Feel the Hamptonality Thursday, Apr 26 2012

O..O..Over and over, we try to prove our love to you.

Over and over, what more can we do.

Over and over, my friends say we’re a fool.

But over and over, we’ll be a fool for you.

’cause we’ve got Hamptonality!

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent a few days sharing great ideas relating to Internal Branding and Employe Engagement with a lot of really smart people representing some really good companies. Among them was Gina Valenti of Hilton Worldwide. She showed us how everyone, internal and external is feeling the Hamptonality.

I’ll admit. When Gina asked the audience to show by hands who had traveled to a Hampton and who the fans were. My hand stayed up. As a value-based product offering, I don’t think Hampton could do any better – always a clean room and bed, always a nice breakfast with a smile. Works for me!

From a brand perspective, I think their positioning lines up fairly identically to the one I try to strengthen every day for the brands I work on, Lady Luck Casino and Isle Casino. So, of course, I was more than just mildly interested to see how Hampton relates that positioning internally so that it can be expressed at every interaction.

What is Hamptonality? Check out this video.

Eventually this made its way through to the external audience in the form of a brand campaign.

Do me a favor. Go to YouTube and search for the term “Hamptonality”. I couldn’t believe the number of videos I found.

Thanks Gina! Thanks to you I have even bigger goals to accomplish.

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Validation and Employee Engagement Monday, Apr 23 2012

According to T.G.I. Friday’s, when Alan Stillman founded the concept in 1965, he created a cool new singles bar because he  figured the bar scene in a city full of skyscrapers needed a bit of a shake up.  One week later, the New York police were called in to control the crowds as hordes of young people flocked to the city’s newest hot spot.

Today, it’s a lot less “singles bar” but a lot more fun. After all, isn’t Friday the best day of the week?

Last week, I spent a few days listening to some great companies talk about their efforts at leveraging  internal branding and improving employee engagement. These companies “get it”. They know that no brand has a chance if the employees aren’t along for the ride. After a whirlwind two days, my traveling companion and I headed to the airport…to cool our heals for the five hours we would have to wait for our flight. He wanted to dine at Friday’s. I just wanted a drink. So, off we went in search of their outpost in the Miami International Airport.

As we walked through the dining room to find our booth in the very back of the restaurant, I happened to get a glimpse of the kitchen. There were a number of workers in there and one was snapping a picture with her camera. I didn’t know if a celebrity had dropped in or if something terrible had happened. Ensconced in our booth, I suddenly heard the cheers and celebration. OK…

Our server stopped by our table to welcome us. I have to tell you she was grinning from ear to ear as you can see by this picture she let me take. I asked her what the celebration was for and she told us that they had been “validated”.

Validated? Huh?

I did not know this, but the location was fairly new. As a team, they staff  had all gone through opening and training together, and after a time of review, T.G.I. Friday’s had now deemed them worthy of “earning their stripes”. They instantly went from trainees wearing nondescript black shirts to the most excited group of people I’ve ever seen wearing their brand new red and white striped shirts.

After two days of coveting the beautiful technology being used by some major companies to connect employees to a vision, this group had been connected by the prospect of wearing a cotton poly blend shirt. Wow!

Simple things can connect your vision and your employees.

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Friday Five – 11/25/11 Friday, Nov 25 2011

My apologies for being absent the last couple of weeks. I guess I didn’t expect to be so distracted. However, I have compiled my list for this week. I hope you enjoy these news clips and that they make you think of great ways to become better marketers.

Do you remember Delta’s iconic tagline “We Love To Fly, And It Shows”? I’d love for airlines to show me how much they love to fly because right now, it’s hard to see it while I try to manuever my way into some sort of comfortable sitting position, or when the person in front of me leans their seat back until it’s practically on me. It’s not that passenger’s fault. He or she is just working with what the airline gave them. I’ve been watching ABC’s Pan Am and I can’t help remembering how I used to love to fly. My mother would get me dressed up in a pretty dress, and I typically had a hat and white gloves. I remember peering into the cockpit with so much amazement. So much of the reasons people loved to fly are gone. I for one would love to see it come back. Read about how Delta is approaching the customer experience.

