The timeshare industry with 10 billion in worldwide sales is quickly approaching its fifth decade. In the coming year, millions of travelers around the world will encounter and experience…
The timeshare industry with 10 billion in worldwide sales is quickly approaching its fifth decade. In the coming year, millions of travelers around the world will encounter and experience timeshare vacation ownership, fractional ownership, residence clubs, and condo-hotels.
The upcoming years will bring about a new era in the timeshare industry; one that embraces branding, diversity, globalization, digital media, and more. Lawrence Hefler, a marketing and branding expert, and founder of Hefler International, is excited and passionate about reshaping the timeshare and vacation ownership industry.
“Consumers will begin to realize new ways of how, when, and where the shared ownership messages for leisure and vacation products are delivered,” Hefler said. “Innovative companies will engage customers throughout the online and offline experience, delivering clear and consistent messages across all consumer and guest touch points while building brand trust.”
Hefler’s seven trends capture the new “brandstyles” that will transform the industry into the next decade:
Demobrandics: Preview centers, sales galleries, and resort destinations will offer the alternative of self-guided, audio-visual tours that will give diverse audiences a clear and consistent brand and product message, at their own pace, and in the language of their choice. Marketers will further see that audiences (especially baby boomers) are not a single segment at all, but rather a group of sub-segments differentiated by their lifestyle, life stage, and purchase behaviors, much more so than demographics of age, income, and geography.
Maxi-vacs: The days of one-dimensional, printed collateral materials, displays, presentation books, and signage are fading (literally and figuratively.) They will be replaced by multimedia screens, interactive touch screens, kiosks, and mobile tablet PCs. These technologies will allow consumers to engage more of their senses; to see, feel, and hear about the product, creating an emotion, thereby becoming more open to absorb and retain the information.
Postviewing: Old will become new again as electronic media; such as TV and radio will be utilized to reach and target local market segments. Face-to-face marketing will edge out telemarketing as the dominant way to personally connect consumers to the brand and the product. New preview centers and vacation galleries will proliferate in cities and locations away from the actual property being sold.
E-mmunities: Web sites will become more content based, user friendly, interactive, and transactional, creating opportunities for lead generation, rental inventory, re-sales, and eventually, purchasing online. With over 60 percent of US Internet users having broadband, expect to see greater use of rich media to engage users online. Consumers will further leverage their online research capabilities to make decisions, and share their experiences through user groups, online communities, chat rooms, and blogs. The use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) will rise as users can receive (rather than search) content, such as news, tips, information, and promotions from multiple sources by subscribing to a personalized feed.
Brandsharing: Companies will seek out and embrace strategic partners for co-branding, co-marketing, and data sharing. This will enhance their database with their partner’s database to gain a more robust view of their customers and prospects. Subsequently, a co-branded product message may come directly from a marketing partner.
TPG (trust per guest): To avoid consumer dissatisfaction with the sales and marketing process, companies will pay more attention to the Code of Standards and Ethics of the American Resort Development Association, also known as the Timeshare Bill of Rights. These guidelines are a template for best practices for timeshares, fractionals, and vacation clubs
Glocalization: The coming year will be the time to watch the growth spurt of the industry’s global marketing plan with strategic specific guidelines. Major players will look to grow their brands in new markets around the world. But, similar to the hospitality brands, it will be a learning experience to market globally and adapt their brand and product to local cultures.
“Timeshare style marketing, sales techniques and product experiences will be blogged about in social media-spheres. Some companies will fall short, while forward-thinking companies that engage in more education and compliance will win the hearts and minds of the buyer, their friends, their family, and most importantly, create brand advocacy,” Hefler added.
Hefler’s opinions on the timeshare purchase experience parallels those of the American Resort Development Association: “The tolerance for aggressive, outdated direct sales practices is lower than ever before and comes with greater risks to our new found status as the desirable vacation product timeshare.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
