Social media is playing a major role in a new campaign by Hyatt to solicit feedback from female travelers. In addition to traditional media, the hotel chain is actively cultivating “an ongoing, real-time dialogue with guests” through social platforms Branch, Facebook and Twitter.
Described as the “Listening Loop,” the approach encourages women to weigh in on their travel needs, through online feedback or even through personal conversations in hotel lobbies. Research showed that nearly 37% of Hyatt customers are women, and women make 82% of all travel decisions. Yet John Wallis, Hyatt’s global head of marketing and brand strategy, told AdWeek that “Hotels have been created by men for men. Women deserve a completely different customer experience than men.”
Responses mentioned everything from robes and slippers being too big, bad shampoo and fattening food on the menu to the need for electronics chargers and yoga mats. The brand plans to continue eliciting feedback, and then create “a digital mock-up” of an updated hotel room (based on consumer suggestions). AdWeek reports that guests will be able to tour and rate the prototype before Hyatt rolls out the real thing in one of its lab hotels.
In describing the process, Wallis says “It’s about having more brand awareness than advertising.” And rather than pushing a message at consumers through social media, director of digital strategy Dan Moriarty says “…we’ve devised our whole social strategy around the idea that rather than just push out [messages], we’re opening the lines of communication.”
And this is just the beginning — in the fall, Hyatt go further with the Listening Loop process, this time targeting a different customer segment.
