Building Brands in the Internet Age: Analytics, Loyalty, and Communication

Abstract

As hospitality firms build and maintain their brands, they have been buffeted by the internet dialectic that occurs in so many other enterprises. On the one hand, the internet and social media provide new tools and information to solidify the brand. On the other hand, the internet strengthens the push toward commoditization. Fortunately, the electronic media can provide the customer information that helps brand managers to offset the commoditization trend and improve their brand’s status—provided the brand manager can find and decipher the needed information from the sea of blogs and social media conversations that wash across the web. Several presentations at the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, held in October 2010, addressed these issues, including internet analytics, traditional and innovative forms of market research, brand management, and building customer loyalty.