NEW YORK Morgans Hotel Group's laser focus on its core customer has afforded the chain luxuries other marketers can't match.
For example, because the chain goes after 41-55-year-old male hipsters, it was free to launch a promotion last fall called "Fuck the recession."
Now that same focus has allowed the company to put most of its marketing energy into making its Web site a hub for what Scott S. Williams, evp and CMO for the chain, calls "maximizers" -- people who are "always looking for more excitement."
The new site, developed by ZAAZ, soft-launched last month. Among some of the new bells and whistles is a very large booking calendar, which Williams says contrasts with the postage-stamp size versions on other hotel sites.
To make the site sticky, the chain has worked with UrbanDaddy to produce content on the site like an extended video interview with Shepard Fairey, the illustrator of the famous Obama campaign poster. Williams said the site hadn't been updated since 2001 and is now meant to be a draw for maximizers -- sort of the online equivalent of one of the chain's hotels. "We figured out how to get kick-ass creative for people who are in the mood to book and shop," he said.
