Movies Meet Hotels

Nowhere is this fact truer than in the lodging industry. We all acknowledge that the pandemic was a watershed moment for the entire leisure and travel sector. We all understand that hotels, resorts, inns, and airbnbs can never go back to the way they operated before 2019-20. And we all know that to thrive, not just survive, lodging brands must be creative in how they deliver the experiences that our ever-changing guests want, need, and expect. So back to "googling" I went to find out what tools are available to help managers in developing new and creative strategies for their hotels. WOW! I got 102 million hits when I typed in "innovative" and another 30.4 million when I queried "creative" tools.

These numbers reinforce two points. First, everyone in the lodging world seems to understand the innovation or creativity truism. Second, there is a heap of helpful tools available that hotel leaders can use to find an innovative or creative direction for their hotels' future growth. I would like to add one of my favorite tools as another possible starting point. It is based on something called the Velcro Theory.

The idea behind Velcro Theory comes from a story about George de Mestral. As the narrative goes, after spending the day hunting in the Jura Mountains of France, George found that his wool pants were covered with little burrs off the brush. Try as he may, he couldn't get those pesky things off; they were there to stay. Not to be outsmarted by a bunch of burrs, George put them under a magnifying glass and saw that each of the burrs had hundreds of tiny hooks trapped in the loops of the woolen fabric in his pants. The engineer in him saw a good thing, so he developed a machine that would replicate the hook and loop function using nylon. He called his invention VELCRO, from the French words velour and crochet. The rest is history.

The notion of Velcro Theory can be applied to your strategic hotel thinking in a variety of efforts. You want your guests to "stick to" your hotel just as the burrs stick to woolen clothing. The only way this happened is if your hotel is relevant. I like the way Elliot Schreiber, Ph.D. puts it: Relevance is more important than differentiation: business strategists, marketers and brand managers have been fixated on differentiation. Customers, however, are drawn to relevance - the things that "connect with them emotionally." As I explain to my students, differentiation is all the people you date; relevance is the one you marry because you cannot live without them. It is emotional and irrational, but the bond is strong.

If you agree with Dr. Elliott, that means your brand strategies must not only be innovative, but they must also be relevant. Every hotel has a multitude of competitors that can be relevant to your guests too, so the question becomes how can you make sure they "marry" you? Here is where creative thinking and innovative strategies meet the Velcro Theory.

One of my go-to techniques to bring creativity and relevance together is to take your mindset out of yourself and approach the challenge from another perspective. In other words, how would someone like Warren Buffet, an Oprah Winfrey, or a Tom Brady approach the strategy challenge? Or how would a Harry Potter, a Mary Poppins, or a Patch Adams think about it? What would their mind-set be? To start my creative juices flowing, I often start with a quote. So to get you thinking about how you might incorporate this technique into your hotel's strategic planning, here some movie quotes I frequently use and how they might be applied to hotel operations.

• Carpe Diem - Dead Poet's Society, 1989 - Taken from Latin, this quote translates to Seize the Day. It encourages people to take advantage of every opportunity- no matter how big or small. For example, a hotel manager noticed how, every Saturday in the fall, parents came to the soccer field across the street to watch their young children play. Being that the hotel was in a northern city, those mornings were naturally quite chilly. So each Saturday, he and his team would bring urns of hot coffee and trays of warm muffins over to the grateful parents - as well as business cards, logo-ed cups, plates, and napkins. Where do you think these thankful parents booked their next event or reserved rooms for out-of- town business associates and family members? The success of seizing this opportunity led to the development of a more community-based strategy and increased revenues.
• If you build it, they will come. - Field of Dreams, 1989 - The operative hotel concept from this quote is differentiation. By offering guests something that is distinctive - Generation Z calls it "Instagrammable" - guests can be drawn to the unique "photo-op" experience as a destination it itself. Architectural appeal, such as the Graduate Hotel offers, with its individually collegiate based themes, or The Madonna Inn, the landmark California hotel made famous for its pink dining room and uniquely decorated guest rooms, such as the Safari or Crazy Daisy, are prime examples. And then, of course, there is the Las Vegas strip. Developing a strategy around a distinctive culinary offering could also work. Take, for instance, the Palmer House's famous brownie. The recipe has not changed since it was developed in the hotel's kitchen during the 19th century. I wonder how many times a picture of that sweet treat has appeared on someone's social media. And, of course, remember those uniquely folded towel animals that helped distinguish the cruise lines.
• Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001 - This quote always reminds me of the Johnny the Bagger video clip about the young man with Down Syndrome who had a new idea. With the help of his father, Johnny would type inspirational quotes on paper, cut them apart and take them to the grocery store where he worked in the morning. Every time he put groceries in a bag, he would add one of the little inspirational quotes. The word spread and soon the line at Johnny's checkout lane stretched far down the aisle, customers were coming in more often and telling others about Johnny's quotes. This small idea spread to other departments and soon more employees were developing additional ideas that made the shopping experience more uniquely relevant to shoppers. It "changed the course of the [store's] future." This is a great movie quote to launch thinking about innovative ways to train, develop, and empower even the most junior member on your hotel's staff. After all, they are the closest to your guest. You may have a Johnny on your staff too.
• Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. - Forest Gump, 1994. - The business strategy that every hotel had on September 10, 2001 went out the window the next day. The brand strategy that virtually every US business had in February 2020, was obsolete by April. Ditto for the Lahaina resorts just last year. While these are extremely negative examples, they serve to remind us that the lodging industry is truly like a box of chocolates; you never know what tomorrow will bring. Not only can Forest's quote help you to think about a What If Plan-B, it also is effective in thinking about how to strengthen your hotel's positive brand image. Consider how the hotel manager mentioned earlier can use it to incorporate PR into the hotel's strategic marketing plan. A human-interest story is often attractive to area television and print media. Consider how a hotel like the Palmer House could use it to develop an innovative strategy centered around its famous brownie. And consider how, if you have a Johnny at your hotel, you could use it to build a strategy centered around stronger employee culture.

While I am sure these four quotes can illustrate how useful the Velcro Theory is in getting your team's creative juices going, here are six additional movie quotes that are also effective in launching management teams in developing innovative strategies making the guests' experience relevant. - i.e. strategies so that guests "stick to" your hotel.

• There is no place like home. - The Wizard of Oz, 1939
• I'm the king of the world. - Titanic, 1997
• I'll be back. The Terminator. - 1984
• Go ahead, make my day. - Sudden Impact, 1983
• Today, I consider myself thee luckiest man on the face of the earth. The Pride of the Yankees, - 1942.
• My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you. - Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.

I read somewhere, that the late Joan Rivers was asked about the difference between a star and a superstar "That's easy," she supposedly quipped: Most stars play it safe because they have too much to lose. Superstars are the ones who throw caution to the wind; improvise impulsively; go for the high note…the difference is guts. Put another way: No guts, no glory…Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Having the guts to innovate doesn't mean that you can be naïve or idealistic, however. You have to mimic English teacher, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) in his famous movie centered around the fictional elite boarding school Welton Academy. Climb on your desk to see things differently. You may not always win the war so be sure to do your homework first and risk only that which you are prepared to lose. The road to profitability is littered with strategic blunders - Coca-Cola's New Coke and Chevrolet's Nova are two notable examples. But as the president of Coca-Cola pointed out, The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you're down the path of inactivity. You can only stumble if you're moving. If you don't have a few failures, you're not taking enough chances. Nobody can be right all the time, and the big companies didn't become big by playing it safe.

Using the Velcro Theory to launch your hotel's innovative - and relevant -- strategy is a good first step to winning. And your REVPAR will thank you!