With marketing budgets tight, and the need greater than ever to differentiate high end hotels from their competition, achieving real impact with limited dollars may seem like a hopeless cause.

Memo to directors of sales and marketing: Take heart. You have more to sell, and there are more easy, cost-effective ways of doing it, than you may realize. A little creative marketing can take you a long, long way.

The key is focusing on the individual elements of the hotel that encapsulate, in a nutshell, what makes it truly different or compelling to your potential guest. And then, communicating those differences using the right marketing vehicle.

Here are some tips for getting it done.

"Product or Service?" : A Marketing Primer

At a course in Strategic Brand Management for Hotels that I teach at New York University, the opening class session always begins with the same question: When you �sell� a hotel room, are you selling a product or a service?

The class responses are always the same: Roughly one-third of the students say a hotel is a product � you are selling a room, a set of amenities, a restaurant, a lobby. Another third says that hotel marketing sells service: After all, it�s about the hotel�s ambiance, its feel � or in New York, its �attitude.�

Of course, the rest of the class hits it dead on: Marketing a hotel is neither about product nor service alone . . . it is both.

The fascination of hotel marketing � sometimes, also, its frustration and complication � is that a hotel is actually a complex admixture of product and service. 

From a revenue perspective, general managers know this very well: A hotel may be located perfectly, have just completed a $20 million renovation, offer comfortable beds and fabulous amenities. But if the staff is not well trained and the service is sub-par, you will never keep loyal guests.

Similarly, you can have the nicest, most helpful staff in the world and the most wonderful ambiance � but if the rooms are outdated and the hotel is poorly located, it�s unlikely that it will be profitable.

The Bright Side of Complexity

For marketers, the bifurcated nature of hotels present equally complicated challenges: With limited advertising and PR budgets, which elements should be the focus of the marketing message? Which marketing vehicles should get the dollars?

For answers, think in terms of the product and service aspects of the marketing process in which you are engaged.

For example, several years ago my firm represented a new luxury boutique hotel in a major northeastern urban market. We sought to get the hotel out to the public in a way that would convey the essence of the hotel�s �hip but historic� positioning, for the truly discerning consumer. 

Many of the hotel�s features were intricate and outstanding, but one caught our eye: A newel lamppost, circa 1900, that was installed at the base of the lobby stairway leading up to the guest rooms. We researched its history, photographed it, and distributed it with a press release to style magazines. Before long, it had become the �signature� feature of the property, and was communicating just the image the property wished to convey.

Later that year, we discovered the same luxury property was installing a truly new kind of mini-bar in guest suites. There would be no Snickers bars or Cheese Doodles here. Rather, the finest wines and most exotic Belgian wafers would be available, for guests willing to pay the price.

Again, a press release was the vehicle of choice � and we entitled it, fittingly, �raising the bar.� The media response was tremendous, and again the property was able to reap widespread awareness with minimum investment.

Typrewriter Tossing and �Ground-up�-Thinking

Sometimes, the right �angles� are not so easy to find, and you have to look to the hotel�s location, its quirky features � or even to the calendar.

Years ago I represented a mid-priced hotel brand that was opening a new 70-room inn, in a Midwestern rust-belt city. The hotel was brand new, and the market was promising � but there was nothing �remarkable� about the product itself. . .  other than its state-of-the-art business center (this was 1995 when such business centers were not so common). Still, ownership was intent on making some �noise� and setting the property apart.

Some research revealed that the grand opening of the hotel was scheduled for the same day as national Secretary�s Day. And in this particular market, a local radio station commemorated that holiday by holding an annual �typewriter toss� � having secretaries from local businesses stand atop a downtown building and drop old, unused typewriters down at a bulls-eye. The typewriter-tosser who came closest to hitting the bullseye, received a cash prize and was interviewed on the radio.

Here was our chance. We partnered with the radio station to celebrate the opening of our new hotel, featuring a new service in the market: The 24-hour on-property business center. We offered listeners the chance to win a free week�s stay at any one of our branded hotels around the country, plus airfare and transfers (the latter were arranged through a partnership with a national airline), if they called to find out more about the hotel or come in for a property tour.

The result was a week of on-air promotional spots for the property on the radio station, and coverage for the event in many regional newspapers.

We followed up by sending out a press release on the typewriter event � since we were now its primary local sponsor �, offering additional room nights and giveaways. The unprecedented coverage grew, with a feature article on the property � and our brand � in USA Today.

Conclusion

Of course, not every press release, promotional event or marketing gimmick is a winner � and even with �guerilla� marketing tactics such as described above,  it�s critical to pay attention to cost, timing and tactics.

At the same time, with competition increasing in every market and the Internet intervening to raise price and convenience above all other considerations, hotels would do well to make sure their marketing messages are sharp, crisp and compelling � and that the messages and tactics reflect the feel and sensibility of the hotel they are selling.

Remember: It�s all about your product and your service.

Sometimes, a bit of creative thought can take you further than a Madison Avenue advertising campaign.

Michael Frenkel has 15 years in public relations and communications, all of them designing integrated programs for industry-leading companies. He founded M Frenkel Communications, MFC PR, in 1999. In addition to his role at MFC, Michael is an adjunct professor at the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Management at New York University.