The Wyndham Reef Resort

Babin explains that, formerly, con- sumers would often buy because of brand loyalty, by what they’d done in the past, by what they could afford, and even by what their parents did. “Today’s consumer is not like that at all,”he claims.“They’re smart, they’re educated, and they’ve got to see un- questionable value.Today’s consumers want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they want to make their decisions based on facts.They expect ‘authenticity.’That’s a word that’s easily said, but not easily applied in business. And people, today, don’t like to be ‘sold’ as much as they like to be able to pur- chase if they choose to. So, a true, real, honest relationship between the con- sumer and your sales and marketing has got to be unquestionably authen- tic.You need a much more profession- al, educated, strong person in sales, as opposed to the slick timeshare person that we’ve all heard about.And if the consumer feel you’re being truly au- thentic, they’re not afraid to ask the right questions.And we do better, now, by following that important doctrine of talking to consumers very differently than in the past.” Babin also realizes that the new generation of young professionals is web-savvy.“So your website has got to be new, it’s got to be modern, it’s got WYNDHAM REEF RESORT to be attractive,”he says,matter-of-factly.These days,marketing also has to be more precise and more scientific.“You have to know who your target market is and you have to be able to approach them, not only in demographics, but you have to market based on psychographics,which is lifestyle,”he insists.“If we have a resort where we do a lot of scuba diving, a lot of water activity,we don’t promote that at a library where people like to sit and read; we promote it at dive shows and sports shows.” Of course, now that the resort is a Wyndham property, brand recognition has not completely disappeared as a marketing ad- vantage, especially when it comes to rentals.“Wyndham has over 47million loyaltymembers.And they’re the world’s largest hotel chain,”Babin relates.“There are people who recognize the brand. And all the OTAs–Online Travel Agents, like Expedia,Travelocity, and so forth–they will recognize the name and they will click into our program.” In addition, Babin says that the resort has high rat