Northstar

10 Jul-Aug 2016 meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com WORDS ESTHER FAITH LEW brand, you are a commodity , and then price becomes everything, with the low-cost producer being the only winner OSCAR CEREZALES, COO ASIA PACIFIC, MCI GROUP. Marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a hich brand story do you find appealing? The industry is being called upon to relook its traditional marketing approaches and to promote experiences related to their destinations. While infrastructure, economic and safety factors remain pivotal concerns for many MICE planners, creativity is also a dominant factor. Creativity paves the way to unique experiences that make destinations memorable to delegates. With this criteria comes the trumpet call for DMOs and CVBs to share their brand stories and to sharpen their positioning. "Destinations should define strategies for both positioning – that is, creating an image or identity in the minds of their target market – and repositioning – that is, changing the identity of the destination as a product, relative to the identity of competing cities. This will help the destination to always retain top of mind recall in reshaping public opinion and evolutionising the sector," says Oscar Cerezales, COO Asia Pacific, MCI Group. Cerezales also elaborated that in order for this to work, DMOs/CVBs must become storytellers or better yet, storydoers, by advancing their narrative through action; buying events in order to keep competition away; and promoting disruptive innovation strategies that require a change in focus from traditional meeting formats to new hybrid models. "Marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity, and then price becomes everything, with the low-cost producer being the only winner," he concludes.

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