Workshop: How to use purpose as a marketing tool in your travel business

This September, Toronto Travel Massive hosted a workshop to help marketers and entrepreneurs use their purpose as a marketing tool, for growth and profit.

This article was written by Cristina Filipe, co-organizer of Toronto Travel Massive. Cristina quit her job in TV journalism to travel, volunteer and write about it. She is the author behind Chasing Travel, a blog fueled by coffee and culture.

Marketing your business can be overwhelming. Chances are you’re part of a saturated market of hundreds of other businesses with similar features and benefits.

Our recent Travel Massive workshop at Project Spaces in Toronto helped travel brands and businesses go beyond just their ‘features and benefits’ and uncover their competitive advantage and what makes them unique from the rest.

The workshop was led by Dorene and Troy, tourism marketing experts at Travel Life Media. Dorene is also a co-leader of the Medellin Travel Massive in Colombia.

What is “Competitive Advantage”?

Every brand needs to know their competitive advantage. Competitive advantage helps you gain an “edge” over your competitors. It contributes to higher revenue, more customers, and brand loyalty.

Every small business needs a competitive advantage over their rivals in order to stay ahead of potential competition (and not get left behind), outperform current competitors, and thrive in today’s saturated market.

When we lose specialness we are easily copied.

The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle are three ways to communicate your brand. A typical way brands start communicating their brand and product is by What, How, and Why in this particular order.

• What – your services, products, features and benefits
• How – your awards, credentials, and facts that support your Why.
• Why – your purpose, cause or belief. It’s the reason your organization exists and stands out from the competition.

However, this doesn’t drive human behaviour. Consumers might rationalize over features and benefits but travellers will choose one company over another by how it makes them feel. Afterall, travel experiences are emotional.

Your competitive advantage is to inspire people. And how we inspire them is by having a strong purpose.

Your purpose is your Why.

The Golden Circle is important in communicating your brand but many travel businesses don’t get their messaging quite right. To get ahead of competitors, the most successful brands start with the Why.

Dorene says you are not your features and benefits.

Use your brand’s purpose to reflect why you do what you do. This uniqueness is what consumers will value and emotionally connect with.

Your purpose will also help you transform your business (and increase profit).

Purpose-Driven Companies

Here are some examples of successful companies with a strong purpose and Why, and who are using their brand to inspire consumers rather than sell to them.

Southwest Airlines may be a low-cost carrier but their purpose was never to offer cheap airfares. Their purpose is to connect people to what is important in their lives. Their motto is “Without a heart, it’s just a machine”.

FairTrek is not just a tour company. FairTrek creates hiking trails to help tourists visit local villages in Laos. Their purpose is to break the poverty cycle in Laos so local culture can be preserved. When you book one of their tours, you really feel like you’re contributing.

Impulse Travel offers tours for travellers in Colombia. For many years, they were largely a layover business where visitors with a few hours to spare in Bogota would seek a quick tour to fill their time. However, their purpose has changed and now it’s really about preserving culture and peace, distilling fears about Colombia, and inspiring longer term travel through Colombia.

Selina is accommodation but it is also a cafe, a bar, a tattoo shop, a music studio, a yoga studio, a barber shop, and a co-working space. Their purpose is all about remote living, lifestyle, and entrepreneurship; to disrupt the travel industry so that our guests can fuel their creativity and tap into a new level of productivity.

Chicca Maione is not just a cooking studio in Tuscany but about re-discovering our connection to food. Their purpose is to take back control of our food supply so our guests can make better choices for themselves and the world.

Airbnb is a community marketplace for finding accommodation when you travel. It’s purpose is helping travellers to belong anywhere by connecting them with real people and locals.

Eagle Wing offers whale watching tours but their purpose is to create new stewards of the earth, so that our planet can be saved by a new generation.

How to Find your Why and put it into words

Your purpose is not what you want to become, it is who you are.

To find your purpose, ask yourself:

• What is your story? Share 5-6 stories or experiences with someone who will listen.
• Were there any experiences you had that shaped you as a person?
• What gets you up every morning to continue to do what you do?

Here is a quick exercise. Try filling in this Why Statement:

At (name of company), we want to _____ so that (they)____.

Your first blank is your what – your contribution. Your second blank is the impact of that contribution. Or…

We believe, that _____ so that_____. 

Use your Purpose

Once you have discovered your purpose, you need to communicate your purpose in all that you do. To start, your Secret Weapon is your About page.

Your About page is likely among your top 3-5 ranked pages for web traffic. Consumers start here when they are researching something they need or want.

Tell your story here as it relates to your purpose. It’s important to note, your About page is not your resume. This is where consumers will relate to you. Use this space to inspire. Reuse and recycle your purpose throughout your content, marketing, and product pages. Don’t forget to include a call-to-action.

For example, Taste of Thailand offers food tours but their purpose is to provide tourists with a sense of culture, tradition, and stories behind each dish and this is reflected well within their About page.

😍 Let’s inspire travellers instead of selling to them.

Purpose leads to Profits

When you lead with purpose, it leads to consumers willing to pay more for something they believe in.

• 75% of consumers say they would pay more for a purpose driven brand or service.
• 90% of businesses with a strong purpose also reported strong financial earnings.

Learn more

If you want to learn more about finding your Competitive Advantage through purpose, check out Dorene’s latest online course Purpose and Profit Marketing System. It’s a 6-week tourism marketing course aimed at helping tourism managers, marketers, owners, and operators to grow their business. Find out more at travellifemedia.com.

You can also join the Tourism Marketing Works Facebook group where the community shares tips on tourism marketing.

— Thanks Christina for the recap, and Troy and Dorene for their insights!

Follow Troy and Dorene and Travel Life Media on Travel Massive.