Ad Age: What was the idea behind the
redesign?
Ms. MacDonald: Our focus this year is about taking the brand to
upscale economy with designs that appeal to millennials. And we did
it through consumer reviews. I get every review that's on Trip
Advisor directly to my phone, and we worked on what consumers were
telling us. For example, some people found that the rooms were
smelly, so we changed the carpets.
Ad Age: What changes would you like to
implement?
Ms. MacDonald: The most important thing is collaboration. We as
marketers are bringing consumers in for the first time to
experience our product. There has to be an unbelievable amount of
collaboration with operations, because when [a consumer] gets to
the place and experiences it, that's where and when loyalty begins.
So I plan to work very closely with operations to make sure what we
want to say and sell is getting through.
Ad Age: What did you need to do
differently?
Ms. MacDonald: We had to remodel the room based on the reviews
we got. Consumers complained of smelly rooms, so we changed the
floors to wood. They wanted clean surfaces, so we put in granite
surfaces. The first thing we concentrated on, was cleanliness.
Simple things go a long way. For example, we added extra plug
points by the bed, and that was an instant hit.
Ad Age: What's your target audience?
Ms. MacDonald: Our target audience is 50% leisure and 50%
business travelers. While our consumers are typically boomers and
Gen X, we are getting a large range of millennials for the first
time. It's surprising how much of the millennial section we are
capturing.
Ad Age: How did you come up with the mobile truck
idea?
Ms. MacDonald: We spent $150 million renovating 150 properties.
When we came up with the design, we built these rooms at trade
shows. What we found was, it was changing people's minds. So we
decided to do it on a great scale … the mobile truck tour.
We could drive around the country, tell our story, bring the
consumers in and sometimes bring it to investors who want to invest
in us. What started out as a seven-city tour ended up being a
20-city tour. …But that said, this is only 5% of the
marketing budget. Our overall marketing budget is about $15
million. The majority of it is online, along with radio spots and a
lot of heavy direct sales and our loyalty program.