this has been bugging the heck out of me over the past few months.. all of the hilton brands have redesigned their websites – everything looks great, everything looks uniform, and its easy to get around within the website, and at the bottom of each website, they have a little color bar, one color for each brand within the system – hilton, doubletree, hampton, waldorf=astoria, conrad, homewood suites etc, etc..

One problem though – unless you’re very familiar with Hilton’s brands – you would NEVER pick up on that! if put your mouse over the different colors, nothing happens – I would expect that hilton would want to make a rollup or rolldown area with the brand’s logo and a link to their website.. but nope! lets keep it all a secret! this drives me absolutely crazy!!!!!!

every other hotel company – Starwood, IHG, Choice, Wyndham – even Carlson – all include links & logos on the bottom of every single solitary page within every single solitary brand website.. that’s what i call great marketing!! (in fact – Starwood even promotes their two brands which are not even opening until 2008, and as of today don’t really have a functioning website – aloft and Element - along with their other established brands!! wow – starwood knows how to market..) who cares if someone goes to a westin rather than a sheraton – its better than them going to the hilton! especially today, when brand identity, and brand recognition is so important, it absolutely floors me that hilton has not taken this opportunity for an EXCELLENT way of cross marketing their other brands.. not only that – but they are halfway there! they actually took the time to put the colorbar at the bottom of every single solitary page of every single solitary brand website, with one color for each and every brand - but the average user would have no idea what its there for, what it means, since it doesn’t do anything!

Here’s what i mean-

Starwood’s Footer

IHG’s Footer

Choice’s Footer

Wyndham’s Footer

Carlson’s Footer

and finally…….

Hilton’s Footer

See what i mean??

not only that, but some travelers will only travel where their airline rewards, or hotel rewards program allow them to redeem, or earn free rooms – so why wouldn’t you want to make it up front and center that hey – we have 5 other brands besides the one you are visiting.. incase you didn’t know!

hilton/blackstone! wake up!  such a simple thing that can have huge results!

PS – If you noticed, Marriott was missing from that list of hotel brands that do not have their brands at the bottom of the page – but this does not surprise me one bit. marriott is as old-school, staid, and plain a hotel brand as possible.. more on that in my next post… marriott also needs to adapt to the times.

what do you think??

andrew@alconic-inc.com