Save me
Further to the last post, Marketing, Urinals and Manipulation here’s another example of the ‘Side Door” tactic.
A hotel on the English Riviera wanted to cut it’s laundry costs and tried to get their guests to re-use their towels when possible. To do this they placed a card on top of the towel bails offering a discount to guests who re-used the towels. End result, towel laundry costs stayed pretty much the same.
This approach failed. Although in marketing terms they ticked many boxes, this approach was too “Front Door”
They then got creative!
In half of the rooms*, they changed the card on top of the towel bails. The new card (featuring a cute Polar Bear) read…
“Please help us care for the environment by re-using your towels.”
Suddenly the whole dynamic changes. Before, the guests had a financial choice. Now they have a moral choice.
Net result: The rooms with the Polar Bear cards reused their towels 40% more than the rooms with the Discount cards.
Reason being, when you stay at a hotel, you don’t care about the cost (anyone who has used a minibar cannot argue with me here). This is because you’re either staying on business (company picks up the tab) or you’re on holiday (spoiling yourself and damp towels don’t mix). Therefore, you’re being offered an incentive for something you don’t actually want.
On the other hand, the Polar Bear card puts responsibility on you, and people always watch people with responsibility (either to be inspired by them or to watch them fall spectacularly from grace). The motivation of being watched, resulted in the guests reusing their towels more.
This is another great example of what a little bit of creative thinking can do for your business. The hotel in question not only surpassed its ‘towel reuse’ target but also increased it’s savings because it did not have to offer the discount mentioned on the first card.
* Note they ’split tested’ both marketing methods in order to weigh the results against each other.
p.s. Interesting Polar Bear fact – They cover their nose with their paw when camouflaging themselves against the snow (promise I’m not making this one up)!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Useful information , great post . Thanks for sharing !!
Thanks for your comment Pamela, glad you liked it!