“We’re not the traditional one size fits all franchise,” says Big4’s Ray Schleibs. The holiday parks business conducts research every two years and has achieved 70 percent brand awareness in the Australian population among hotel brands, with a 46 percent rate of recognition without any prompting. 

“Holding a brand to a truth is important,” says Schleibs. “There are strengths and weaknesses in being a market leader. Everyone watches you and you have to keep driving the brand. Everyone else gets halo marketing,” he explains.

The power of a brand is to deliver, to reach customer expectations. “If you can’t do that your brand is broken.”
 

The foundations of the Big4 promise are excellence in customer service delivery, in cleanliness and safety, in facilities and park presentation, and in delivering a unique holiday experience.

“They seem fairly simple points but research shows these are trigger points for our customers.”

So how does the company ensure consistency in the group? Through measuring and managing, says Schleibs. And he’s proud of the company’s complaints record – about 100 out of 50-60,000 visits.

It is the result of a rigorous approach which includes marketing and branding as well as the delivery of the brand promise at park level. The latest is the first TV campaign for seven years for Big4. It will run on social media and mobiles sites too, and links directly to the holiday parks. The branding allows for Big4 to remain in the top five slot among branded accommodation on the web, says Schleibs.

TECHNOLOGY BENEFITS

“Each park has its own microsite they can manage at park level too. Some we manage, some they manage, with photos for instance.”

The technological improvements are paying off. Live booking direct to the park has been a great innovation, with bookings worth $25 million taken online.

A fully bookable mobile system has been rolled out for nearly two years and accounts for 40 percent of the bookings with tablets proving significant booking tools channels too.

“This puts our parks ahead of the curve,” says Schleibs. And it means franchisees don’t have to build their own mobile versions of the website. “Technology really drives everything. We have portals for our parks to communicate with us,” he adds.

In addition to guidance and tools for marketing, pr and social media which are available as online resources, there is educational support which the business development team manages online.

The company also has its own reservations system, Park Accommodation Manager, which was introduced five years ago. The idiosynchrocies of park management have been incorporated into this tailor made program which Schleibs says has been “incredibly successful”.

So what’s next? “We’re about to go into strategic planning in March for the three years ahead. Our objective is to stay the brand of choice, first of mind – for the right reasons.”

A significant national footprint is on the list, and there is still plenty of potential for existing holiday parks to re-badge he says. In the two and a half thousand to four thousand holiday parks that operate across Australia there are only 180 in the Big4 chain. But, he admits, “we have the lion’s share of the best parks in the country”.
 

The best quality parks in the best locations with the best operators – that is the aim, maybe a final portfolio of 200 parks nationwide, he says. 
 

“We need a national footprint so someone can stay at a Big4 on their way to a destination anywhere in Australia.”