McConnell Marketing Monster Mash

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures from McConnell Marketing dance and sing to celebrate Halloween!

See our sweet dance moves at http://bit.ly/7nOYx

Speaking of Halloween treats, what is your favorite Halloween candy? And what was your best costume current or past?

Some of our favorite candy includes frozen Snickers, bottle caps, Kit Kat, Butterfinger, candy corn, and DOTS! Our best costumes include an Amish family, nightstand (complete with lamp), Ash from Evil Dead, Chipotle Burrito (wrapped in foil), pirates, and cowboys.

Happy Halloween from your friends at spooktacular McConnell Marketing.

Busy, not blogging

The absence of Mm blogs as of late is certainly not due to a lack of things to say. For anyone who knows our team, someone always has a comment about something. We’re busy. Yes, that’s right. We serve the struggling hi-end luxury hotel market and we’re very busy. Our clients have taken the strings off their wallets and are once again spending on marketing.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that “Hotel investors seem to be betting the current, prolonged recession is creating a pent-up demand for travel that will push hotel occupancy rates and revenues to soar in the recovery that follows. Marriott's revenue per available room fell 19% in the third quarter, but its share price has gained 109% since the March 9 market bottom.”

The article went on to portray a bleak picture of the hotelier future, but we’re hopeful. With clients ranging from InterContinental to Best Western, in locations from Scottsdale to Orlando, it seems that there is some positive business momentum. Stalled projects have gotten legs and new proposals are being requested all the time. Kudos to our awesome Director of Business Development AND to those of you who’ve decided to march forward and market. We’re very blessed.

Dream Client

As a part of my internship here at McConnell Marketing, Eric gave me the task of compiling a list of local prospects, to whom I would send a packet and eventually try and set up a meeting with. This got me thinking, if I could pick from any company in the U.S. to work with, who would it be?


After some thought, I narrowed my list down to Under Armour. As a sport lover, it would be a dream come true to be able to work with such a company. So I ask you, what is your dream company to work with?

Beyond Spell-Check

I have a love-hate relationship with spell-check. On one hand, it’s the best. I am a notoriously bad speller. It was just never my strong suit, despite the fact that I always loved to write. My tiny second-grade-sized hands would fumble through our giant dictionary in search of correct spellings, dreaming of the day when I’d simply be able to push a button and get the correct spelling of words like “lieutenant,” “absorption” or “malaise.” I figured we’d get this spelling machine around the same time as flying cars.

But lo! We got a computer a couple years later, and on that computer was the magical spell-checker I’d always dreamt about. It was great! I’d type out my book report, hit “spell-check,” and I was off to the races. I was sure I’d get 100% on all my papers now. I mean, I had this machine to correct all my mistakes, what other score could the teacher possibly give me besides a perfect one?

After the first couple of papers, I realized I was still going to have to proofread. I was disenchanted. The spell-check feature on my word processing program wasn’t the cure-all I had imagined it to be. But even worse: it made me realize that I made OTHER mistakes. It was a very dark time for fourth-grade Sara.

Fast-forward to present day. Spell-check and I have learned to co-exist. Scratch that. I rely on spell-check to correct my many (many!) spelling errors, especially now that I work in a field where proofreading and spell-checking and Thesaurusing are part of everyday life.

However, in the same way spell-check provided my grade-school self with a false sense of perfection (and to a degree, encouraged sloppy, improper grammar), I think features like spell-check and auto-correcting grammar in today’s word processing software might inadvertently be causing more typos than if we all went about things the old-fashioned way.

As I was perusing the menu on a recent dinner date, I noticed about 20 typos. Now, it’s not like the guy writing the menu misspelled “hamburger” or anything. In fact, I didn’t see any spelling errors. No, the person writing the menu definitely used spell-check—but I think that’s where their proofreading stopped. The errors I saw were inconsistencies or flat-out mistakes. Run-on sentences, missing hyphens, prices listed in a variety of formats, cut-off food descriptions… you get the idea. A real mess. I nearly lost my appetite. Kidding! I got the prime rib.

