Birmingham Alabama Customer Service? SOAP!

Rub-a-dub-dub, it’s Birmingham Alabama Customer Service in the tub.

There’s no joke about hotels, soap, or Birmingham Alabama here. I happen to be in Birmingham this week, and the soap in my hotel bathroom is as you see in the video; it’s a Neutrogena bath bar, with grippy little dots on one side.

My hotel only gets credit for buying the soap, of course, and I presume Neutrogena will sell gazillions of bars to anyone who wants them. I’ve done a fair amount of traveling in my day and somehow I’ve never come across no-slip soap bars. But I get the feeling that here in Birmingham, where friendly customer service feels like a near-religion, the thought that these bars are just better crossed someone’s mind somewhere along the way as the hotel filled their supply cabinets.

But exactly who’s providing the service is an interesting dilemma.

I’m staying at a hotel called The Tutwiler; it was recommended by a colleague and is about as beautiful as you’d expect of a landmark-designated building in the deep south. Everything is lovely, and the staff are even more friendly than you might expect.

Now, ask me who operates The Tutwiler; I have no idea. The Tutwiler is officially a Hampton Inn, but it’s owned by Hilton. This works out for me; I’m a Hilton Honors member and I’ll take the points and perks. But that leaves me with three different ways to think of and refer to the hotel I’m staying at. Imagine getting into a cab and needing to check down through “I’m at The Tutwiler The Hilton The Hampton Inn, just to get home. And by the way, the Hampton is no longer “The Hampton” at all; what was once “Hampton Inns and Suites” has been renamed “Hampton by Hilton”.

” Tutwiler Birmingham Alabama ” Branding

See the problem?

I love the Tutwiler. In fact, I’m loving pretty much everything about Birmingham. But branding is difficult and getting more so and you need to tweak every piece of your marketing messages if you care about doing branding the right way. In fact, that’s why I’m in Birmingham this week; I’m visiting a client with a branding conundrum to solve.

Ready to clean up your branding and Marketing messages?