BACK TO SCHOOL: A MARKETING 101 REFRESHER FOR HOSPITALITY PROS (PART 1/4)

Kids are getting on buses in the morning, high school football stadiums are lighting up on Friday nights and the leaves are starting to change color. It’s back to school season!

In honor of this exciting time of year, grab your backpack, sharpen your pencils and take a seat in the McConnell Marketing classroom. Here’s a concept from marketing 101 that’s worth a review.

1. Segmentation – Targeting – Positioning

The S-T-P framework is a part of marketing strategy that involves the following three steps:

1. Segmentation – Dividing consumers into separate, distinct groups.
2. Targeting – Deciding which of those groups make the most sense to target.
3. Positioning – Making sure your brand and promotional materials are aligned to best target that group.

Why you should use S-T-P

You might be thinking “We already have a target market, I don’t need to think about marketing strategy.” You’re right, at least as far as your hotel’s overall brand goes, but on a smaller scale S-T-P is a valuable tool.

Think about it. Of course every hotel has a target market, but are all of their individual marketing campaigns targeted towards the same people? Is a lobby poster promoting cocktail hour geared towards the same group as an email blast highlighting kid-friendly rooms and vacation rates? Probably not, which is why using something like S-T-P should be a regular part of the marketing process.

Hotel Example:

Using S-T-P as a guide is a great way to think more strategically about marketing projects. Here’s an example of how someone in the hotel industry could apply this framework. For this example let’s pretend you’re trying to create a brochure that highlights your property’s meeting space.

Segmentation
Instead of just diving into the creative part of the project, start by identifying different, distinct segments of people who need a place to have meetings. Though all businesses have a need for meeting space, not all businesses have the same type of need. Small businesses have different meeting requirements than Fortune 500 conglomerates and companies across different industries have different needs than one another as well. While one type of company might be fine with a meeting space that just has a few tables, another might need access to white boards and audio-visual equipment.

Targeting
Next, you’ll move on to targeting. At this point, you decide which of the segments you identified make the most sense to focus on. After identifying them, some segments should naturally appear more attractive than others. This might be because certain segments are more profitable, your  hotel is better suited to satisfy that particular group’s demands or some other reason.

Whatever the case, you have to remember that you need to choose one or two segments and not try to reach everyone. If your time and money were unlimited you could try to hit every segment but targeting is all about getting the most out of your money and maximizing your marketing results.

Positioning 
Now that you’ve got a specific market segment to target, you have to make sure that your marketing is aligned with that target. This is done by keeping your target in mind while making creative choices. Rather than just thinking vaguely about audience, positioning is about making sure you are choosing the right creative strategy for your specific target.

It’s easy to get caught up in the creative and practical side of producing a marketing piece, but using the S-T-P model can can help you think more strategically about what you’re doing and develop an even more effective piece!

Feeling smarter yet? Stay tuned for the rest of our back to school marketing series throughout the month of September!