By Special Guest Denise Wymore, Credit Union Marketing Extrodonaire & Membership & Advocacy Development Officer @ NACUSO
Imagine someone puts you on a committee tasked with starting up a brand new hotel chain that is 100% designed to target Millennials. And target them in a way that actually may not appeal to the “rest of us.”
We just returned from a vacation to the UK and on the last night I was looking for a reasonably priced hotel near Heathrow. We were just going to sleep, get up, shower, have some breakfast and get on a plane home. I found a place called “Moxy.” It’s a Marriott hotel and the rack rate was $61.00! I didn’t really pay much attention to the website to be honest. Just happy to have found a cheap place by the airport and I earn my Marriott Rewards points.
We checked in at 9:30pm and at first thought we had walked into a bar. That’s because you “check in” at the bar that is open 24 hours a day! What? That’s only the beginning of this crazy experience. The “lobby” had concrete floors, tables, chairs, couches, a pool table, ping pong, a record player and was very active for a Sunday night.
Seems the Moxy took the Ikea approach to build a fun and affordable stay. Ikea begins with the price point, and also targets Millennials. For example, what would a Millennial see as a no brainer price for a living room chair. Let’s say $79.00. Okay, then Ikea engineers are challenged with building the most amazingly comfortable, stylish, durable enough chair and retail it for 79 bucks and still make a decent profit.
At $61.00 a night they are not going to be able to provide rooms like the traditional Marriott hotel. Their website says they actually TALKED to a group of Millennials that have stayed in hotels and asked them a simple question. What in a hotel room do you not like, use or need? What is most important to you for an overnight stay? Before you read on, think about how you would answer that question? Here’s what they had to say….
1. The closet. Gone. Usually hotel stays are short (like ours) so most don’t bother to unpack. There were 6 nice wooden hangers that were on two wall pegs. But what about the iron and ironing board?
2. The “ironing” room. Each floor has a designated ironing room with the board always up and the NICE iron ready to turn on. They even decorated it with Hawaiian shirts hanging all over the walls.
3. The chest of drawers – usually holds the television, seldom holds your clothes. Don’t need it.
4. Television – mount all 40 inches of it on the wall and make it high quality and smart so you can stream your own stuff.
5. Bathtub. When is the last time you took a soak in a hotel tub? Never. Only need a shower. And in the rain shower were big containers of shampoo and conditioner and shower gel – the pump kind. I’ll bet that saves a ton of money.
6. USB ports were everywhere in this room. Mounted on the wall above both night shelves (not a full nightstand because you don’t need it – so consequently no Bible.) Oh and no telephone in the room – use your cell phone if you need to call the front desk.
7. The fitness center was fantastic and also open 24 hours AND was right off the lobby (bar). Not hidden down a hallway or in the basement.
8. Coffee? They do have the crappy instant in the room but encourage you to walk downstairs to get the good stuff. Where you’ll also find a complimentary breakfast that includes warm food like eggs and sausage and oatmeal.
And finally this brings me to a real pet peeve of mine. Credit union checking accounts. Why do we have so many? And why do they have to be so confusing? We are not Millennial friendly at all.
For example I just Googled BECU Checking. Their landing page says they have two different kinds of free checking. Then I clicked on the link to the BECU Consumer Account Disclosure and in fact they have five different checking accounts. So consequently when a new Millennial member comes in it’s a fumble to try and “fit” them into one of these. Why not take the Moxy approach and simply ask them what they need and what they don’t need and deliver that in a fun hip way?
The urban dictionary says the definition of Moxy is “When someone has guts or balls, they have moxy.” Even though I’m not the target audience for the Moxy Hotel, I will say if I’m ever in a city where they offer that as one of my Marriott options, I’ll take it. And not just because it’s reasonably priced, I had a good time. Don’t tell anyone though – cuz I’m over 50.
About the Author, Denise Wymore
Denise is a credit union lifer and a cheerleader for passion and commitment. She began her 30 plus year career as a teller in Portland, Oregon. After moving up and around the org. chart for 20 years she landed in Marketing where she found her bliss. In 2000 she decided to take her show on the road and has been speaking and consulting and even wrote a couple of books on branding.
She is a Filene Research Institute i3 alumni, WCMS graduate, 2012 CU Times Woman to Watch and designed the CMN Credit Unions for Kids logo. She teaches Marketing and Business Development at CUNA Management School and Southeast Regional Credit Union School (SRCUS).
In her spare time Denise is a Volunteer Firefighter and Advanced Emergency Medical Technician for the town of Cochiti Lake, New Mexico where she lives with her husband Mark and their two adorable dogs Dexter Morgan and Emma Rae.
