Today on Guy Kawasaki’s blog (which is a must read for marketers), he addressed the subject of envisioning a market that is bigger than what you have traditionally embraced. Well, in the travel industry, this is actually not hard. Anyone that has read my white paper on marketing to the non-air traveler knows now that the market IS actually bigger than anyone has ever dreamed of.
As my good friend Jay Campbell reminded me, I do need to expose my bias on this subject, since I’ve been spending the past two years building a company that addresses the drive market. I actually prefer to think of it as a mission, so I am not going to make this blog a podium for marketing that technology. That isn’t what this is about.
Back to Guy’s blog. In it he cites a couple of studies about the imagination and how it affects perceptions. Over the past few months, as I talk to hoteliers about the drive market, if they have a wide range of brands, covering a broad demographic, invariably they say that our product would be good for their low end, economy brand, totally ignoring the upscale drive market, which is substantial.
Guy’s point is that imagination does affect perception and if you are imagining that the drive market is unappealing, unprofitable and any other “un” words you can think of, then your perception will be your reality.
I love his blogs because they are out of the box thinking personified. He is the champion of the entrepreneur.
For me, call me altruistic, but I’m still a champion of this industry and I want to see the industry thrive, versus crawling in a hole until the economy gets better and the price of fuel goes down.
So, join me in “imagining a bigger market”. Guess what, it will change your perception of how you distribute your product because not only is this one just “perception”, it is true! There is a big market out there. A very big market.
Chicke Fitzgerald