The Kimpton Group Selects VerticalResponse as the Newsletter Service for Many of its Restaurants in the US and Canada
Leading Hotelier uses email marketing to connect more diners to its award-winning restaurants
In a world-class culinary market, the competition is intense and no one knows this better than The Kimpton Group, the San Francisco-based pioneer of the boutique hotel industry. Yet, for help in extending a world-renowned brand even further, Kimpton has enlisted the services of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of branded experience email and direct mail marketing.
VerticalResponse provides Kimpton's restaurants with customized email templates that reflect the look and feel of the establishment, allowing them to launch email campaigns in minutes while protecting the integrity of their general marketing efforts. Not only does VerticalResponse provide a means for Kimpton to stay in touch with its valued guests, it also offers a way to measure their receptivity. With a single click, managers can see who opened their email as well as who followed the link to the restaurant's website. As a result, Kimpton's restaurants can determine a true return on their investment, a feature that has made believers of the company's top executives.
"The majority of our restaurants nationwide are using the VerticalResponse service to consistently send email offers to all of their previous guests; they send recipes and email offers to VIPs," noted Greg Horner, Kimpton's Director of Restaurant Sales and Marketing. "We've found that the open rate is very high and the number of guests that are choosing to opt-out is very low. So, I think that shows our guests appreciate receiving the communication from our restaurants."
The Kimpton Group sees VerticalResponse as a way to stake a place in the mind of its guests long after they've walked out the door. The VerticalResponse product lets managers communicate with guests via customized email or direct mailings in a way that evokes the character of the restaurants themselves as well as the aesthetic of their websites.
VerticalResponse tailors email templates so even technophobes can create email campaigns incorporating their brand image, ensuring that a consistent theme is communicated across all levels of a company's direct marketing efforts. In the service industry, the result is an impression that is at once memorable and faithful to a restaurant's core identity.
Morgan Taylor manages the Helix Lounge, Topaz Bar and Bar Rouge, renowned D.C. hotspots managed by The Kimpton Group. She likes that she can convey the character of her establishment through VerticalResponse while apprising guests of special events, theme nights and happy hour offers.
"I use it for monthly email blasts and have had an excellent experience with it," Taylor added. "We are a martini lounge with a very funky seventies theme and a clientele of diverse young professionals from every demographic you can imagine. I love seeing how many people opened the email, who hasn't looked at it and getting a report on bouncebacks. It's a great tool for restaurants."
The Kimpton Group, honored in March as one of "The Top 10 Brand Story Tellers" by FastCompany's Karen Post, recognizes that a well-told tale goes a long way toward building a business. The company has even gone so far as to create a novella that tells its brand story in book form. It's no surprise, then, that the promise of engaging guests with a narrative is what attracted Kimpton to VerticalResponse.
"Too often, direct marketing campaigns feel detached from the spirit of the company they promote, explained VerticalResponse's CEO and founder Janine Popick. "The purpose of these direct marketing efforts is to identify the restaurant's popular strengths and to use those strengths as a foundation on which to build broader recognition of its own, distinct brand."
About VR
VerticalResponse, Inc. (http://www.verticalresponse.com) is a leading provider of branded experience email and direct marketing services. The company's self-service and customized marketing solutions empower businesses of all sizes to construct, direct and assess their own direct marketing campaigns. VerticalResponse's flagship product is the most intuitive Web-based direct marketing solution available. It allows customers to deliver highly sophisticated yet easily deployed email marketing campaigns. Today, thousands of businesses use VerticalResponse for their direct marketing programs. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit the company's Website at www.verticalresponse.com.
About Kimpton
Founded by Bill Kimpton in 1981, San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurantsis a unique collection of boutique hotels coupled with chef-driven, destination restaurants. While all Kimpton Hotels are thoughtfully appointed and managed to help guests maintain and enrich their lifestyles on the road, each is individually designed to reflect the energy, personality, and pulse of its distinct location, history, and architectural style. Featuring highly personalized guest services, comforting inroom amenities, and one-of-a-kind specialty rooms and suites, Kimpton Hotels provide travelers with welcoming atmospheres that embrace its signature elements of care, comfort, style, flavor, and fun. Kimpton takes pride in its social responsibility, supporting select like-minded partners and is a leader in ecological practices. Kimpton currently operates 39 boutique hotels with restaurants throughout the United States and Canada. This includes the recently opened Onyx Hotel in Boston, 70 park avenue hotel in New York City, and the Hotel Solamar in San Diego. Kimpton will re-launch the Mayfair Hotel & Spa in Coconut Grove, Miami in late summer of 2005 and additional projects are underway in South Beach, Dallas, Virginia and the Washington D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.kimptonhotels.com or call 1-800-KIMPTON.
