Founder Of What Big Brands Know & 2016 Keynote Speaker Discusses Brand Identity, Engagement & Management
The concept of outdoor hospitality all comes down to knowing your identity (or brand if you will) and how to connect that to your customers. Branding as a thought process with the current advent of social media allows small businesses to play at times among the big franchises. At the upcoming ARVC [National Association Of RV Parks & Campgrounds] Outdoor Hospitality Conference & Expo, the keynote will be conducted by Gerry O’Brion of What Big Brands Know as he speaks on Motivating & Marketing to Millennials. O’Brion sat down with The Buzz ahead of the conference to speak on brand identity, management, engagement and enhancement.
The Buzz: Is there a different mindset in approach when you are dealing with a franchise versus smaller independently owned campgrounds?
GO: There are pros and cons to being part of a franchise versus not. Being a franchise gets you certain things. It gets you a name. It gets you a brand. But what it doesn't get you is customers. It may get you a booking system so people may find you through that. That might get you some customers but, at the end of the day, the success or failure of your campground comes down to the front line experience. What happens when they arrive? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What is the community like? What's the intake like? All of those things are up to you. The franchise gets you part way. If you are a Mom & Pop or if you own your own [campground] or if you run the show, that is good too but there is a lot more things you have to do. You are in charge of everything. There isn't a model. There isn't a frame work. There isn't guidance. There isn't a community of other people that do what you do under the same brand. But you have more freedom. Some people think they want freedom until they realize they have to do everything. But building a brand is the same. Really what building a brand is...a brand resides in the mind of an individual decision-maker. That person is going to decide whether they give you money or they give their money to somebody else. What [the consumer does] is they take disparate pieces of information. It could be your website. It could be your location. It could be online reviews. It could be a brochure they found...any touch point. It could be a friend or a family member who said “Oh! I stayed there and it was great!" or "Don't ever stay there!". All these disparate pieces of information are put it in their head and they make a decision about whether to give you the money or not. They make a decision about what they perceive about your campground. That becomes your brand. It is as simple as that.
The Buzz: But in comparison to most big business, smaller companies such as RV parks and campgrounds have the ability to meet their customers face to face and balance expectation on a more manageable scale through social media.
GO: Social Media for a smaller operator is actually a huge opportunity because it is inexpensive. One of the important things for people to understand is the different between service and experience. Service is something someone has through an individual interaction with somebody. You at your campground or someone that works for you...that is an individual thing. Experience is what they remember when they leave…when they drive away...when they [leave] your campground...their experience is that overarching umbrella of what they remember…how do they feel about it…what would they tell other people about that experience. That experience is what they post then on social media whether it is on Facebook or whatever. More importantly, it is what they post on Trip Advisor…on Yelp. Customers are looking there at all these opinions of people. They are looking at [these] experiences and these individuals determine what your brand is. You could have the best marketing material and message in the world but if everybody out there is saying you’re horrible or alternatively you’re awesome, that is what your brand is going to become. So small or big doesn’t matter. Social media you can have the exact same impact as a small player as a big player. It gives you a lot more power for a lot less money if you’re executing with excellence, that’s the key. If you’re not, you got a big problem. If you are, you’ve got a big win
The Buzz: One of the comments I hear most about the outdoor hospitality industry is that the currency we deal in is memory making and leisure time. These can be intangible objects. Can you talk about the essential difference between hard business versus experiential.
GO: Experiential…anyone that can have any kind of experiential component to their business…it is always better and easier than someone who can’t. If you’re selling a lock washer…it is not very experiential…it is simply a commodity right? Experiences are not commodities. Experiences…if you can build that in…it doesn’t matter if you are a restaurant owner, a campground, an amusement park, whatever…if you’re building from an experience you get an emotional connection with that customer. If you have an emotional connection, that is where you get loyalty…that’s where you can charge higher prices…that’s where great brands are built. Campgrounds are a great example of that. If your campground is a commodity and it is exactly like another one down the street, I don’t really care. I don’t have a reason to choose you. But if you leave me with a unique experience, [that is key]. If you’re a campground that has everyone at 6 o’clock every night sitting around the campfire and singing camp songs … that’s an experience. If you’re the park that has got the big water slide…that’s an experience. If you find a way for families to connect with one another and with other campers if that is what they want to do? [That’s an experience]. They’ll be back year after year after year and they will be talking about it when they go back to school in the fall or whatever: [They’ll be like] “We went to this campground! I’ll tell you what we did! So cool!” The reason why that is so important is because today, with social media, you need something in your campground that is also picture worthy…video worthy… share worthy…chat worthy…that’s an experience. What you are doing is creating an experience beyond the logistics of putting somebody up for the night.
Tim Wassberg
A graduate of New York University's Tisch School Of The Arts with degrees in Film/TV Production & Film Criticism, Tim has written for magazines such as Moviemaker, Moving Pictures, Conde Nast Traveler UK and Casino Player. He enjoys traveling and distinct craft beers among other things.
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ARVC [National Association Of RV Parks & Campgrounds], the leader in outdoor hospitality, which is the only national association exclusively representing the interests of private RV parks and campgrounds in the U.S. which nearly 3,100 members.