This problem runs especially rampant in hotel marketing collateral. That is, it has the potential to be a nightmare without professional supervision. Just hitting spell-check and reading through something one time isn’t enough, especially when there are so many opportunities for inconsistencies. Is it in-room dining or room service? Neither one is wrong, but if you use both on five different pieces, your guests are probably going to notice.

The point is, each piece of marketing should be painstakingly scoured before it gets in front of guests. Even operational pieces like laundry forms and door hangers need to be proofed for errors. To abstain from doing so would be an erratum of magnanimous proportions (take that, spell-check!).

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

“You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable.” Fred Rogers

Hold the Mayo

I recently read an article about the turkey club being the cornerstone of Marriott’s room service menu. The simple sandwich is a comforting go-to for weary travelers who aren’t likely to be adventurous with their final meal of the day.

It makes sense. The last thing I want to do after a long day of flying or business meetings is take a chance on room-service ceviche or cactus tamales. A tried-and-true sandwich heaped with turkey and bacon sounds just about right – but not everyone can be in that boat, right? When you finally plop down on your hotel room bed and reach for the in-room dining menu, what is your standard, no-nonsense order?

Hospitality Food Trends

Following a great meeting with a great hotel, the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, I walked around their block and tried more cupcakes. The hotel’s PR and Marketing Manager did NOT lead me astray. Thanks Lisa! The delicious treat I sampled (as soon as I left the little shop) and the box full of miniatures that came back to Youngstown for my precious Olivia and Calvin were very much enjoyed.

I’m now onto another sweet endeavor: creating macaron boxes for the infamous macarons created in ADOUR at The St. Regis New York. And next on my to-list is packaging for our friend DT, DOSM at The Ritz-Carlton Central Park. A glimpse at their cupcake package is enough to make me look for flights.

So what’s next? What’s coming from the left coast to replace the current confection craze? The LA Times featured a very interesting article about up and coming jelly shots. Yep, pretty close to familiar jell-o shots. Cheers to you, “J-E-L-L-O Bill Cosby.” That’s right high-end hotels, like Bar Nineteen 12 in the Beverly Hills Hotel, are now serving tasting menus of jelly shots. Cute! Curious to see when this sexy, sushi-inspired design makes its way east. Let’s just hope live nude sushi is a little farther behind.

The New Intern

On September 14, I became the new Intern here at McConnell Marketing. When I sat down to think of what to write for my very first blog, I thought it’d be best to give everyone a little information about myself.


I graduated from South Range High School, and I’m the youngest of three kids. I started my college life at Baldwin-Wallace College just outside of Cleveland. After one year I transferred back home to YSU to run track for the university, but after an injury that resulted in surgery my track days were over.


I grew up loving and playing all sports and never will pass up an invite for a round of golf. On Wednesday nights you can find me at a western bar called the Dusty Armadillo wearing my cowboy boots while line dancing. (That’s right, cowboy boots and line dancing) I’m always down for a good time no matter what it is, as long as I’m having fun.


Well that’s all I’ve got for now, time to start thinking for a new topic for next time.

Crystal Clear

I have been a high school speech coach six years, which means that every September I get back into “speech coach mode.” This means switching gears from account executive (serving the needs of my clients) to speech coach (serving the needs of a dozen hormonal teenagers). I’m not sure which is more challenging. 

Though these two aspects of my life have many differences, I often find that the same lessons I preach to the high school kids I coach are overflowing into the workplace. This week’s lesson? Clarity. I always knew the importance of clarity, and I stress that point to my speech kids every opportunity I get, but didn’t see how much of an impact it plays in my own life. 

This week I witnessed a seemingly innocent office discussion turn into a heated debate all over one or two misunderstandings. With the use of a few pronouns and assumptions (we all know what happens when we assume) and not specifics, everyone was on different pages with different interpretations of the original message. After we all took a step back, the problem was cleared up within a minute. 

I tend to ask the “who, what, where, when, why” all the time, even though I might know what is being discussed. In my own weird way, I suppose I’m trying to subtly show that things aren’t always as clear as they could be. By simply explaining what that “thing” is, or what “stuff” you’re referring to, it might lead to a lot less confusion and fewer unnecessary arguments.