I speak and train regularly in the hospitality industry. Green is getting to be a very popular topic and I am asked to speak on how to be effective in marketing and communicating to green and LOHAS consumers. LOHAS consumers are the ones driving the trends.
What I have found is that that the hospitality understands what it takes to go green, but not as much on how to effectively market and communicate to these consumers. The issue is that if you become a green facility and do not market or effectively communicate that you are green in the right way, you can lose the consumers.
Worse yet, you can hurt the state as a whole. I am a firm believer that states that go green within the hospitality industry should really have a budget for green training on how to market and communicate to green and LOHAS consumers. If they do this, they will be able to attract and retain more green tourists. If they don’t train hotels, inns, CVBs, etc., they could lose tourists who may not know they are green at all.
Recently, I stayed at one of the LEED-certified properties in a particular state. I had no idea from their website or at the hotel that they were one of the leading green hotels in the state. They did not make it known. I see this quite often, which is why I feel there needs to be state funding to pay for green marketing and communications training. My company provides this type of green marketing training for either sales staff or front desk people on how to best represent a green brand.
To be successful in this challenging, green landscape, you have to do whatever you can to ensure your green brand is best represented in the media, in your green marketing, by your partners, and most of all by your staff.
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
Colette Chandler
