Quintess Michael

After reading a post in a different thread that referred to "the nicest brochure ever", I thought I would ask the question...
How important is the brochure anymore, and what would you like to see in it?

__________________
Michael Aumock
Director, Membership Development
Quintess, The Leading Residences of the World

GregGH

Hi

I was disappointed in the UE brochure - I don't want to see 'general area' photo of the area - I want specific's including the general area around the location ( like how far is the five minute walk to the beach, etc ). LOTS OF pictures - and link to a web page with even MORE pictures and maps.

Perhaps with the ever changing locations - do loose pages for each location which can serve various purposes

But then again - maybe that is just my odd sense of right and wrong.

Greg

DCTraveler

What I believe is the most important is the professionalism and credibility of the information. This includes the brochure, written communications, e-amils, and most especially the web-site. Typo's, misspellings, incorrect word usage, etc., all indicate the lack of attention to detail. This is also true when looking "inside" the member's only part of the web-site. Do the descriptions match the pictures, charts, etc. Is is 3 baths or 2.5? Is it an expansive water view or glimpse? My two cents...

LTTravel

I think the brochure is important but a simple brochure can be offset by a good web site. The three best brochures I received over the years were the ER, LRW and Tanner and Haley. I can't imagine how much those cost to print. So I would accept a smaller brochure with better photos on a web site.
The value of the photographs of the homes, destination and resort are underestimated by the DC's.
I would like good photos of EVERY home, and EVERY Resort with floor plans and accurate information. Not just square footage (which often includes outdoor space and should be separated into indoor and outdoor space) No photos of leased homes which are no longer in the portfolio, no mish mash of the indoors of some homes mixed with the outdoors of other homes.
Lusso does the best job of this. I would love to see all this in a brochure but I wouldn't want to see DC's make a large print copy of this and distribute it freely as clearly this is VERY expensive and I would rather that money go into the homes. Quintess has a nice photos of the homes on their web site but not all of them. I don't understand why there aren't photos of all of them. ER has excellent photos and I guess with 400 homes, it would be difficult to have all of them. I don't like the way UE does not have good photos of the homes.

DC4MS

I think the overall "image" of a Destination Club is very important as this indicates attention to detail. Of course, joining a club should be much more than choosing the one with the best brochure, but I am talking about the entire corporate image that is being presented. Sometimes, you can really judge a book by its cover.

As a side note, just check out the branding by the Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons and those are the benchmarks to copy.

These are my basic impressions of some of the brochures I have received:

Distinctive Holiday Homes has a simple, but nice brochure, but their website is the weakest site of any Destination Club. They really need a new web designer. Every time I log on to their site, it just seems to run very slow.

Equity Estates has the most incredible brochure with high quality original photo and a leather lined wooden box. Their website is not very informative and that is due to their structure of only being a private offering to accredited investors.

Exclusive Resorts website is amazing and probably the best and their brochures are very good.

High Country Club has a very nice brochure and website that is well balanced.

I love the LUSSO branding as they have incredible brochures, logo branding, soaps, playing cards, postcards, etc. and an incredible website. This gives LUSSO a very professional image of an upscale company.

Portofino had the WORST brochure I have every seen. It was a bunch of color copies that look like they can from Kinko's. They went bankrupt and it was not due to their marketing budget.

The Quintess brochure is very slick with high quality photos, but the photos of the properties on their website are lacking pizazz and actually look much better in person than on the website. This is such an easy fix and should be done ASAP.

The new Ultimate Escapes brochure and website is very nice and I like the Caribbean theme.

DC4MS

I 100% agree with this statement and think LUSSO has the nicest website,.

I also really like the Exclusive Resorts, Ultimate Escapes, and High Country Club web sites.

It will be interesting to see what A&K does.

Rob V

DC Traveler makes really solid points on how to determine what the overall experience and top to bottom capability set might be like. My personal philosophy is that whether one is investigating enrolling the kids in a private school, joining a company as an employee or considering investing in a private offering, or participating in a Destination Club, consistency is very important. While the brochure quality is important it is the message, the communication of the facts, and the exposure of reality that really resonates with people as they view the website, receive letterhead, emails, etc.

Two quick observations. You cannot access the Equity Estates website without consenting to being an accredited investor and so upon initial glance there really is not much to see. Second, thanks DC Traveler for that typo on "emails" just prior to referecing "typo's". I know you planted that to keep us on our toes.

__________________
Rob Vaka
Vice President, Investor Relations
Equity Estates

DCTraveler

I saw it and just had to let it go to see if anybody picked it up. At least my employees didn't see it -- I nail them to the wall over those types of things all the time!

NeilGoBlue

I don't think it's very important.. my experience of almost all the brochures 1 year ago.. was that the info was limited and out of date...(It's hard to keep a brochure up to date during the growth phase)

I'd rather see a simple brochure and a tremendous amount of money and time put into a webiste that actually gives prospective and current members what they need... some examples..

Floor plans
Square footage
Many Pictures of the actual house (not a fricking picture of a teacup on a saucer with the sunset in the background)
Is it ski on/ski off?
How actually close is the beach?
Actual address
etc...

