BUSINESS: Micro-reputations. Are Big Brands Irrelevent?

As you may know, I own a small business - The Quail Park Lodge.  We have over 500 reviews on TripAdvisor.  If you are not aware, TripAdvisor will be spun off from its parent company Expedia this month and shareholders are quite happy about it.  TripAdvisor has 50 million reviews and counting, the site has a huge impact on my business!!

When you really look at TripAdvisor’s success, it shows a powerful long-term trend: rating websites threaten to make many brands (Westin, Hamptom, Hyatt, etc.) irrelevant.

Throughout my career I have worked for Best Western, Choice, Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood and when you really think back, these brands were built on the assumption of very limited information.  The brands continue to represent quality in their market segment and cultivate loyalty to their audience.  They very nicely fit all of this into their radio and TV advertising strategies by focusing on their demographic.

Well, the market has changed and now user-generated content is the new challenge that brands face.  I love it!  My independent property - the Quail Park Lodge - has over 500 reviews on TripAdvisor and has maintained this placehold for over 3 years - cheers to independents!

The way I see it, the rise of user-generated content has the big brands facing a new challenge.  People are talking about brands on social media sites in ways that the brand can’t control.  Facebook and Twitter get most of the attention for brand disruption, but the biggest problems for brands are in search and e-commerce.

Take this Google search for Best Westerns in Seattle, for example. On the front page, you’ll see ratings that hotel guests have written about particular Best Westerns on TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel and Yelp.  Importantly, the reviews vary widely.

TripAdvisor is ahead of other travel sites thanks in part to their use of Facebook-connected recommendations, which helps users relate to others in their network by establishing trust.  As a potential hotel guest, I am interested in the consensus among previous guests, but I am especially interested in what my friends have said. 

For the Best Western Brand the end could be a bit confusing: as TripAdvisor accumulates more and more trusted reviews, the best-performing Best Western Plus Properties, all of which are independent, may eventually realize that their business is suffering from their association with lesser motels. I think that we will see the best locations leave the chain, lowering the brand’s value.

It’s going to get rougher before it gets easier when it comes to user generated information on your business, my advice would be to:

• Recognize that you’ve lost “total control” of your brand and it is now in the hands of customers.
• Find and fix the worst-reviewed people in your company.
• Get a handle on your own online reputation.  Review content so that you have a say in the broader conversation.  Praise loyal and happy customers and ask them to review the specific service that pleased them.  You can direct them to a site like TripAdvisor, but make sure you give them a direct link and emphasize that recommendations help the individual people that the customer interacted with.  

If you are an independent like me, I would suggest just sitting back and enjoying the ride.  I sent every guest a thank you email with a link to our TripAdvisor page and Facebook page asking for feedback which made them most happy. 

Independent properties have much more flexibility in the marketplace than the branded properties and finally the web is providing a level playng field.  Use your presence on national sites like Expedia and Hotels.com to drive the traffic directly to your website and relish in the fact that the web continues to provide a level playing field for us independent properties.