This is a viewpoint from Maria Harrison, president of Bullseye Strategy.
How travelers really use technology for direct bookings (part one of three)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the Consumer Journey for travelers used to be simpler and more direct. But the contemporary digital landscape in our world has changed all that. And there’s a way in which today’s travel consumers are using technology that makes their consumer journey like the hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker.
Now, hear me out. Star Wars is a classic example of a hero’s journey that has been used to explain both the structure of storytelling and the structure of the consumer’s journey in marketing. So using a Star Wars analogy isn’t just me appealing to my inner sci-fi nerd (although ok, it’s that too). Star Wars is simply consummate storytelling.
But what is new is the way “Star Wars Marketing Theory,” as my inner nerd likes to call it, can specifically be adapted to the consumer journey for travel consumers. To fully understand why, we need to briefly look at the way Star Wars works as a hero’s journey.
But first, one more critical point. Due to the difference in price parity today between direct travel bookings and bookings through an online travel agency (OTA), resorts must work harder than ever to earn direct bookings rather than OTA bookings. The reward for generating direct bookings is a significantly higher ROI.
In this series of three articles, we will hit on the important moments of the customer journey and the technological tools you need to be using to defeat the evil galactic empire of lower cost OTA’s.
Jedi moments & micro-moments: Understanding the consumer journey
The thing about Luke’s journey in Star Wars is that it’s a long and winding road. It is not a direct straight shot from beginning to end. Compare Luke’s planned journey to the one he actually takes.
His planned journey is this:
- Luke flies into outer space
- Rescues Princess in distress
- Flies home
This is not what happens when you look at the scope of the original Star Wars trilogy. The journey looks more like this:
- Luke flies into outer space
- Rescues Princess in Distress
- Leaves fellow Rebels and pursues Jedi training
- Interrupts Jedi training to rescue friends
- Confronts the evil Darth Vader who is Luke’s… never mind, in case you are the one person who hasn’t seen these movies
- Resumes Jedi training
- Ends Jedi Training and rejoins rebels for final attack
- Defeats the Empire
- Lives Happily Ever After (maybe until Star Wars Episode VIII...)
Luke Skywalker’s planned journey is like a customer’s planned trip: travel to a destination, experience vacation, travel back home.
But the journey before the journey, the traveler consumer journey, is much more like the journey Luke actually takes. It bounces back and forth between stages before it finally ends up where the travel consumer wants to be: on the vacation of her dreams.
In Star Wars, each of the episodes is a moment in the hero’s journey. We can call these “Jedi Moments.” When booking travel, the stages of the consumer journey are called “micro-moments” because they are generally very brief periods. To understand more about the travel customer journey, we need to look at these micro-moments in more depth.
After this, we will look at the technological tools needed to compete in the contemporary digital landscape and to drive direct bookings.
Micro-moments: The episodes of a travel consumer’s journey
There are five micro-moments that make up the traveler consumer’s journey. These are:
#1: Dream
Like Luke Skywalker gazing beyond the two moons of Tatooine desiring heroic adventure, the traveler’s journey begins with dreaming. During the dreaming phase, the consumer has neither decided on a destination for her trip nor a resort where she will stay. There is a world, a galaxy, of possibilities, and she will be scouring websites and other sources to try and find the vacation of her dreams. These may be websites for particular resorts or Online Travel Agents like Expedia, Hotwire, and more.
#2: Plan
Once Luke Skywalker knows his mission is to rescue the Princess, he needs a game plan. And once the travel consumer has decided on a particular destination they need to decide on a resort to book. They will have to choose between you and your many competitors. The consumer will be conducting research using the internet, travel books, thoughts from friends and even by using social media crowdsourcing.
#3: Book
Luke Skywalker determined that Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon are his best bet to fly him to the imprisoned Princess. Once your traveler determines the resort that is the best fit for their travel wants and needs, they will be ready to move on to the booking phase. At this point the chosen resort must have created an excellent customer booking experience. Make booking simple and pleasant and you will be rewarded with a happy customer and a direct booking. If it’s cumbersome, you might lose them to an OTA. Motivate direct bookings with things like exclusive value-adds (e.g. free champagne and strawberry arrival, complimentary robes, etc.) that they can only get by booking direct.
#4: Experience
Luke’s adventure to rescue Princess Leia went beyond his wildest dreams. A customer’s experience at their resort needs to go beyond any of their expectations as well. The resort needs to thoroughly delight the traveler at every interaction. Always anticipate their possible needs and meet them where they are. Then go beyond. This will have significant future benefits for your business.
#5: Share
Luke’s galactic adventures were made so much more meaningful because he shared them with the people he valued most, like Leia, Han, and even that little beeping robot R2D2. And when it comes to real life social media, sharing is also everything.
Getting the share is the holy grail of social media marketing. Whether that’s customers sharing your posts, or creating new posts when they’re on property with you, the share is the ultimate form of flattery and most importantly, amplification of your marketing message.
If travelers love their trip, they will share the experience across their social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it. Not only does this provide social proof to other potential travelers that your resort is the vacation experience of a lifetime, but it will also inspire the consumer’s friends and contacts that they want their own travel adventures as well. Then the dreaming cycle begins again with a new Luke Skywalker.
So how can you leverage digital technology to carry your potential customer all the way to becoming a raving fan of your luxury resort? This is exactly what we will cover in Episode II: The Consumer Journey Strikes Back.
By the end of this series, we’ll have you saying, “Great shot kids, that was one in a million” to yourself and your digital marketing team.
This is a viewpoint from Maria Harrison, president of Bullseye Strategy.
Photo by James Pond on Unsplash