When I was doing my due diligience it was very obvious that DCs were trying to hide info.. you could see on some houses there would be a ton of info, but then another house would have little info.. when digging in, the house with the little info was inferior..

ChicagoMark

My experience was that the brochures were all pretty much the same-glossy pictures of vacation venues. What differentiated the clubs were the financial terms/details and the sales experience. Having junior salespeople trying to put a full court press on me and not fully answering questions ended the discussions pretty quickly with a couple of teams. Being genuine in the sales process made all the difference for me-not just how nice a brochure any of them put out.

pwrshift

Printed brochures goes out of date real quick...add a property and it's dated...printers love you. The ones I've seen are nothing more than costly picture books.

IMO a DC needs high quality printed sales literature that fits their membership fees, but not the 'boxes' of brochures that have been sent to me by all kinds of companies, including Lusso. The intent of such literature is to 'sell' a prospect on taking the next step - to consider joining a DC and to build a preference for this one.

DC's are new - people don't understand them, and never heard of the companies, don't know what they stand for or how secure they are, and get totally confused when they try to understand the differences. The concept has to be sold and brand images have to be built. That takes a ton of money and time that DC's don't have. On this BBS a while back it was announced that ER was setting a million dollar ad budget - a laughable amount that wouldn't even buy a 20 second ad on the Super Bowl...and no leading ad agency would even pitch for the biz.

Look how Ritz and Amex joined forces in their movies and think what it must have cost to produce them. These companies, as different as they are, would eat all the other DC's for lunch if they entered the biz. Take a few minutes and watch 3 movies, be entertained, and get the subtle message:

The Ritz-Carlton Films

Then take a look at an RC brochure ... there's a comfort level reading it and buying from them...and you don't have to 'explain' to your friends what a Ritz Carlton is. But to get a brochure from an unknown DC asking for $400,000 is a much tougher sell ... simply because of the branding and trust levels aren't there and they take years to build.

How did any blue chip company get that level of trust ... simple: through regular advertising in 'comfort' magazines that have the respect and trust of their readers. The advertisers in those pages piggyback on a good magazine's trust and bond with its readers. Readers read in isolation ... they can only read one magazine at a time, one page at a time. Advertisers that grab the readers attention sell a concept, build a brand, a name, a trust.

TV is not the same ... you've got only 30 seconds to see it and get the message, and if you're out for dinner the advertiser is out to lunch. And you can do two things at once when the TV is on ... like also using a laptop as I am now. However, you can read a magazine on the train, in the back seat of your limo, on the plane...anywhere...and it's totally portable and familiar.

Website advertising is important in todays marketing mix, but everyone knows how cheap and misleading it can be, so there's always a lot of internal caution in buying something you've seen online.

The pioneers build the industry but the industry's ultimate blue chips are rarely pioneers. It takes time for a brand to develop and many DC's don't have the money OR the time it takes. The second mouse gets the cheese.

JMHO

LTTravel

How about the bankruptcy of Ritz Carlton in Lake Las Vegas?
Even a brand name doesn't give you security.
Halogen Guides | Sales Dry Up In The Desert As Bankruptcy Hits Lake Las Vegas

NeilGoBlue

I have no idea what the capital structure or ownership interest in the Ritz Carlton Las Vegas looks like, but I'm surprised that Ritz Carlton 'corporate' didn't step in and resturcture the hotel to avoid a bankruptcy filing and the ensuing tarnishment of the Ritz Carlton name....

TarheelTraveler

I guess that's a risk when you start licensing your name to various developers. I think FS, St. Regis, and RC does this for many properties. Hence the fine print on many brochures that the name is licensed versus the property being owned by FS, St. Regis or RC. Definitely some serious risk there for a purchaser who is counting on that brand name when hoping to resell that fractional some day.

pwrshift

I don't fault the brand in Lake Las Vegas. Marriott does license their brand names to various developers and owns very few of their 2500+ hotels around the world. If the developer doesn't live up to their standards, doesn't properly manage the property or pay Marriott's fees, they can withdraw the use of their brand name. They are not alone ... after just 14 months of operation the St. Regis did it just this month over a dispute with the developer in Fort Lauderdale where ER has a bunch of condos -- it will be re-licensed as a Ritz Carlton mid August, and that may not solve the problem either.

Lake Las Vegas is the problem IMO -- it may be a nice place to visit, but it's too far from 'the Strip' where the crowds really want to be. The RC developer there isn't the only one to feel the pinch.

Marriott is a tough master -- they use their 7 categories of hotels as a tool and if a hotel drops two levels Mr. Marriott's picture comes out and it is grounds for losing the brand.

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/poin...dType=Standard

Example: Four Seasons Residences, Town Lake, Austin is not owned, developed or sold by Four Seasons Hotels Limited or its affiliates (Four Seasons). The developer, Post Preferred Homes & Ardent Residential, uses the Four Seasons trademarks and tradenames under a license from Four Seasons Hotels Limited. The marks “FOUR SEASONS,” “FOUR SEASONS HOTELS AND RESORTS,” any combination thereof and the Tree Design are registered trademarks of Four Seasons Hotels Limited in Canada and U.S.A. and of Four Seasons Hotels (Barbados) Ltd. elsewhere.

Bourne