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Contingency
Marketing
plans are not 'damage control' -- the things you do after something drastic has
happened in your hotel or market. Contingency
Marketing is anticipating possible threats to your market and the
way you market and sell your hotel. For example, no one could have predicted the
events of September 11 but we could have developed a contingency plan for a
deepening recession.
The SWOT Analysis
is an integral part of many businesses' marketing and business plans. The T
in SWOT stands for 'threats' - threats to
the business from changes in the market, the environment within which the
business operates, changes in travel patterns and feeder markets, etc.
Many hotels have a section in the Marketing
Plan for Challenges and Opportunities. These tend to be posed of paragraphs
on how we will turn challenges into opportunities. Most of these are pretty much
'boiler plate' and given the usual (read almost nonexistent) monitoring process
of marketing plan implementation in hotels, this section is often forgotten. It
is certainly not an executable strategy when those Challenges kick us in the …
bu(dge)t.
Contingency plans are appendices to the
marketing plan that include specific strategies, actions and the persons
responsible for implementation. They also include a monitoring process and
'triggers' for mobilizing the contingency plan.
The key is to plan in advance and respond to
indicators prior to being hit with a crisis or change. For example, a hotel that
I know in a city that shall remain anonymous had ample warning of the radical
restructuring of the Interstate intersection that was the primary artery for
access to the property. They knew that it was coming for years and that the
project would take over two years to complete. The hotel was a luxury product
and primarily a group house so they didn't think that it would deeply impact
their primary market segments.
This was the mid-ninety's when we all thought
that demand was never ending. They allowed for 5-8% decrease in revenue once
construction began but maintained their rate structure and revenue management
strategy. They failed to account for the reactions of their customers and the
subsequent decline in demand. The property lacked a strategy to implement and
after revenues fell by over 50% the hotel was subsequently sold at a bargain
price. The GM was released, the franchise changed (as though that would help)
and the Director of Marketing was last seen running, screaming into the night
dodging construction cranes.
Would a Contingency Marketing Plan have changed
the outcome? Maybe not but if there had been a plan, alternative strategies
could have been implemented well before the situation became a crisis. At least
they would have had a chance of surviving at perhaps a reduced rate, targeted to
a business base that may have found the hotel to be a good value despite the
inconvenience. The owners would have had a more realistic idea of what to expect
and management might still be employed.
Contingency Marketing Plans are the lifeboats
that enable a business to ride the waves and navigate the storms rather than
getting swamped and sinking. |
