According to Steve Heyer CEO, marketers and media agencies should start changing the way they do business or else their corporations are headed to a collapse. It is clear at present that the man was right in his tips, delivered long years ago. Perhaps his most memorable words on them were given in 2003, during a notable address of his peers.
Steve J. Heyer is chief executive officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the world’s third-largest hotel chain. There were several occasions where Heyer enlarged on what he had meant about finding innovative marketing approaches in the famous conference long ago. The trick, according to him, was to focus on selling fun, not a bed or a room.
Experiential value is of prime importance here. He said that the hotels had to work on selling experiences worth remembering. Technically, what is being offered has not really changed: it is simply the way of looking at it that has.
In the 2003 speech, he proposed to marketers and media leaders to become more customized and personalized in delivering their services and products, and aim for the empowerment of consumers. This exactly is today’s most observable trend across corporations and industries. And this is most apparent in the computer and digital industries.
The entertainment industry is also suffering from certain digital innovations impinging on their channels. Just for illustration, when software for musical piracy was introduced, the support from consumers was so overwhelming that the music industry almost immediately saw a setback in profits. Almost instantly, people were getting on board the pirate ship, so to speak.
The musical industry suffered huge losses, as noted by Heyer in his 2003 speech. In his 2003 speech, the CEO turned to music executives and reminded them of the changing ways of producing and reproducing music due to the empowerment of consumers. He also addressed TV executives and warned them to prepare and adapt to “the changing media consumption habits of younger generations”.
To him, the postmodern cultural product was what made sense, where consumers bought because they wanted the culture. An experience that is not easily replicable is the primary product Heyer is looking to market for Starwood. Heyer's intent, obviously, is to market something that is even more in demand than lodging in the present culture: an experience.
Hence, the company has actually struck up a partnership with the Victoria's Secret brand in an effort to market the experience of being in a Starwood hotel (and watching a Victoria's Secret runway show, in this case). Along with online bidders, only preferred guest members of Starwood can buy tickets to the elite fashion event. Here we see the application of Heyer's concepts.
Steve Heyer has also made negative remarks about a growing trend in the LA film industry: the insertion of brands in random shots. This is a meaningless practice, in Heyer's opinion. He doubted that such appearances would actually bring up sales in any way.
A look at Coca Cola's roster of past chiefs shall show Steve Heyer CEO on it. Some of his services for that company actually demonstrate what he is trying to say by "contextual" brand placement. He very subtly and effectively placed Coca Cola glasses on the “American Idol” judge’s table.
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