It’s that time of year again—time to exhibit at a trade show or consumer event, and it’s time to make it known that your hotel is green, or at least striving to be. It’s great that consumer and industry trade shows are now greening themselves. They (the shows) definitely make it known that they are green or environmentally friendly through their marketing, promotions, publicity and often advertising. And if you’re exhibiting there, it only makes sense that you make travelers aware of your eco-friendly facility. The question remains, just how do you accomplish this? Because there are so many aspects to successfully exhibiting your property in a green manner, I’m going to devote two articles to this topic.
Trade Show Booth Strategy
Very large companies have large budgets to help them market, advertise and promote their companies in a big way. But bigger is not necessarily always better, especially when you consider the environment—your natural strategic partner. Your booth should be considered your calling card. It either draws people in or repels them. Trust me, I worked in the trade show industry and I’ve seen plenty do the latter.
When you consider how you want to best represent your brand (your company, products and services), you need to consider the old, not-very-PC saying, “Keep it simple, stupid.” We call this K-I-S-S. Because travelers are not as familiar as you think about what constitutes a green hotel and what it means to them, it’s better to keep things as straightforward as possible. Just use the same philosophy you learned in kindergarten—“show and tell.” Show them what your green features are, then tell them why it is important—the story behind it and what’s in it for them. This same strategy can be applied to most any part of your show experience.
Marketing Your Hotel as Green
How you market is equally as important as what you say in your marketing pieces. You can say all you want, but your actions will always speak louder than your words. If you say that you are reducing waste and have started a recycling program, yet you are printing on less than 30 percent recycled paper and using chemicals instead of soy-based inks, it really doesn’t show much of a commitment. To successfully market green, you need to consider the following:
• How will you make your hotel known without too much waste?
• How will you make potential travelers aware that you are keeping the environment in mind when marketing?
• How will you package your information?
• How will you drive potential customers to your booth in the most environmentally friendly fashion while being true to your brand?
Think about this. You take the time to carefully craft the perfect message, you design your collateral pieces to enhance your words, and you print your pieces on post consumer recycled paper using soy-based inks. Then you hand out the materials in an oversized folder that is inserted into a plastic bag.
Even if the plastic bag was recycled, was it really necessary? I see so many booths at shows handing out plastic bags. For what reason? To gather information from booths that then goes into a circular file—the wastebasket. A large amount of information that is picked up at trade shows is thrown out without ever being looked at again. That’s why it’s important that you don’t overload people with too much information or literature and find the best way to disseminate it to them. Consider other ways to disseminate your information:
• USB flash drive. Business people get loaded down with a lot of information. If you provide your information on a flash drive, they can easily go back and download it on their computer, then keep the flash drive for later—few will throw away something of this perceived value. Plus, it’s your marketing piece and promotional item all in one.
• CD (business card size or regular). CDs are another item of perceived value—much higher than paper. Hand out a small piece of literature if needed and put the majority of the information on a CD.
• Plantable envelope or package. If you plan to announce something or hold an event (open house, etc.), consider printing it on plantable paper. Once the event is over, they can plant it in the ground. Also, you can consider plantable paper as a way to package your materials. It can be expensive, but it is quite memorable and, just like a flash drive, it’s a marketing and promotional piece in one. I sent a holiday card printed on plantable paper and I cannot believe how many people mentioned it.
Four Ps of Marketing
While you’re at it, don’t forget the 4Ps of marketing—Product, Price, Placement and Promotion:
1. How will you make sure that your potential customers perceive your product (your green hotel) as having value?
2. How will you indicate to them that the price is right and worth it?
3. How will you make it known that your hotel exists (placement)?
4. How will you persuade your target customers to buy (promotion)?
Your booth and marketing are just two of the five aspects we are going to cover when considering marketing green at a trade show. Take just one idea that I mentioned in this article to make it known that you are green and implement it today. You’ll be one step closer to realizing your goal of making it known that your hotel is the hotel of choice for travelers, business people and consumers alike.
Colette Chandler is an expert in consumer health and environmental trends and is the president of The Marketing Insider, a marketing and communications consulting firm that teaches companies how to profit from consumer trends and understand the consumers who influence them. Learn about the media training services she offers, including her Walk the Media Tightrope audio program, or the study her firm conducted on attitudes of green and health-conscious consumers at www.marketing-insider.com. Sign up for her newsletter at www.marketing-insider.com. She can be reached at (614) 776-1416 or at cchandler@marketing-insider.com.
