Ever wondered what spiritual marketing looks like in real life? And how you can use it to find practical solutions to problems in your business? Then this article is for you.
In this post, you’ll see how spiritual marketing can help a hotel attract more customers in the down season. But before we look at the solution, let’s get to know our hotel.
Getting to know the hotel
The small, family-run hotel sits on the edge of one of two lakes in a spa town. The hotel has around 50 rooms and mainly attracts senior couples (ages 60 and up) who stayed in the town’s rehab clinic after an injury or illness and have come back during the holiday season ever since.
However, as less and less rehab visits are granted, and the hotel’s once loyal guests are becoming older (and less able to travel) the hotel is no longer fully booked in the down season, between October and March.
The family wants to keep investing in the hotel to create positive experiences for guests, but with low booking levels during the winter months, they can not put aside enough cash for the investments and improvements they planned.
Analysis of the case from a spiritual marketing perspective
Spiritual marketing builds on the idea of mutual value – meaning that value needs to flow in both directions: from a business to its customers, and from the customers back to the business.
We can therefore ask two questions about this case:
- What is the value that spiritual marketing can bring to the hotel?
- What can the hotel offer to its guests in exchange for the value it receives?
In this case, the hotel wants to increase bookings in winter to provide funds for future investments. The bookings (and hence money received) are the main value that spiritual marketing can bring to this business.
As the hotel has been running for more than 25 years, its loyal customers love the experience and come back to enjoy the gorgeous breakfast, spacy rooms and stunning views of the lake year after year.
Investing in the hotel’s facilities will also benefit the hotel owners and guests long-term, as guests enjoy even-nicer holidays and the hotel owners can sustain (or increase) their existing revenue.
But what about the guests that the hotel owners would like to see this and next winter? What extra things can they enjoy even before the investment comes to life?
That is the crux of the matter. And the hotel will need to address it to create a compelling offer for their out-of-season guests.
So, what can the business offer to guests in exchange for the value it receives in winter-time? Let’s do a little brainstorming exercise and come up with a few ideas.
Perhaps guests can enjoy:
- Guided winter walks by the lake and nearby forest
- Group trips to the Christmas market, local ski resort or other winter-time events
- Cosy indoor activities for cold days like reading hour, coffee and story time, boardgames, etc.
- Discounts or more favourable rates than in summer
- A special winter menu from a local restaurant, served directly in the hotel (the hotel currently offers breakfast-only to their guests).
- … and so on.
As you can see, there are many ways in which the hotel can provide more value to its guests. The next step is to choose to the best option(s), based on the owner’s values for their hotel and the wishes of their guests.
Creating valuable offers as a spiritual marketer
To make a valuable offer in line with the spiritual marketing philosophy, you can follow three simple steps:
- Eliminate options that do not match the values of the business – the hotel and owners
- Eliminate options that do not match the wishes of the customers – the guests
- Present the offer to your customers in the most appealing way
Know thy values
Before you can remove options from your list, you need to know what the business and its owners value. In this case, the hotel owners value harmony, comfort and compassion.
This is reflected in the homely and cozy atmosphere that they have created and the way they build personal relationships with guests.
For example, the staff ask guests how they are doing at the breakfast buffet and empathise with their experiences. Each hotel room also comes with a fridge and dressing room with ample storage space so guests feel welcome and enjoy some of the comforts of their usual home.
Based on these values and how they come to life in the hotel every day, we can evaluate the options that we brainstormed earlier. For example:
- Activities requiring a high fitness level may not match the owner’s value of comfort. Skiing, in particular, would require leaving behind the safety and comfort of the hotel for the uncertain and injury-prone slopes of the local ski-resort. (Besides, high-intensity and challenging exercise is unlikely to be a good fit for a senior and somewhat physically ailing demographic).
- Instead, the winter menu from the local restaurant served directly in the hotel, or indoor group activities might be a better match.
Know thy guests
The family has decided that the winter menu fits well with their values, and they expect their guests will enjoy it too. After all, guests frequently compliment their tasty breakfast buffet and some have said that they are hesitant to walk or drive to restaurants in the city centre after dark, particularly if the roads are wet and cold, as they usually are in winter.
To design an appealing offer, the hotel should consider what they know about their guests. For example, many guests have travelled several hours to reach the hotel, coming from all parts of the country.
