Here's a good example:
One of the first luxury travel experts I interviewed was Phil Asker the owner of Captains Choice.
Phil has been in the travel business over 40 years.
He started out in 1971 with a retail travel agency and in addition to that he used to run travel tours at more or less a 3 star level.
In 1994 he decided to change his focus.
He sold that part of the business and decided to aim at the top end of the travel market and do things that other people weren't doing.
In September 1994 he offered his first one off luxury travel tour. He hosted a two week tour around Beijing and the Great Wall of China, Delhi and the Taj Mahal, Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Kilimanjaro Airport , a game reserve, the Seychelles and then Broome in North Western Australia.
(The tour was done in a charted Qantas 767 specially arranged by Phil.)
In the last 20 years Captains Choice has gone on to charter trains, private jets and small trips for their luxury travel tours and have been very successful in this field.
Phil found that one thing that works well for his business is to list the price of every luxury tour on their website.
That way people know exactly what they are getting and how much it is.
(A typical tour is 15 days or longer and costs around $1,000 a day per person.)
One of the secrets to the success of Captains Choice is the huge amount of repeat and referral business that they enjoy from their delighted clients.
(Around 44 per cent of their passengers have travelled with Captain's Choice before.)
And 'inspired moments' are a key ingredient to help their clients spread the word.
As Phil explained 'we don't list in the brochure everything we do. We often leave it to our tour managers to come up with what we call 'inspired moments'.
Inspired moments are often little things that people just love.
Phil had one of these 'inspired moments' recently in their 'Southern islands of Australia by private plane tour' which he was leading.
They flew into Queenstown in Tasmania and on the private plane he told his clients that the 'West coast wilderness railway' had closed down the previous year.
Phil explained how great it used to be to ride on this train but unfortunately it had been out of action for over a year.
(Unbeknown to the clients on the tour Phil and his team at the last minute had been able to get this train to operate a reasonably short distance on the railway.)
So when they arrived in Queenstown Phil is describing the train. And then he says 'you might notice there is a train over there on the platform and it's our very own private train and we are about to join it.'
Phil noted that a delightful surprise like this is the sort of thing that people just love.
It is something they didn't expect and they get this type of thing many times as part of every Captains Choice tour.
In fact all of the tour managers in Captains Choice compete with each other to provide these 'inspired moments' that are so loved by their clients.
Phil shared a dozen other helpful marketing ideas in our interview.
And when we chatted it reminded me that good marketing ideas are all around you if you look for them.
So take some time this month and look at some businesses outside your own industry. You'll be delighted at the useful marketing ideas you learn by doing this.
'The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.' - Saint Augustine
Action Exercise:
How can you create 'inspired moments' when you interact with your own customers and clients?
What other businesses can you learn from this month?
PS: One of the things I really like about Captains Choice is the gorgeous booklets they have created which explain in stunning detail what is in each luxury tour they offer.
You are welcome to check these out on their website and order a hard copy of any of these booklets as well.
Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing.
You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at
no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com
