The ACME hotel is a fictional hotel. For purposes of this exercise, assume that it is situated in downtown Montreal. There is enough information provided to allow you to make certain assumptions about what kind of hotel Acme is, and against which hotels it is competing.
ACME HOTEL
There is lodging, and then there is the ACME Hotel!
It used to be that hotels like the Ritz Carlton, the Sheraton Centre, and the Omni defined luxury for those high-end travelers seeking a superior hospitality experience in Montreal.
Enter the ACME Hotel, one of a new breed of “boutique” hotels that redefine luxury. A boutique hotel is a smaller than average hotel. There are fewer rooms, but guests are offered superior service, greater attention to detail, or some other distinguishing factor or characteristic.
Furthermore, compared to their larger cousins, boutique hotels boast lower operating costs. There is no expensive pool to maintain, fewer auxiliary services to market, and a smaller staff to manage.
The significant price points reflect the well-above-average service component.
With the recently-constructed Sofitel Hotel joining the already crowded downtown hotel scene, barriers to entry are significant. Direct competition is futile. A unique selling proposition must be offered by any new player hoping to have staying power.
Although most of the Montreal boutique hotels are known for their service and charm, the ACME has earned a reputation of being sensual. How else might one describe a hotel that boasts rooms with dark walls, candles and fresh flowers, peek-a-boo windows that look into the bathroom, baths
filled with fresh rose petals, in-room couple massages, glass-walled showers, and condoms, of course.
The ACME’s general manager was quoted as saying that the ACME is designed to create a mood of “elegant eroticism…the hotel will make it possible for guests to make their dreams come true.”
The hotel’s “whatever/whenever” team work to create dreams, allowing guests to forget reality.
Assume that ACME Hotel will open its doors to guests in September 2015. You are to create an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for the ACME hotel. The Plan should be focused on both the launch and the last months of 2015. Your budget is $300,000.00 for the entire IMC. Note that your target audience is living and working in the province of Quebec. You are focusing on LOCALS only. Focus only on “final consumers”, not business users.