They also value traditional German cuisine more so than Italian or Chinese food, the latter of which appeals to a younger demographic. With that in mind, the hotel might decide to partner with a local German restaurant to create a menu that caters to different tastes within the German cuisine. For example:
How to make an offer more compelling
To present an offer in the most appealing way, the hotel can increase the perceived value of that offer. Perceived value can be shaped by a range of factors, including exclusivity, price, scarcity, urgency and complementary benefits and accessories.
Let’s consider what each of these might look like for the hotel.
Exclusivity: The hotel could create a unique and exclusive offer by serving some dishes in the hotel only – and not having them on the menu of the local restaurant. They could also have chef suggestions or substitute dishes for guests with specific dietary requirements or a dish-of-the-day based on specialities from different parts of the country.
Pricing: The hotel couldinclude the winter menu in its nightly rate to create a package offer, present a specific discount for guests, or offer a free meal to guests who stay at least 5 nights. They could also mention the value of the dine-in experience in their promotions.
Scarcity: The hotel could offer the winter menu in specific weeks of the year, where bookings are usually low, or make it available to a limited number of guests (e.g. those who have visited the hotel at least twice before, or have stayed at least once in the past year).
Urgency: The hotel could limit the winter menu to guests who book before a specific date.
Complementary benefits and accessories: The hotel can make the winter menu more enticing by inviting local musicians to play background music in the dining hall, having random seating so guests can get to know each other, or allowing people to reserve seats in advance with a direct view of the lake.
As you can see, there are a number of ways to make an offer more compelling. But the ones with the best outcomes will always match the owner’s values and the wishes of their customers.
In this case, the hotel has chosen to add a dish-of-the-day to their menu, play quiet background music in the dining hall and make a free main course available to guests who stay for more than 5 consecutive nights.
Presenting the offer in line with spiritual marketing principles
Now that the hotel has a valuable offer for their winter guests, they can choose to promote it in line with spiritual marketing principles.
Intention
Spiritual marketing is intentional about the goals and values of a business and will only promote offers in a way that the marketer feels comfortable with. This means, no sleazy sales tactics, but a consideration of how a valuable offer can be best presented to those who will appreciate it.
For example, the hotel owner’s intention is to drive to drive sales from existing customers within a 3 to-6-month period, as that would be good timing for this year’s winter season. The family also doesn’t want to spend any extra money on this promotion, so they can save up for future investments, and of course, their communications should align with values of harmony, comfort and compassion.
What marketing channels should they use?
The owners love to manage their hotel, but haven’t spent much time promoting their rooms, as guests have consistently come through recommendations from friends or after seeing the hotel during one of their visits in the rehab clinic.
The family is unsure of what marketing channels would be suitable to promote their new offer. So they take this quiz to get a personalised recommendation from more than 30 different channels.
The recommendations they receive are as follows:
- Online communities
- Collateral
- And organic social media
After reading through the descriptions of each option, they decide that collateral is the most promising channel for the business, as they do not reach many older people through social media and don’t have the time to look after an online community with their current team.
With that in mind, they develop two pieces of collateral:
- A sales letter that can be mailed to existing customers
- The brochure for the upcoming year (with a new page featuring their winter menu)
You can see an excerpt of the sales letter and the brochure that the hotel plans to use to attract more guests in winter below:
Excerpt of the sales letter
“Dear …,
Do you remember the good old days when Mum used to cook roast beef with remoulade? The whole family would come together – and even before you sat down to enjoy the delightful Sunday meal, you could feel the warmth of the stove in the kitchen. You would start to hear that soft sizzle in the pan, and your mouth would water at the smell of fresh meat.
No one ever came close to Mum’s cooking. Until now!
Now – we have a special treat for you, as a long-time guest of our hotel. This winter we’re partnering with Zur Guten Quelle to serve traditional German meals in our historic dining hall – with one free dish for you to enjoy during a 5-day stay. The chef has created a mouth-watering menu based on 100 years of cooking tradition, that will surely bring back fond memories of your family’s favourite cuisine.
….”
Excerpt of the brochure
As you can see, spiritual marketing allows you to be very deliberate and intentional about the marketing choices in every part of your business – from problem-solving and offer creation to the design of promotional materials.
If you would like to know more about the spiritual marketing philosophy, have a look at this article, or learn more about the spiritual principles that go into writing effective sales copy.
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