Building your travel brand in a competitive online environment - an insight from lastminute.com

As competition and consolidation in the industry hots up, building your brand is one of the top priorities for travel companies in order to increase visitors, conversion rates and drive consumer loyalty. How can you ensure that you take advantage of the latest marketing innovations online to build your brand?

Mark McCulloch, Head of Brand Development at lastminute.com will be speaking at EyeforTravel’s upcoming Travel Distribution Summit to be held in London 23-24 May.  In a brief interview with EyeforTravel, Mark emphasized the importance of a strong brand strategy.

EFT: Some leading travel companies have gone for a brand-centric structure in order to drive growth and financial performance. Should your brand the focal point for your business?

Mark: Branding is a long term approach. It is an integral part of lastminute.com’s sales, marketing, communication and supply strategies.  Experimenting with new technology and harnessing new communication channels such as user-generated content all serve to increase interaction with their consumers and improve brand awareness.

EFT: In an increasingly competitive online environment, how can you differentiate your brand?

Mark: In a highly competitive online environment, communicating with your consumer on many different relevant levels – including in their own language, at their convenience and in an unpredictable way – enables your marketing message to be an integral part of their daily lives.

EFT: Is it possible to measure ROI on brand awareness online?

Mark: Yes, there are many ways to measure ROI- using a real time measurement tools such as brand index and more innovative tools that measure how much your brand is being talked about peer to peer. You also need be aware the effect that all customer touch points including through the line, online marketing, PR, sponsorship and partnerships all make up your brand awareness and consistency in your marketing is more vital than ever.

EFT: Do customers still exhibit brand loyalty? Or is it inevitable that in the price conscious world of online retail, customers will always be disloyal? Does brand equity really drive traffic? 

Mark: Brand loyalty is the same as it ever was.....customers will be brand loyal if you get it right and it is a simple mix of product, ease of use and relevance of offers and marcomms. It is just that the game has moved on and your customers are more sophisticated (everyone’s are) and they are much more media savvy, have more choice than ever, more promiscuous than ever and the ease of visiting each ‘shop’, where you can stand out is owning that emotional connection with a great brand. Brand recall was 100% amongst our latest round of research, which just makes you work harder to ensure you stay at that level of customer’s consciousness. If you start to get into a search only and price only game you will be left behind. 

Mark McCulloch will be joined by James Keeler, International Head of Online Marketing & CRM, Visitbritain and Chris Loughlin, MD, Travelzoo (Europe) Ltd on the session ‘Building your brand in a rapidly changing online environment’ at the European Travel Distribution Summit, London.  The event sees leading travel professionals from all over Europe convene for 2 days of learning, networking, debate and inspiration. To request your complimentary brochure about the conference click here or visit the event website www.eyefortravel.com/tds2007/conference To register visit click here