How to get through...part II

So, it's been a week since the letters went out to the big marketing honchos at Choice Hotels International. This was my request to have them donate to the charity as well as ask them to 'cover' the costs for my hotel stays at their properties. Not surprisingly, no response yet. But let's take a step back and remember:

• Snail mail takes a couple of days. The letters didn't truly even get into the mail system until Tuesday afternoon (so technically, not even a week).
• Last week was a short one, and I suppose one of these folks (if not both) may have taken some time off.
• Snail return mail also takes time. So even if they did send me back a response, I wouldn't have it yet anyway.
• This is a relatively large organization. It may take some time to get into the proper hands for a decision.

I'm holding out such huge hope for Choice Hotels International because it just seems like such a good fit all the way around (locations in US and Canada, mission statement regarding support of tourism, marketing impact they can gain through this exposure for such little investment, etc). I'm not putting all my eggs in that basket though. I'll certainly re-route if it means getting hooked up through some alternative hotel group.

Just wanted to update the blog on this point.

How to get through to a decision maker...

Let's call this an open experiment. I'm trying to find that elusive decision maker at Choice Hotels International who can decide whether they want the 'good' publicity I can generate, or if they just choose to ignore it and me completely. I'll share the step by step developments and we can learn together what works (and what doesn't).

Recap: I'm trying to find a lodging 'sponsor' to help defray the costs of this trip, and at the same time, make a monetary donation to the charity.

So, as I look at the route (or the many, many proposed routes) I see that there's a common thread among nearly every stop along the way: Choice Hotels International brand hotels are within 15 miles of each nightly destination, if not right there. So that makes them a logical target for sponsorship. But just because it's convenient for me, doesn't mean it is for them. So off I go to their website and -score!- I learn that Choice Hotels Foundation has a mission statement that says they support tourism ventures wholeheartedly. I figure this is as touristy as it's gonna get. After all, I'm aiming this whole project at folks who may make similar trips in the future (those would be tourists). So, yes, CHI is certainly a good target. But it's not as easy as picking up the phone and calling my local franchisee and saying, "what do you think?". I have to contact the headquarters (that's hard to find in itself from the CHI website). AND I have to figure out which person is the right one to contact. Big businesses are great, but sometimes that makes it easier to pass the buck.

So I find the media relations contacts (two of them). I figure that Heather Soule, the seemingly junior of the two, would more likely be the hands-on person, the one who really makes things happen. Her email address heather_soule@choicehotels.com is listed on the site. I use it.

That was on Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Now it's nearly 3 weeks later and nothing, not even an email back saying to go and pound sand.That's okay. As a person who has their email address listed all over our website for 'general feedback' I can tell you that I get an awful lot of email that doesn't belong to me. I pass it along, and rarely do I tell the sender that I've passed it on. So I'm just as 'guilty' as Heather.


For all I know, she's passed this to the proper person, who promptly trashed it. Heather: I'm not blaming you.

So this weekend I putter around the net and find some contact names for the head of marketing at CHI: Bill Carlson, Senior VP of Marketing and Chris Malone, Chief Marketing Officer. This time, instead of email addresses, I get snail mail addresses. The dead-tree version of my note will go out to these fine gentlemen tomorrow.

(this isn't them)

Hopefully they will see the value in being a lodging sponsor and donate some appreciable money to the charity.

I'll let you know how it goes. Remember, this is an experiment. I'm sure I could resort to stalking, harassing and name-calling, but I'd rather not. Not again. (ha ha)