VerticalResponse provides Kimpton's restaurants with customized email templates that reflect the look and feel of the establishment, allowing them to launch email campaigns in minutes while protecting the integrity of their general marketing efforts. Not only does VerticalResponse provide a means for Kimpton to stay in touch with its valued guests, it also offers a way to measure their receptivity. With a single click, managers can see who opened their email as well as who followed the link to the restaurant's website. As a result, Kimpton's restaurants can determine a true return on their investment, a feature that has made believers of the company's top executives.
"The majority of our restaurants nationwide are using the VerticalResponse service to consistently send email offers to all of their previous guests; they send recipes and email offers to VIPs," noted Greg Horner, Kimpton's Director of Restaurant Sales and Marketing. "We've found that the open rate is very high and the number of guests that are choosing to opt-out is very low. So, I think that shows our guests appreciate receiving the communication from our restaurants."
The Kimpton Group sees VerticalResponse as a way to stake a place in the mind of its guests long after they've walked out the door. The VerticalResponse product lets managers communicate with guests via customized email or direct mailings in a way that evokes the character of the restaurants themselves as well as the aesthetic of their websites.
VerticalResponse tailors email templates so even technophobes can create email campaigns incorporating their brand image, ensuring that a consistent theme is communicated across all levels of a company's direct marketing efforts. In the service industry, the result is an impression that is at once memorable and faithful to a restaurant's core identity.
Morgan Taylor manages the Helix Lounge, Topaz Bar and Bar Rouge, renowned D.C. hotspots managed by The Kimpton Group. She likes that she can convey the character of her establishment through VerticalResponse while apprising guests of special events, theme nights and happy hour offers.
"I use it for monthly email blasts and have had an excellent experience with it," Taylor added. "We are a martini lounge with a very funky seventies theme and a clientele of diverse young professionals from every demographic you can imagine. I love seeing how many people opened the email, who hasn't looked at it and getting a report on bouncebacks. It's a great tool for restaurants."
The Kimpton Group, honored in March as one of "The Top 10 Brand Story Tellers" by FastCompany's Karen Post, recognizes that a well-told tale goes a long way toward building a business. The company has even gone so far as to create a novella that tells its brand story in book form. It's no surprise, then, that the promise of engaging guests with a narrative is what attracted Kimpton to VerticalResponse.
"Too often, direct marketing campaigns feel detached from the spirit of the company they promote, explained VerticalResponse's CEO and founder Janine Popick. "The purpose of these direct marketing efforts is to identify the restaurant's popular strengths and to use those strengths as a foundation on which to build broader recognition of its own, distinct brand."
About VR
VerticalResponse, Inc. (http://www.verticalresponse.com) is a leading provider of branded experience email and direct marketing services. The company's self-service and customized marketing solutions empower businesses of all sizes to construct, direct and assess their own direct marketing campaigns. VerticalResponse's flagship product is the most intuitive Web-based direct marketing solution available. It allows customers to deliver highly sophisticated yet easily deployed email marketing campaigns. Today, thousands of businesses use VerticalResponse for their direct marketing programs. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit the company's Website at www.verticalresponse.com.
About Kimpton
Founded by Bill Kimpton in 1981, San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurantsis a unique collection of boutique hotels coupled with chef-driven, destination restaurants. While all Kimpton Hotels are thoughtfully appointed and managed to help guests maintain and enrich their lifestyles on the road, each is individually designed to reflect the energy, personality, and pulse of its distinct location, history, and architectural style. Featuring highly personalized guest services, comforting inroom amenities, and one-of-a-kind specialty rooms and suites, Kimpton Hotels provide travelers with welcoming atmospheres that embrace its signature elements of care, comfort, style, flavor, and fun. Kimpton takes pride in its social responsibility, supporting select like-minded partners and is a leader in ecological practices. Kimpton currently operates 39 boutique hotels with restaurants throughout the United States and Canada. This includes the recently opened Onyx Hotel in Boston, 70 park avenue hotel in New York City, and the Hotel Solamar in San Diego. Kimpton will re-launch the Mayfair Hotel & Spa in Coconut Grove, Miami in late summer of 2005 and additional projects are underway in South Beach, Dallas, Virginia and the Washington D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.kimptonhotels.com or call 1-800-KIMPTON.
