You Really CAN Get Smarter By Staying At Holiday Inn Express

I'm Serious

By Rich Harshaw

Part 1 of 2--"On The Trail Of Great Marketing"

Last July, my wife and I decided to put our sanity to the test by embarking on (what turned out to be) a 4,975 mile cross-country trip in a silver Chevrolet 15-passenger van with our six lovely children. Yes, it's true--in an era of shrinking family sizes and conveniently pre-packaged vacations, we have bucked all trends by not only churning out six of the little dickens, but also by having the courage to venture on a cross country vacation Clark Griswold-style in the family truckster.

While the kids labored through at least 179 DVDs and countless hours of video games (whatever happened to the license plate game or the "A-B-C game"???) I found myself discovering interesting marketing principles all the way from Southlake, Texas to Meridian, Idaho and back again. This set of articles will deal with just two of fascinating discoveries I made--one on Day 2 in Ogden, Utah, and the other on Day 23 just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. I'll talk about Utah in this article and then South Dakota in the next.

After two relatively uneventful days of driving, we were descending out of the mountains into the little community of Ogden, Utah. The Training Table Restaurant in Ogden is real-life proof that a great inside reality can do a lot for your business--given the fact that we traveled 1,300 miles to indulge ourselves on their specialty gourmet burgers. After dinner we drove out by the Interstate and started looking for a hotel. As fate would have it, the first place we found was a Holiday Inn Express. It met our basic requirements--relatively new, breakfast included for free, and a swimming pool.

As we checked in, I couldn't help but notice the huge sign on the counter touting HIE's phenomenal commitment to making the shower-taking process as exhilarating as possible. They have created what they call the New "Simply Smart" Guest Bathroom, which includes a killer shower head, a shower curtain that gives you more wiggle room, big comfy towels, and nifty little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and other accoutrement's.

The center piece of this amazing bathroom experience, according to the sign, was the Stay Smart Shower head by Kohler. Not only does it feature "sleek, stylish brushed chrome finish, three powerful spray settings, and a unique pressure compensating flow regulator that automatically adjusts to keep water pressure strong and steady," it also, apparently, makes you smarter. If you don't believe it, I found out later, you could watch their TV commercials where an assortment of "Average Joe's" become inspired in the shower to accomplish such marvelous wonders as time travel, balancing the national budget, communicating with dolphins, and inventing an invisible airplane.

Pretty impressive for a shower head, don't you think?

Once we checked into the room, I eagerly rushed into the bathroom to see what all the hullabaloo was about. Sure enough, inside the curved shower curtain bar; there it was in all of its glorious splendor... the Holy Grail of all hotel showerdom--the Stay Smart Shower head. It was undeniably sleek and stylish--and BIG. It appeared to be a regular sized shower head tucked inside an over sized hood--not unlike the Australian frilled neck lizard that poufs its neck out like a parachute to make itself appear much bigger and more important than it actually is.

Intrigued, I immediately stripped and found myself staring in the face of a major dilemma--after a long day's drive with all the kids, which of the three gourmet-sounding spray settings should I choose: relaxing, revitalizing, or invigorating? Each choice was tantalizingly alluring--so I sampled each one and ultimately settled in on "revitalizing."  Then I used the shampoo and conditioner and found, like the website says, it indeed "may cause inventive ideas to flourish." After a revitalizing 4 minute shower (six tired kids and a wife waiting), I ensconced myself in the luxury of an over sized, 100% cotton towel. Indeed, an exhilarating shower experience if there ever was one.

So what's the bright idea here? And how does this all relate to YOUR marketing?

Here's what I found out. This marketing campaign works on a principle called "cognitive confirmation bias," which is a phenomenon whereby people actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their pre-conceived ideas, and ignores or under weighs evidence that could disprove their ideas. Or in terms of Holiday Inn Express, if they tell you their shower head is awesome, you will tend to think that it's awesome--even though under normal conditions you'd never even consciously notice the shower head at all.

Stated another way in marketing terms, if you point stuff out to your prospects and tell them to notice how great something is--they'll begin to believe that it really is great, and find evidence to support that it's everything you've made it out to be.

