It seems everyone is asking for reviews.
Should we trust them for accuracy? Not always.
Here’s more. Buyer and user reviews for products, car rentals, books, restaurants, purchases on eBay.com and Amazon and hotels have impacted and changed how potential purchasers and travelers make buying decisions.
TripAdvisor dominates the hotel-review area but so do the online sellers such as Expedia, Amazon, Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz, hotels.com.
Should we trust travel hotel ratings? Sometimes.
A wide range of factors affect user rankings. The number of hotels listed; do they verify that the reviews are “real?”
TripAdvisor knows about the review “mills” according to WSJ. These “creative” firms offer to “create” better reviews for hotels looking for more positives, “adjustments.”
Hotels offer incentives to write good reviews. The United Kingdom Advertising Authority ruled that TripAdvisor’s advertising claim of “trusted advice from real travelers” was misleading because fake comments could be posted without verification. Interesting to note that Expedia, hotels.com and Priceline.com limit their guest reviews to those customers who booked hotels through their websites.
See if the reviews are spaced out over time or written by verified purchasers. Did the reviewer actually buy the product or service?
In late 2019, Fakespot said that more than a third of online reviews are fake, and generated by robots and people who write fraudulent reviews. Now there are alternatives to fakespot; they include ReviewMeta and TheReviewIndex.
Don’t forget to read the comments listed. Plus customer reviews are quite different from traditional “star ratings.”
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I like Marketing. I like advertising. I don't like scammers. I like copy and selling points. I like solving Marketing problems using the nine P's of Marketing. I like teaching them.
I use my 9P's to illustrate Marketing examples in the classroom, in court as an expert witness, in seminars and to solve Marketing problems and to find opportunities.
My 9P's of Marketing do include these important concepts, practices and components:
- Planning and Research.
- Finding copy points is part of the creative and promotional planning.
- Planning for marketing activities, objectives, strategies and tactics. Viewership, revenue, sales. All sales, whether in services, fashion, sports, amusement parks, hotels, resorts, autos, fast food, retail sales or tires, refreshments or cereal, as three examples.
- From the founder of Intuit, Scott Cook, said: " A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is -- (maybe from Marketing Research never was is my comment) it is what consumers (“People” in the 9P’s) tell each other it is.
- People (Segmentation and Targeting)
- Consumers and users, as in shoppers. Fashion consumers. Add travelers.
- In my 9P's, I stress that firms need to look and analyze potential, new, existing and repeat customers and users.
- Product and Services, includes hotels, airports, sports teams, people and celebrities too. I teach that perfection resides in quality, not quantity.
- Place (Distribution), includes retail and online. How about locations of airports, team stadiums, amusement parks and resorts?
- Price or Pricing, many contingency plans needed.
- Promotion:
- There are eight (8) major, strategic components or communication elements which are personal and non-personal communication activities.
- The activities that communicate the merits of the overall product include:
- Personal Selling/ Sales Force: Sales persons
- Listen more than you talk. People who listen more, learn more, plus helps you position your service/product/solution or offering.
- Advertising: Like Super Bowl advertising in February for Super Bowl. Think about this expression "It is only creative if the product or service sells." I wanted to add "It is only good media spending if it sells."
- Sales Promotion, advertising mascots can fit here, too. Signage would fit here.
- Collateral Materials
- Direct Marketing (also referred to as Action or Direct Response Advertising)
- Interactive/Internet/Web, Digital Media, Social Media:
- Events and Experiences, sampling
- Public Relations/PR
- One stop shopping is more important than ever.
- Partners/Alliances, can be one of the most powerful of the 9P's if researched, performed and handled well.
- There should be moving forward towards shared goals or goals.
- Presentation:
- The act or acts of strategically presenting any of the different 9P’s© and/or components to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others.
Presentation aspects may be signs, symbols or images that represent something; a descriptive or persuasive account (as a sales person of the product or service). Something set forth for the attention of mind of your targets ("People") and media audiences. I've added "culture," too. I'm adding "culture," too.
- Passion, including consumers and employees. Think about the lines sometimes of consumers waiting for a new Apple product
I am an experienced, senior Forensic Marketing Expert, Advertising expert, Advertising/ Marketing consultant with Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.
The Nine P's/9P's of Marketing help identify marketing problems in a number of strategic areas and help develop profitable marketing’s objectives, strategies, tactics and solutions. The 9P's are insightful. The nine P's were created for the digital age.
Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts: Go to Marketing Trivia with 75+ stimulating questions and answers at Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.




