Marriott VP: ‘Engaging the customer in a changing market place’

Early last week, two vice presidents of brand research from Marriott International presented on the topic of brand management; this to an intimate group of 35 brand managers throughout the Washington D.C. area. Their speech titled, “Engaging the customer in a changing market place” touched on the concept of a brand being a promise, a relationship and an experience.

Julie Moll, Senior Vice President, and Janet Smalley, Vice President, of brand research represented Marriott International during this presentation. Julie and Janet started their presentation off with one simple statement, “Have a Vision”. Marriott’s vision is simple – customer performance, loyalty and love. Simply; to perform outstandingly well for their customers, develop a sense of loyalty with the customer and associates and build on a loving relationship that potentially goes beyond the confines of a monetary interaction. Julie and Janet stressed the point that a brand is more than a logo or advertisement – it’s a relationship and a promise.

The first step in ensuring deliver of a brand promise (and to start building the relationship) is to take care of your associates. It is a simple equation; take care of the associate, the associate takes care of the customer, the customer comes back and the money takes care of itself. We all know about having our target audience, but many forget to target associates. To be successful, you must have a target associate base, those who will work to uphold the promise that keeps your brand intact. Julie and Janet stress the important of being innovative with your efforts; develop a win-win-win strategy. That is to say, develop the type of employee moral that is inspired by happy customers – those employees that take pride in working for the best to provide the best experience. Once you’ve established that; all there is to do is make the customer happy, which will help make the associate happy which will help make more money – a win-win-win.

In almost every business the customer is seeking more than a product or service, they are seeking and expecting an experience – it is our job to ensure we deliver that experience. It is in the end, the customer’s experience that is going to be most associated with the brand. We must all work hard to sell the right experience to the right customer.

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