Let me give you two real-world examples of this principle at play in marketing. The first comes from the early 1900's from advertising pioneer Claude Hopkins, from his book called "My Life in Advertising."  When Hopkins was called in to help Schlitz beer increase its market-share, each beer manufacturer was claiming that customers should drink their beer because it was "pure beer." The problem was, nobody knew what exactly "pure beer" was. Sure they knew what "pure" meant, but what exactly was "pure beer"?

Hopkins visited the Schlitz manufacturing plant where he was shown the beer making process. The water for the Schlitz plant came from 4,000-foot deep artesian wells, which guaranteed its purity. Special wood pulp filters took out all the impurities of the brewed liquid. Special rooms were filled with filtered air so that the beer could be cooled without impurities. Pumps and pipes were cleaned twice daily to avoid contamination. The glass beer bottles were even steam cleaned four times before being used!

Hopkins was fascinated by both the complexity and quality standards of the whole process. He asked the Schlitz executives why they didn't tell people about all these things they did to make their beer so pure. The Schlitz executives--decidedly unimpressed with their own processes--replied that they didn't think it was important because every beer manufacturer made beer the same way.

Hopkins countered, "Yes, but the others have never told this story," and went on to create an advertising campaign that explained every step Schlitz took to make their beer so pure. In other words, he pointed at the shower head! The brand went from 5th place in the market to tied for first in less than a year.

The next example comes from the roofing industry. One of the biggest challenges facing good roofing companies is the bad reputation of the industry as a whole. People don't know how to judge a good roofing company from a lousy one, and as a result, many people tend to be skeptical of all roofers. To combat this, we put together a program called the "Code of Ethics and Competency for Roofers" and delineated all the things that a consumer should look for in a good roofer. Things like proof of insurance, job cleanup rosters, 500 references, financial stability letters from banks and suppliers, bid specification standards, and more.

All of this was advertised in various places, and put together in a single report that the prospective customer could read and use to judge any contractor they were considering doing business with. Now take note of what was happening here. Just like Holiday Inn Express with their fancy shower heads and curved shower curtain bars, this roofing company started POINTING at all of the things that they did well. And low and behold--prospects started to notice.

This is called cognitive confirmation bias. The prospects started to notice that each roofer had a photo ID name badge with a certification level on it--because we told them to look for it. They started to notice that the job site was cleaned up on a daily basis--because we showed them our daily 12-point job site cleanup roster. They started to notice that the workers did not use foul language, pee in the bushes, or play their music too loud--because we showed them the personal conduct agreement that each worker signed as a condition of employment.

So what happened? Here's a comment from the owner of the company talking about the results of the project:

"My sales manager is actually having fun with the new approach and sales tools. He's now commonly greeted on the first call in a friendlier way... sometimes in a 'relieved' sort of way--the customer says they feel like they have someone they can trust. They actually talk about our marketing when they call, and in person--it's really amazing! Customers regularly tell us that we're by far the most professional company they've seen. It feels good. Everyone in the company has a new focus and can feel the positive momentum of this since we started the marketing."

All that might just sound like you garden-variety testimonial letter. But look a little closer--and you'll see the important part. The roofing company isn't doing anything any differently than they did before! They always did all the things in the "Code of Ethics and Competency." They just never pointed at the shower head before!!!

Last footnote on the roofing company. An unexpected benefit of their using the marketing program invoking the power of cognitive confirmation bias was the precipitous drop in customer complaints. Complaints went DOWN by a whopping 88%. Again, realize that the company had not changed the way they did business. They just changed their customer's perception of them. Now when one of the workers got caught peeing in the bushes (hey, it happens), the customer decided it must have been an exception--and looked hard to find all the other things they DID do well. Remember the definition of CCB-- people actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their pre-conceived ideas, and ignores or under weighs evidence that could disprove their ideas.

So what can you "point at" in your business? What's your shower head? If Holiday Inn Express can attach such great importance to the under-normal-conditions lowly shower head, then you can certainly find something to point at, can't you? It doesn't have to be big and grand. It doesn't have to be the most innovative thing in the world. But don't forget to point--or customers won't notice anything. And you become just another provider--nothing special.

By the way, you can own your very own Stay Smart Shower head for only $80 plus $8 shipping and handling--either at the front desk, or on their website! And given how fantastic they are, who wouldn't want one?

Next in this series: What in the heck is a Wall Drug?