoppers are actively seeking online video at every stage of their buying decisions from early research to the final purchase. 3 The trouble comes when such material is not available. In a study of American consumers, Forrester found that 38% of online bookers 47.5 million people avoid staying at hotels they can afford when they don t find photos, videos, or written content that make them feel comfortable about their potential experience. 4 p4

5 What This Means for Hoteliers So what are the implications of these trends for hotel marketers? What are essential takeaways that should guide their marketing plans? Consider these: Travel shoppers have an enormous number of online options when researching travel opportunities and rely on an array of channels to compare and shop. Online hotel booking is a $28 billion business in the U.S. alone. 5 But research suggests that shoppers are visiting an array of online travel agencies (OTAs), trip research sites, and site aggregators to support their travel decisions. They are not merely relying on branded hotel sites even when they engage in a final purchase transaction on a hotel s own site or through offline channels. Competitive differentiation in this challenging marketplace will increasingly hinge on a hotel s ability to effectively communicate its value and benefits online. As hospitality marketing expert Tom O Rourke puts it, travel shoppers want to visualize their destination [They want to] understand what the real deal is. 6 By communicating online with prospective customers in ways that respect their time, clarify value and build trust, hotel marketers enhance their ability to get results. Content-sensitive bookers are an increasingly important market and hotels must merchandise their properties online to address their expectations. According to Forrester Research, 84% of content-sensitive travelers book online, compared with 73% of content-indifferent travelers. Hotels must provide engaging visual content photos, video, 360 degree walkthroughs if they are to convert these demanding, yet highly profitable prospects. Success depends on having both a rich, branded web site and distribution through many channels. Clearly, today s Internet savvy and content sensitive travelers are expecting more and more from hotel web sites. But these demanding shoppers tend to rely on many sites to support their decisions. Indeed, it s a fallacy to believe that research sites (like TripAdvisor), OTAs (like Expedia and Travelocity) and site aggregators (like Kayek) don t influence decisions in cases where they are not the point of final purchase. Recent research from Cornell on the Billboard Effect found that OTAs increase hotel site reservations in the range of 7.5 to 26 percent. 7 Hotels are now taking these ideas seriously and actively applying them. Take the Intercontinental New Orleans. This hotel has incorporated photos, videos and virtual tours that capture the traveler s experience. Even the hotel s enticing copy is designed to instill confidence. An InterContinental guest room is more than just a place to sleep, according to the company s VBrochure. From the turned down sheets before you go to bed, to the premium products in your bathroom, the 24-hour fine dining room service, and the personal attentions of your concierge, you will want for nothing. 8

6 In a series of videos, Michael Beninate, the hotel s chief concierge, guides you through the experience of visiting New Orleans. It s an honor and a privilege to show you some of my favorite places in this extraordinary city, he says. With soothing jazz in the background, the camera takes you through some of the city s key attractions including museums, restaurants and shopping districts as well as lesser known clubs for music. 9 Such efforts give one a sense of not only the experience of a hotel, but the city itself. But, most importantly, they give prospective guest a sense of trust that his or her experience will be a positive one. p6

7 Success Factors: Steps You Can Take Now If you are wondering how you might pursue this approach, here are a couple success steps that are producing strong results for a growing number of hoteliers: Ensure your online content is relevant appealing to your targeted buyers. Embedded in this step is necessity to first determine who you are targeting. Are you intent on reaching leisure travelers, business travelers or both? Are you reaching out to meeting planners? What types of hotel benefits and features would attract the groups you are targeting? What differentiates your hotel from others in the same category and region? With this information in hand, you can begin to develop online content copy, photos, virtual tours, videos that will present your main points of value in a compelling way. While you will probably need to hire specialists to produce the content, they will look to you for guidance with respect to what it should express. Examine ways to get your hotel content in front of shoppers at all stages of the shopping process and across the multiple channels they use. Online shoppers are liable to find your hotel from one of many different paths. You should strive to present yourself effectively visually merchandising your hotel on as many sites as you are listed. Your listing is now competing on transactional and non-transactional sites with a growing number of hotels engaged in content-rich marketing. To remain competitive and attract content-sensitive travelers, you ll need to distribute your content to the sites where they search and shop. That s the only way you will reach your prospective guest at all phases of a buying decision and maximize your bookings. Identify a partner that can help you merchandise online. Considering that visual merchandising will require investment, it s critical to ensure you produce an appropriate return. Look for a partner that has worked with many other hotels to achieve measurable marketing results and knows how to help you develop a solid business case that will justify your investments in merchandising your hotel online. Make sure you have confidence that your partner can provide the guidance, insight and best practices you need to execute your strategy successfully. Companies across the business spectrum -- retailers, real estate firms and auto manufacturers have grasped the power and potential of visual merchandising. They are making their online offers more vivid, tangible and attractive by presenting them with new media that builds trust and confidence. That s the challenge facing hoteliers trying to compete and succeed on the Internet. In a sea of sameness, it s hard to attract online bookers. They are drawn to the hotels that stand apart, present themselves effectively online and convey value that matches their own preferences and priorities. Such demands and dynamics promise to drive increasing investments in visual merchandising in the years to come utterly transforming the way hotels market themselves and travelers shop for hotels. p7

8 About VFM Leonardo VFM Leonardo is a technology leader in online visual content management and distribution for the hotel industry. VFM Leonardo s VScape and VBrochure products leverage the distribution capabilities of the VNetwork, the most universally accepted and largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry. VFM Leonardo offers the most effective digital asset management and online merchandising systems available today with over 1,000,000 visual images (photos, virtual tours and videos) for 90,000 hotels worldwide currently in distribution across the VNetwork. All four global distribution systems (GDSs) - Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan - as well as Pegasus source hotel visual content exclusively through VScape. Tens of thousands of travel-related channels including online travel agencies, travel research and supplier web sites, search portals; Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Yahoo! Travel, Kayak, Google and more also source visual content through VScape, many exclusively. For more information about VFM Leonardo, visit What is VBrochure? The VBrochure Online Merchandising System helps hoteliers at individual properties and management companies better merchandise their hotel properties wherever travel shoppers are researching hotels online. The system includes: Distribution to the VNetwork The VNetwork is the largest, most universally accepted and online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry. Multimedia Viewer The Multimedia Viewer is distributed to the VNetwork and can contain photos, virtual tours, videos,interactive maps, custom third-party objects and related text content that showcase the hotel. Access to VScape VScape is the user-friendly, web-based digital asset management system used to manage photos and the content in the Multimedia Viewer. p8

9 References 1 Adobe, Adobe Scene7 Viewer Study: What Shoppers Want, Jan Harteveldt, Henry and Elizabeth Stark, Forrester Research, Poor Content Could Cost Travel ebusiness Money, Sept. 8, Google and OTX, The Traveler s Road to Decision, June Harteveldt, Henry and Elizabeth Stark, Forrester Research, Poor Content Could Cost Travel ebusiness Money, Sept. 8, Ibid. 6 Interview with John McAuliffe of VFM Leonardo, VTV, 7 Anderson, Chris, Cornell University Center for Hospitality Research, The Billboard Effect: Online Travel Agent Impact on Non-OTA Reservation Volume, Oct Intercontinental New Orleans VBrochure, 9 Ibid. VFM Leonardo Inc. 111 Peter Street, Suite 530 Toronto, ON, Canada M5V 2H1 Tel: Toll Free: Fax: COPYRIGHT 2010 VFM LEONARDO INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.