The time has come to say goodbye to Miri Marriott

3 months went by so fast. I am finishing up my last week with daily updates of the media clippings for February and a couple of events to prepare later on in the week. One thing I can definitely say beyond any doubt is that this internship has done wonders for my overall confidence. I got up the courage to ask my boss and HR supervisor for testimonials and recommendations today, which I am very pleased to say they were happy to. Aside from those more tangible things I will be taking with me, it is the incredible experience and the great memories spent with great people I am also taking and I will treasure most.

We are insisted upon not to get personal on this blog, but how could you not? You spend three months in close proximity with a small group of wonderful people that they literally become family to you, especially as an international student. All went out of their way to get to know me and make me feel welcome and appreciated as an associate. I am sincerely glad I did the 3 months and not the 20 days. In my first 20 days I had only done a couple of events, a few designs and media clippings; not a lot compared to what I got to do in the 3 months.

Aside from the day-to-day tasks I got to play my part in 2 big projects during my time here. The first was writing the Marriott Matters promotional descriptions for all the F&B (food and beverage) outlets. Marriott Matters is a booklet published every 3 months to highlight all promotions available for that period of time. It was my first ‘big’ task I got to do and I enjoyed it because I enjoy writing (it was the one thing I really hoped to get a chance to do during the internship) and I love food (who doesn’t) so the two passions coming together was great.

The second big task that I got to was presentation slides/video for the ATF (ASEAN Tourism Forum) 2014 that took place in January. I have always enjoyed doing presentation slides, for all group presentation done in Uni I have always volunteered to do them, so I was more than happy when I got asked to them for the hotel. However, it was very different from doing Uni presentations; there was no room for error and I had to incorporate the hotel’s branding, convey the right information/images and make it look as appealing as possible – for 8 minutes (I have to say doing FTV units, particularly Corporate Documentary, came in handy for this task).

Adding a few things to the CV portfolio is great but, as I mentioned in the beginning, what it does for your confidence and your approach to everything you do is an even greater - When I finished the slides, I had to present them to the General Manager- the news of which made me almost chicken out. I will always remember the Sales Manager telling me, "You've got to show people what you're made of!" And I did, and it paid off - and I will definitely be taking that bit of advice with me too.

Thanks a lot Miri Marriott, it's been great.

Rachel Salinah Jackson

15624958

Miri Campus

Recognising the need to Digitize

Whether it is for reasons of going green or just for plain convenience, technology has helped pave the way for digital management when it comes to business. Not to say hard copies have become completely obsolete, but slowly but surely it may be the reality. My last task before my internship comes to an end is to digitize Miri Marriott’s media clippings. You may all recall doing media clippings in PR250, and I’m sure some of you already doing your internships have been delegated to do this.

Firstly, a little detour first of how it works around here (if PR250 didn't quite make sense and you were doing that assignment just for the sake of getting it done – guilty!): Daily newspapers are collected (all local/national/online publications) and I have to go through them looking for articles about the hotel (media presence), other hotels in Miri (competitive analysis) and hospitality/tourism-related articles across Sarawak, Sabah and West Malaysia (industry monitoring) – the articles about the hotel (excluding our own advertisements) are considered free media coverage and I must calculate the value of such articles. Bare with me, this is where it gets a little confusing: this is done by measuring the article’s length and multiplying that by the number of columns based on figure 1. The result is then multiplied by set prices for each publication (see figure 2)– as I said it's all a bit confusing at first but that’s what the tables are for.

Figure 1

Figure 2

All the articles I collect are filed to be circulated monthly within the hotel to the General Manager and all Executive Committee members. It’s not the most exciting job in the world, but it’s just one of those things that needs to be done. Personally, it’s kind of nice to start the day reading up on some news (you never know what you might find – I once found an article entitled “Know Your Poo” – and it was rather hilarious) plus you get to be a little arts and crafty. As with all hard copies, they can get damaged or go missing along the way – so my boss though it best just to scan it all, make it into a pdf and email it – easy peasy! And this is where digital management comes in: creation, storage and retrieval are now at a click of a button (or two). But it also has other perks for overall business but you will find many of the points are similar: 

• With faster access to and retrieval of information logically means faster business transactions;

• With quicker access to all of the right information means staff are better informed and can make better decisions faster;

• Less time is spent looking for information;

• Easier information sharing not just internally across the hotel and other franchises;

• (My personal favourite) saving paper means saving trees – particularly important for this part of the world;

• Clutter-free offices – it frees up some space where all the filing used to be.

The only cons to digital management is that technology can let you down, all it takes is one crash and it’s all gone, or some hacker extraordinaire to snoop, steal or unleash a virus. The solutions to such issues would be to make sure to do regular back-ups and make sure system security is top notch. We are creatures that crave convenience and the same goes for how we want to do business; making use of technology and choosing digital management is a more effective and efficient way of doing business.

Rachel Salinah Jackson

15624958

Miri Campus

Truly Embracing CSR

Miri Marriott’s (CSR) Christmas Wish Tree project came to an end last Friday. After 3 months of preparation, we delivered all 442 gifts/money donated by guests, associates and friends of Miri Marriott to the various orphanages, disability centres and the hospital. It was an experience that brought on a rollercoaster of emotions, but an experience I will remember and treasure forever. It did get me thinking about CSR; how some companies (corporations) choose not to do it and for some that do it’s all just a load of green, blue or pinkwashing.

