Change grip
The Four Seasons is in fierce competition to attract the increasingly lucrative number of young travelers. So he touts how his staff have made stays at his hotels memorable in a bid to give him an edge over his rivals.
Samantha Shankman, Skift
The Four Seasons wants to convey how its staff goes above and beyond the call of duty to entertain guests in its Based on a True Stay campaign.
The recently launched campaign, which tells the stories of real customer experiences, is part of its effort to target travelers currently as young as 11 years old.
“At every touchpoint, in person and digitally, consumers want to be personally recognized as a special guest and welcomed as a friend,” said Marc Speichert, chief commercial officer of Four Seasons, the mastermind behind the company’s marketing efforts. business.
The Four Seasons used information from guest surveys as well as conversations with employees to help create Based on a True Stay, which includes videos depicting situations where staff surprised guests. One location features a hotel employee giving snowballs to a family experiencing snow for the first time while a Four Seasons employee delivers a pony to a young girl in another.
The company sees a huge opportunity to break into the increasingly lucrative segment of Gen Z travelers. pass on to their children more than 68 trillion dollars by 2030, one of the largest wealth transfers in US history. The Four Seasons has therefore decided to launch a new marketing strategy which, according to Speichert, shows how to create personalized experiences for travelers. He added that this will be his approach going forward.
“Looking further into the next 10 to 20 years…there is an opportunity for brands to capture…the preferences of these generations with newfound wealth,” Spiechert said.
Although the company featured the campaign on Facebook and Instagram, Speichert said it was not avoiding more traditional forms of media. The Four Seasons ran the campaign in The New York Times, a medium it says boosted its marketing efforts.
The Four Seasons is also increasing investment in its website and app, with the latter seeing a 61% increase in downloads from 2021 to 2022.
“The future of luxury will be driven by data and insights and defined by human connection and imagination,” Speichert said.