Expedia “Travel Yourself Interesting”: How Challenging Category Conventions Can Generate An ROI of 1:11.

Expedia created the online travel market 20+ years earlier but was under increased attack from competitors in 2014. This increase in competition had commoditized the market, putting a lot of pressure on prices and margins. Category marketing essentially focused on “deals” and savings. Because of that, consumers increasingly started to visit price comparison sites rather sites like Expedia directly.

The first shift in strategy came by deciding to break the category communication conventions of focusing on price and deals. Instead, Expedia and its agency decided to focus on the transformational life experiences of travel. They validated the size of this “opportunity” through a segmentation study which identified a consumer segment that perceived travel as an essential investment in their wellbeing and self-image. Further research lead to this brilliant and yet so simple insights that “travel makes you more interesting” (and who doesn’t want to be perceived as interesting?) which was brought to life in a multi-channel campaign around the tagline “Travel yourself interesting”.  

Challenging category conventions and providing a psychological benefit to reinforce consumers self-image rather than the typical functional benefit (low prices and deals) are two of the 26 proven effective positioning strategies we explore in our positioning development methodology and a highly effective way to re-position and grow a brand, its margins and its profitability. In the UK, Expedia’s Profit Return on Investment from this new positioning and campaign was 1:11.

SIGN-UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UPDATED

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 

GO BACK TO 'FUNDAMENTALS” for more articles about brand strategy, brand positioning, customer insights, and creative problem-solving.

Learn everything there is to know about brand position development and become more “brand positioning fluent” than 99% of the marketing community with my online course “The Art & Craft Of Brand Positioning Development”. Learn what it is, how to set objectives for your positioning, how to segment your consumers, how to create genuinely differentiating and distinctive positioning statements, sources of brand positioning, how to assess, evaluate, and improve existing positioning statements (with examples), and learn what mistakes to avoid. 

Do you just want to learn the basics of brand positioning development? Check out the award-winning “Brand Positioning Workbook:  A simple how-to guide to more compelling brand positioning, faster”. Available on Amazon around the world. (RAISE the prices again?)

Working solo on a brand positioning project or preparing a positioning workshop? Check out the best-selling Brand Positioning Method Cards for guidance and inspiration. 

Interested in insights and how to generate them instead? Then the Aha! The Indispensable Insight Generation Toolkit might be for you. Available as a set of method cards in the US and as a Kindle document outside the US. 

Need an expert team to help you position or re-positon your brand and identify new growth opportunities? Then reach out

Alternatively, you may want punctual advice, feedback, and inspiration without hiring a consulting team. Then, book an hour of coaching with me.