Marymor gets Hosansky - International Association of Conference ...

SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2008 IACC’S 27TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE Page 2
Bruce Turkel advises IACC conferees on techniques to make their conference center brands stand out.
Turkel puts his brand on IACC
Branding expert recommends 7 steps for marketing success
A consumer’s decision to purchase begins with
emotion and progresses to intellect, and too much
marketing gets it backwards. That was a key point
in a fascinating presentation by branding expert
Bruce Turkel to IACC conferees in Saturday’s general
session.
Turkel observed that too much sameness requires
that a company differentiate its offering to
get ahead. Looking around the stage at the Zermatt
Resort & Spa, he noted, “I’ve never been at a
conference center that doesn’t offer everything
you see here. So how do you stand out and become
different? How do you make a consumer
want to come to the Zermatt or Chateau Élan?
“That’s what building brands is all about. Taking
the same tools, same inspiration, same service
but coming out with different ways of expressing
it so that customers understand what resonates
in your products and are willing to pay
more.”
Turkel boiled his advice down to seven points,
each of which consists of three words. The most
important, he assured his audience, is the first:
✔ All about them – Most of us spend so
much time talking about ourselves, what we offer,
how many square feet of space, etc. We should be
talking about what customers get from you.
✔ Hearts then minds – It’s critical to make
emotional connections before making an intellectual
connection. Many conference centers do just
the opposite and talk about square feet and technology.
After a conference center makes an emotional
connection and I want to go, then the information
becomes important. But not before.
✔ Make it simple – We’re so busy making
life complicated. Consumers have no interest in
details; they just want to hear our message, so
make it simple.
✔ Make it quick.
✔ Make it yours – what are we going to
stand for? That’s important because the attributes
of products become attributes of users. Brands
become badges we wear to tell the world who we
are. The new adage is that you are what you consume.
✔ All five senses – People don’t make decisions
just on what they see and hear but also on
what they feel, taste, and touch.
✔ Repeat, repeat, repeat – once you figure
what you stand for, what your brand is. . . you say
it over and over and over and over again. Just
when you start to be sick of the message, your
consumer is starting to notice it.