2008-11-11

Marketing efforts down the tube?

Weber Shandwick and FutureBrand presented their 2008 Country Brand Index Report this morning. It's a detailed, well researched, study, available online.

One theme emerges that Travolution has touched on before, albeit in a different context: the importance of the actual travel experience matching what the marketing has promised.

One page in the report highlights this perfectly. China has done a great job not only marketing itself as a destination but also delivering - the country has a 7% positive differential, meaning that any one visiting is likely to visit again. Their experience is then shared with others, positively enhancing the overall rating of the country.

Compare this with France and Egypt, where a visit to the country makes it less likely that someone will visit again, and detracts from the overall ranking because, one assumes, their disappointments are shared.

"Underdelivering compared to expectation" is a dangerous game in any climate, never mind the current one. And this applies as strongly to an airline, hotel or package holiday as much as to a destination.

And having spent two and a half hours getting to WTM from Kings Cross this morning, I wonder what the London 2012 team told the IOC about access to the Olympic Park.

This post was originally posted by Kevin May @ Travolution Blog.
> Read the original post here