I’ve worked in the casino industry now for quite a number of years. Every single company I’ve worked for has created jobs, paid lots of tax dollars (LOTS!) and has become outstanding members of the communities. I know the media has to give the opposition equal time, but these kinds of editorials just make me realize how little some folks know of the real casino industry.

…and then there are times when we just lose our focus. People are not huge fans of the gaming options being outside of the normal casino areas. Looks like some of the casinos are moving some games out to the public areas and folks are just not too keen on the additional availability. Read about it here…

I love the way Kimberly-Clark is driving business by making marketing a part of everything. I wonder what would happen if CMOs hired the GMs in casinos.

Finally, I’ve been thinking a great deal about brand champions and employee engagement.At the heart of all these efforts is building a culture brand. Here are some good ways to start.

See you next week!

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Little Things That Wow Sunday, Aug 21 2011

Our annual marketing meeting took place this last week. It’s been a meeting that has taken places in some interesting locations – Philadelphia…Voorhees, NJ…Tunica, MS. Like I said, “interesting”. Interesting or not, it always gave folks a chance to get away from the business and mix a little fun with the meeting. Imagine everyone’s surprise when we chose to host this year’s meeting at our corporate office!

Our offices are located in a little area just west of downtown St. Louis, a little municipality called Creve Coeur. There is a Drury Inn & Suites located just a short walk from our office, making it the most convenient place to stay. I’m the first to admit that I’m a bit of a hotel snob. That part of my personality didn’t get any better when I worked for Wynn Resorts. In fact, it probably made me hyper-sensitive to the little things that can make or break my stay at any hotel.

I had the pleasure of staying at this Drury on my first night in St. Louis. There was some “confusion” with my corporate housing and although no one was available to fix the issue over the weekend, the smiling face behind the check in counter at the Drury was. Not only did she welcome me to St. Louis and to the hotel, she welcomed my mother…my dog…and my cat, AND she kindly informed me that my company had direct billing and offered to apply the charges to the account. Unnecessary, but the offer made my stumbling into her hotel that much sweeter.

I always remember that simple “yes” that turned a really bad day into a good one. So, I wasn’t surprised when one of the attendees to our marketing meeting mentioned to me that the front desk clerk at that very same hotel remembered a conversation she had over a year ago during her last stay. Little did that front desk clerk know that attendee was a last-minute substitute to a meeting that she wasn’t at all sure about. She made her feel welcome and comfortable.

Employees hold the brand promise in their hands every moment of the day. These too ladies did just that for Drury. I always wonder what employees are doing with our brand promise. What are your employees doing today to keep your promise?

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Get Winning with Your Employees Monday, Jul 18 2011

I’m so excited! We rolled out new creative to some of our properties. I’m not excited because of the creative itself – which was wonderfully created by the talented team at The Media & Marketing Group. I’m excited because the core of the refinement we’ve done to the brand is with our employees and the winning excitement they deliver every day with each guest.

I work with a few brands, but the primary brands are Isle and Lady Luck. In the world of casino branding, I couldn’t have been given a better gift than Lady Luck. It’s at once iconic and fun.

I’ll admit I’ve struggled in finding the Isle voice, and after all this work, the brand was staring me in the face the whole time: our employees.

Casino customers visit their favorite casinos to win. Right? Hmmm….not really. Yes, they would like to win, but what they really want is a winning experience – one that gives them entertainment value for their dollar, whether that is time on device, a great meal or being a part of the excitement.

Our employees have embraced our signature courtesy program, See. Say. Smile., and now they have truly become our biggest and most valuable asset.

Meet some of our employee superstars. Who wouldn’t be inspired by them?

Take a peek at some of our back of house materials.

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BOH = Begin Over Here Wednesday, Jun 8 2011

I “borrowed” that headline from Jan Talamo.

In many industries, we use the acronym “BOH” when we want to shorthand “back of house” as if it’s so irrelevant to our work that we can’t even spare the letters.

I’ve been a brand marketer for a number of years. The first of those years was spent in focus groups delving into the psyche and feelings of our customers to develop THE ULTIMATE POSITIONING STATEMENT and some really cool creative. Then, I went to work for Steve Wynn who always told me to put the customer first, both on the experience front and on the communications front. What he showed me was how important the employees are.

