On August 17th Glion welcomed Gregory Laguesse, the Marketing and Digital Media Manager of the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace property, to launch a hospitality marketing challenge for the class Contemporary Issues in Marketing.
“I’ve been in contact with Glion already for a while, through the internship and careers department, but I’m here today to present a new initiative. We are offering the Glion students a challenge, the Montreux Palace Project, it’s an opportunity to solve a real marketing dilemma. We will ask them to choose and develop topics for an engaging social media strategy,” Gregory said.
Why ask Glion students to work on this project?
“Marketing is a democracy, an exchange. Most of the time in hotels marketing is a small team of 2-3 people handling marketing, communications, PR and digital and social media. In such a small team, it’s hard to know everything, to have a wide enough view to come up with all the key input about the target audience. I seek input from the operations team and from outsiders. From people who have visited the hotel. It’s a democracy. It’s also a test, I can put in place strategies, and choose channels and ads, but it’s trial and error.”
The seven reasons this hotel marketing project is a win-win exchange:
- Provide Glion students with real case scenarios of digital marketing at the FLMP
- Bench-marking best practices among hospitality and digital marketing world
- Demonstrate your creativity and capacity to put together a marketing plan
- Receive guidance, acknowledgements and feedback from the FLMP team
- Opportunity to visit the FLMP and develop visual content directly on site
- Opportunity for team work
- Use this experience and acumen in your future professional roles
8 hotel marketing initiatives for students to explore:
- Easter Holidays- Drive Family Package
- Yearly Summer Party – Create buzz ahead of the event to generate reservations
- Montreux Christmas Market – Promote the destination to drive booking
- Funky Claud’s Bar – Re-position the outlet to create awareness
- MP’s Bar & Grill – Position the restaurant as best dining experience in Switzerland
- Sunday Brunch – Maintain awareness year-round
- Willow Stream Spa – Drive yearly memberships
- Weddings – Create buzz to position FLMP as “THE PLACE” to get married
Students had the opportunity to ask questions about the various topics, to hone their strategies. They received the list of resources, hotel digital channels and properties, and the brand guidelines.
Students will submit their projects in October for feedback. We’ll catch up with Gregory at that time to see which ideas he likes best and how he will implement them.
Find out more about our Bachelor’s in International Hospitality Business.