Personally, to experience what I experienced last week, it is worth all the time, all the money and all the effort. It’s a given that acts of CSR are not going to solve all the world’s problems (it would be amazing if they could!) but it is a way for companies to extend a helping hand to society, while also benefiting from it themselves. Clearly the feeling of doing something good for others is not enough, so why else should companies embrace corporate social responsibility? Specifically focusing on hotel CSR, I did a little informal verbal survey among my fellow associates and came up with the following reasons:

1.    Going Green is the new frontier of innovation – Hotels are constantly trying to keep up with the times, in terms of standards and innovations. New generation travellers (Gen Y) are more environmentally conscious and this can affect where they choose to stay. Hotels are very much aware of this and must think of innovative ways to accommodate to their greener needs

2.    It saves money – CSR is one of the easiest ways to cut down on costs. Whether it’s improving energy efficiency or water use, it really can make a difference it terms of saving some money;

3.    Competitive advantage – In conjunction with point 1, CSR can set you apart from your competitors, with guests having your hotel as a preference in response to all the your positive impacts on society/environment/etc;

4.    Long-term thinking – We are all very much aware of the need to be more sustainable economically, environmentally and socially (triple-bottom-line). Long-term sustainability is just good business when you’re in it for the long run;

5.    Communicating and Connecting with Customers – CSR can help you engage with your customers on a more personal level. Since the message you want to put out is about doing something “good,” it can often be an effective way of getting customer attention as well as community attention;

6.    Employee engagement – engaging employees in the company’s CSR priorities can really aid in communication and boosting morale.

Of course different companies do CSR for different reasons. But I take back what I mentioned before about CSR not solving the world’s problems; I would like to believe that if every CEO felt what I felt giving a gift to a little girl bed-ridden in hospital and putting a smile on her face, and then felt compelled to make more people smile, the world would be a much better place. Naive? Perhaps, but maybe I'm just optimistically planting seeds for all you future CEOs :)

Rachel Salinah Jackson

15624958/7e0b8041

Curtin Miri 

Hotels, PR & Hotel PR – in a nutshell

Let me start by saying thank goodness it is Friday, the acronym does not truly give justice to how thankful I am. Don’t get me wrong, the internship is going great - but this first month has been a shock to the system to say the least. Monday to Friday, waking up at the crack of dawn, sitting in traffic, the 9 hour work day, more traffic – absolutely exhausting! It takes getting used to, coffee does help and weekends are a godsend. 

Working in a hotel takes some getting used to too. You realise in a matter of hours that you must make the mental transition from past guest to employee, or ‘associate’ as we are known in Marriott. My expectations of hotel Public Relations have been warped as well. When I applied for this job, I was told during my interview that the PR was part of the Sales and Marketing department, no real surprise at the time but once I started, I soon realised Sales, Marketing and PR all blend together – In other Marriott hotels it is also known as Marcom (marketing communications). The PR team mainly deals with the hotel’s advertising and promotions.

Hotel PR combines with advertising and promotion to generate awareness for the hotel or it services, create demand for its services, and increase its perceived value – the latter being absolutely key.  This includes media releases, promotion booklets, the website, blog and other SNS’s, even the key cards – all of which have to support your hotel’s business positioning and marketing objectives. My boss’s first bit of advice was ‘stick to the guidelines and policies’ – Hotel PR is a huge responsibility as you are the voice of the hotel – no one else other than PR personnel have the right to speak on behalf of the hotel publicly, so when you do make sure you get it right. Stating the obvious, For Marriott, it is all about the brand value and maintaining the high standards that come with it.

So from my first 3 weeks, I have come up with a brief list of what you need to know about interning in hotel PR, let’s say the 5 basics shall we, which are as follows:-

·         It is not limited solely to issuing press releases and doing media clippings – definitely not. They were in my initial ‘what to expect’ list. Media clippings I do daily but no press releases in these first 3 weeks. Instead I have been doing write-ups for their promotion booklets, designing Christmas e-cards, and most recently making ‘No Durians Allowed’ signs.

·         As much as you want to make all advertising and promotions sound as appealing as possible, it is essential you TELL THE TRUTH. Yes company and personal ethics are involved, but the whole deal of marketing (and marketing hospitality in particular) is that your product needs to be as good as you say it is.

·         CSR is a biggy – For the big players like Marriott, it is extremely important to give back to the community, and they make sure they do all year around in their ‘Spirit to Serve’ community initiatives. At the moment I am helping with their Christmas Wish Tree Project, which supports children and adults with physical and mental disabilities, orphans, and underprivileged families in Miri.

·         Know your SNS’s – as a member of gen Y, your boss will expect you to be tech-savvy and know everything there is to know about digital media platforms. If you haven’t tweeted or instagram’d before, I suggest you start and know the power of hashtags. I was put in charge of setting up and maintaining the hotel’s Instagram – being totally unfamiliar with the platform prior to this. My advice if you’re faced with the same situation is to research first, check how other hotels use Instagram, remember to hashtag, and have fun with it.  

·         And lastly, don’t start the internship with the expectation of having work to do all day, 5 days a week. You will find that there are often days where you have nothing to do and you are just sitting around waiting to clock out at 5pm. I suggest headphones and good music, and get to know the software your company uses. For example, CorelDraw is the software of choice here for designing everything from their promo booklets to their company envelopes.

Obviously these are only based on my experience so far – it may vary from hotel to hotel, hospitality to consultancy - but the essential elements are there.

Rachel Salinah Jackson

7e0b8041/15624958

Curtin Miri