Many companies are starting to realize that the brand rubber meets the road with the employee. THEY are the ones we need to talk to. They are the ones we should be developing communications for because they are the ones that will make us successful…or not. Ideally, we would keep them in the loop at all times. I’ve seen many companies do this successfully.

Eddie Bauer maintained a positive employee culture when the going got really rough, by constantly and effectively communicating with employees. Instead of waiting for employees to see Eddie Bauer on the news, they released information to them and the market at the same time. As a publicly traded company, there are many bits of news that have to be communicated in a very particular way. To release information to employees and not violate the rules is a little tricky, but it can obviously be done. In addition, they educated their employees about the business, not just about the product lines. They understood what it was like to be a public company, what covenants and EBITDA were, and basically how the business worked.

Do your employees know that? Do they really share the same values as the C-suite?

I also heard someone from Zappos ask, “Is People Planning the new Media Planning?” Great question. You have to plan great people. Have the right people with the right voice, and you can do anything.

Senior leaders have the power to engage, energize and empower employees. Technology has given us the ability to connect with employees at all levels in order to provide them with messages that are simple, useable and actionable. Employees will be more engaged when they are part of the plan.

Newsletters are a great example of a tool we think is valuable but is often not. Is your newsletter telling the story of your business or is it just a collection of anniversaries and births with a few additional notes about the company picnic?

Look at your employee communications tools today and ask yourself the following questions.
- Is this giving employees the tools they need to deliver the brand promise day in and day out?
- Is this educating employees so that they can be a partner in the future?
- Is this the best way to deliver this message to all of our employees?
- Is this engaging employees so they WANT to be a part of the plan?
- Is this speaking in an understandable language?

I’d love to hear/see examples of great employee communications!

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Creating the Fun Monday, Mar 7 2011

Last year, I was able to attend a conference on Internal Branding and Employee Engagement. I was quite honored when the organizers asked me speak recently. Then, I became really worried when I saw the list of speakers. They were from some big companies. I mean BIG. Big name. Big brand value. The company I work for is not BIG. We’re actually kind of medium-sized. I like to say we’re “small but mighty”. Nonetheless, I was still concerned that what I had to present wouldn’t be as powerful as what McDonald’s could say…or what HP might present. AIG would surely have a great story about keeping employees engaged in turbulent times.

Then I remembered something. We’re in the entertainment business! So, I put together a presentation I thought would entertain and engage – illustrating how one of our smallest properties set in a pretty competitive market could take a focused look at what they wanted to deliver from a brand perspective and do it with the energy of an engaged workforce and without the need of huge budgets.

Here is the presentation. Make sure you click on the video on the See.Say.Smile. slide (slide 21). We loved making it and using it as a training tool.

I would also be remiss in not crediting the beautiful Wynn Las Vegas work done by Slover and Co. It always brings me so much pride.

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How would the people you’ve supervised describe you? Wednesday, Dec 1 2010

We all like to think we’re good managers/mentors/supervisors/leaders, but do you ever how those you’ve led would describe you?

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How would your boss describe you? Wednesday, Nov 24 2010

I used to think I had great interview questions that allowed me to see a job candidate’s real personality and ability to fit in our organization. I recently discovered that those questions differ when you’re interviewing for a management position.

Last week I asked you to describe yourself as a leader or manager. This week, I’d love to know how you think your boss would describe you?

Does it match what they really say? Let me know!

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Finding Inspiration When You Least Expect It Sunday, Aug 29 2010

You know how so many companies use those stock images of happy employees for back of house or internal communication? We use them too, with a mixture of “talent” shots.

We wanted to help our employees understand how they fit into our plans. So rather than relying on the stock shots, we thought we’d create a new library of employee images. We decided to use actual employees, but not just a handful. We wanted a handful from each of our 15 properties. That’s somewhere north of 150 employees. That’s expensive and time-consuming. We’ve been working on this for months. We’re not about 2/3 of the way through. The last shoot I was on was a marathon to get 32 untrained “models” shot, but it was an extraordinary experience. They were energetic, frenetic, engaging, overjoyed and more to be part of this project. In turn, they inspired me to get through event he most frustrating of conference calls.

The selection committee was blown away by the submissions. Our employees really “get it.” They know what an important role they play in the guest experience. Wow! It’s great to realize that all the dots are connecting.

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