Lunes, Pebrero 27, 2012

Steve Heyer CEO and New Approaches to Marketing

Given the relentless march of progress and history itself, businessmen have to always be ready to react to new developments. Heyer spoke of such things years past, almost as though he could see the future with inhuman clarity. Heyer spoke of these matters famously in a conference some years past that was attended by many representatives of the marketing and advertising industries.

Heyer currently has the CEO seat in what is inarguably one of the largest businesses in the hotel industry. Heyer was already in this seat when he began to expound on his original message to marketers in 2003. He claimed that he is not marketing rooms in hotels but entertainment and lasting memories.

Heyer's emphasis was on the marketing of an experience. The goods, for Heyer, were the entertainments to be found in the resorts. Marketing in this manner was new back then, and quite an original concept.

Heyer believed that the future held great things by way of personalization. The prediction, as we see now, came to pass. This is a theme most strongly supported by digital products and companies nowadays.

The entertainment business is being sucked dry by the latest technologies in the hands of teen consumers. A lot of money was lost by those in the songwriting and production business, for example, because of data-ripping technologies. Internet users indiscriminately downloaded the latest and most popular hits for free.

Heyer remarked on the horrific drop in revenue for singers, songwriters, and producers during this period. For Heyer, this was only a reminder that people needed to constantly change their approaches to meet fresh issues. It was necessary for other media producers, according to Heyer, to take note of this imperative for change.

To him, the postmodern cultural product was what made sense, where consumers bought because they wanted the culture. An experience that is not easily replicable is the primary product Heyer is looking to market for Starwood. Their focus now is not anymore on the beautiful hotels with a total worth of billion dollars but on the opportunities to create memories.

To this end, Victoria’s Secret has been called on to partner with the hotels to produce The Limited Victoria Secret shows for exclusive viewing in the hotels. Because of the exclusivity of the runway shows to Starwood customers, there is a clear integration of the desire to view a Victoria's Secret show with attendance of a Starwood hotel. This is the perfect execution of what Heyer meant.

Steve Heyer has also made negative remarks about a growing trend in the LA film industry: the insertion of brands in random shots. He calls the practice a “contextless” insertion of brand logos into movies or TV programs. He also said this practice neither improves storylines nor enhances marketability of products.

A look at Coca Cola's roster of past chiefs shall show Steve Heyer CEO on it. Some of his services for that company actually demonstrate what he is trying to say by "contextual" brand placement. He put the brand in view of American Idol's audience by setting Coke glasses before the judges of the series.


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