AMADEUS DELPHI PRODUCT MARKETING
CHALLENGE
Increase lead generation for the historically dominant hotel sales and catering solution, Delphi, to combat new competition and launch a new out-of-the-box “Delphi light” solution for smaller hotel properties.
SOLUTION
Delphi was the leading product for Amadeus Hospitality and had been dominant in the space for decades with little competition and, therefore, little need for a focused product marketing strategy. With new competition encroaching from the lower-end part of the market, we needed to redefine the strengths of Delphi, solidify Delphi and Amadeus as a thought-leading expert in the industry, and launch a lower-end product to compete wihtout cannibalizing the premium offering.
Product Positioning
Below are the steps I took to analyze, research, inform, and update the positioning for Delphi.
Content Audit: The first thing I did was analyze all of the current marketing materials. Are they consistent? What parts of the funnel are we missing? Are we putting our audience at the center of our messaging? The content was okay, but missing some stages of the funnel and lacked compelling emotional connection.
Competitive Research: Then I looked at both the legacy competition and the newer competition. How do they position themselves? Are we differentiating our messaging? Is there anything we can learn from what they are saying? While the legacy competition didn’t have strong marketing content, the new competition was sharp, witty, and flashy.
Buyer Research: Next, I sought to understand what the buyers cared about most. I started by speaking to the Sales team to learn what they were hearing from the field. Much of what resonated most in their conversations wasn’t captured in the current marketing messaging.
Customer Feedback: After having a good idea of the product, the buyer, and the competition, I set out to meet actual customers. I sat in on a day-in-the-life with various “buyer personas” at several hotel properties to understand their biggest pain points and identify if I was missing anything in our messaging that we could help with.
With this insight, I created new Buyer Personas and a Product Positioning document for internal use. Then used those documents to update the web page, collateral sheet, sales deck and create a new awareness video, demo video, partner marketing collateral, and emails for Sales to use.
Inbound Content Marketing Strategy and Execution
In parallel to updating the product positioning and sales materials, I identified how to connect with the buyer through an inbound content marketing strategy. The idea is that your potential buyer could be at many phases in their buying process: ready to buy, researching, aware of your company / product, aware they have a problem, or does not have a current need.
With that in mind, I created content that helped our target audience solve their problems, establishing credibility in the space, and driving website traffic, with the intent of also being there for them when they are ready to learn more and purchase.
In order to do this:
I used the Buyer Personas to identify the buyer journey and types of content throughout that journey.
Worked with an SEO agency to identify top search terms we should use for our content as well as work to optimize the entire website.
SEO focused content for Awareness:
Banquet Event Order (BEO) Overview & Free Template
Thought Leadership Content for Awareness:
Your Website is the New Hotel Lobby
Marketing to Millennial Event Planners
Problem Solving Content for Consideration:
3 Reasons to Focus on Local Negotiated Rate Contracts Now
How Sales & Catering Reporting Software Can Enhance Your Business
Case Studies for Conversion:
Tropicana Las Vegas, a DoubleTree by Hilton Case Study
Delphi Select Launch
Within eight months of my starting this work, we launched a new, scaled-down version of the Delphi product. So all of the aforementioned work needed to take into account this additional solution and how it would be part of the larger story as well as differentiated.
The product itself was intended for the Select Service property type, a property that has smaller and less complex function space and offerings. This meant it needed less functionality, but the overall challenges addressed by the solution were the same.
Additional research was conducted to understand this audience. I had the opportunity to attend beta customer calls as well as industry events for this audience to help define this next set of positioning. The biggest takeaway was that this buyer wore “more hats” and had even less time. So emphasizing how we could save them time and make their lives easier was most critical.
RESULTS
MARKETING QUALIFIED LEADS
180% Increase from 2017 to 2018
79% increase from 2018 to 2019
WEBSITE ENGAGEMENT
50% Increase in site traffic from 2018 to 2019
30% Increase in organic visits from 2018 to 2019
While this was just one of many contributing factors, Delphi experienced the best sales it had ever had in these two years, 2018 - 2019.
