Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Dessigners Need To See My Product For Hotels

Posted by Anonymous on 9/11/2013 at 11:42 AM ET 250 Points
We create a hand crafted wallpaper that repairs invisibly and lasts much longer than commercial vinyl wallpapers. This makes our product a perfect fit for Hotels, Restaurants and Nightclubs, but we can't seem to get the Interior Designers and/or Architects that specify wall coverings to take a look at it. It seems that they are stuck in the "commercial vinyl" realm, and they know their profit margin already, so they won't give us a chance to show them what we have. When we can show an owner/manager directly, it usually sells itself after a short demo, but can't seem to get a foot in the door many times because they want to let the designers deal with wallpapers. Looking for suggestions on how to get in front of decision makers for hotel & restaurant chains.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 9/11/2013 at 11:51 AM Member
    Where are you located? Have you gone directly to the big hotel chains? Do they have architectural product representatives who are already well known to the architects in your area/country?
  • Posted by Moriarty on 9/11/2013 at 11:54 AM Accepted
    Firstly, you have a good product, and as a former interior decorator, I know what makes a good wallpaper. The other side of the issue is that your product has qualities that allow it to last longer.

    Two thoughts: (1) a Google Display network campaign targeted directly at the kind of people who have already shown interest. The ins and outs are fairly complex but let it be said that you can target people through their affiliation to a golf club - or by what car they drive. These are long shots, but it gets you advertising when they're not on duty and have time to consider. You can also use re-marketing using cookies, it's not so effective as it was two years ago, it still works.

    (2) You could try a Facebook campaign. some of your clientele will be on Facebook. IF you have an email list, you can simply dump this into their algorithm and the things it'll come back to you with have to be seen to be believed. Again, careful insightful analysis will yield results.

    You can advertise via video of course, and have videos on your landing page too.

    There are other things I could suggest, this'll do for a start.
  • Posted on 9/11/2013 at 12:05 PM Author
    Thanks for the great suggestions. We are located in the Midwest (Minnesota), but have done many trade shows in previous years to get to other areas of the country. We have taken contact lists from those trade shows and sent samples, brochures, emails, etc... but for the most part, the larger hotel chains say we need to be added to their "list of vendors" before they will look at our products. We just can't seem to find the right people to give us the time to show them so we can be added to the group of recommended vendors. We have sold our papers to a handful of privately owned hotels and nightclubs, but we need to break into the larger chain operations to really grow our company. We have also taken our sample books to several hotels/casinos in Las Vegas, and actually had our product chosen and ordered by a larger property, but that was the same time that the economy fell apart and they cancelled their order. We have previously tried joining groups like ASID and IFDA to get in front of Designers, but they immediately think that since we have a "hand crafted" product, it will be more costly and their profit margin will be reduced so we didnt get much response from those groups. I will definitely try doing a Facebook campaign. Thanks again for your suggestions!
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 9/11/2013 at 12:08 PM Member
    In many cases, I don'[t like trade shows. But this does sound like a case where it could be worth doing. Find a targeted show (such as from https://www.hospitalityexpos.com) and set up a good display that fully describes this (preferably a hands on demo or a video - not just people standing around a booth) and have a process in place at the show to move the people toward purchasing.
  • Posted on 9/11/2013 at 5:39 PM Moderator
    I think you may have a positioning problem. You are probably trying to sell something that nobody wants. YOU think it's a great idea, but your prospective customers don't value the thing that makes your product unique.

    You may need to step back from the problem you THINK you have and revisit the market you're trying to serve.

    We've seen this kind of problem before. You're not the first people to report this symptom. See if you can find a positioning expert to deal with this in some depth.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/11/2013 at 8:01 PM Member
    I'd start slowly. Contact some local interior designers/architects. Explain what you offer. Don't try to sell it to them. Just have a dialogue with them about the product/offer/details. Get their feedback. If there's interest, see how you might be able to work with them to get some visibility. If there's no interest, re-read Michael Goodman's sage advice (above).
  • Posted on 9/12/2013 at 9:38 AM Author
    We do already work with some designers and they love our prodcuts, but our hurdle seems to be getting the specifiers for the larger chain companies to consider a new option for walls in their hotels. I thought maybe there was a different avenue we hadn't tried or thought of yet to reach these specific decision makers. Thanks again for the comments!
  • Posted by Moriarty on 9/12/2013 at 11:31 AM Accepted
    Tami,

    there are some very different methods, only they take a lot of imagination. And some hard work. The display network is the key here - because to my mind, catching these guys when they're not looking (as it were - when they're off duty) is crucial. That's going to take some digging - reverse engineering as marketers like to put it.

    Your best start is hand-dug data from Linkedin (do you have a paid subscription?). It'll take a long time, by the time you've finished you'll have some real gold dust in your hand. What's as important is that you'll have gotten an idea of their character. This is why I suggest you do this. I did it with the forum statistics by the way, and the results stunned me. That's just to say that hand digging the data really works - when you're asking the right questions that is.

    Take this Linkedin Data and now cross-reference it to Facebook. Again, this is time consuming. It's the only way for you to get these revelations. Okay? You'd not believe me unless you do this for yourself. If you stack up the data yourself, it's something you can't counter. It wasn't your market researcher getting it all wrong. There are software options for this kind of data mining - https://Krystalitics.com for one.

    Only if you don't think that this is useful, do some digging yourself and you'll discover some commonalities that really will rock your boat. You'll find that they all drive - a 750i BMW or a SL type Merc rather than a SLS type. You'll get to the point and find he drives a 5 series and you think "ha! I don't want you, you loser!". This applies to most of 'em - this is never factual by the way it's always hearsay. Only you've spent the time digging this stuff out, you've gathered it. Motorcars are but one dimension of this, they might all like Bach's air on a G string or Beethoven's Midnight Sonata ... or Louis Armstrong (now how would I know this ?? ... :-) It could be Pizza Neapolitana - they might all have a penchant for the Gellert in Budapest for all I know ... the point is to keep your eyes peeled for commonalities wherever they lie.

    It is not a fluke.

    It is hard work, so once you tire of it, put it down. Do half an hour a day - by the end of the week you'll have some meaningful data that you can use to target people on Facebook and the Display network. I'm preparing a PDF on Facebook advertising, so keep a weather eye open. I can't do much just now as the new algorithm hasn't been rolled out in Germany or Holland.

    Any questions, please ask.



  • Posted on 9/12/2013 at 2:04 PM Moderator
    Moriarty, it's www.kristalytics.com. You have to spell it right if you want people to find it. :)
  • Posted on 9/12/2013 at 2:11 PM Author
    Wow! This will be a true learning experience for me to accomplish these tasks, but I will do my best! Thank you for all of your wisdom and suggestions!
  • Posted by Moriarty on 9/12/2013 at 2:17 PM Member
    Oops! Thanks, Mr Goodman.

    There's as much plugging away at the task as wisdom. The best carpenters know that their finest skills are in but 1% of the work they do - yet but for that 1% none of it would work. Think of wisdom and work in roughly that proportion ;-)
  • Posted by Moriarty on 9/18/2013 at 2:56 AM Accepted
    I would like to add a qualification to the above answer. In saying " jumping into Google and Facebook will NOT solve your problems" - Google (PPC) and Facebook are the two fastest ways to discover if the problem you're tackling is the correct one. They are media that will tell you if your assumptions about your market are correct.

    Or not.

    Whilst they will not solve your problems, they will give you direct hard evidence as to what your audience is thinking. Remember nobody wanted a Volkswagen in 1955. An original and highly effective campaign in 1959 tore a slice out of an otherwise commodity market. They only sold to those who wanted beetles - but sell they did. And the original quality of those advertisements was due to their understanding of who would - and as importantly, who would not buy a VW bug.

    You are in the same position. Find out who you're selling to - PPC/Facebook will give you the answer in a day or two. Find out what they like, how they like it, and then see if it'll sell to them. You'll have your answer inside a week and it won't break the bank.
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