GLOBAL REPORT—Melanie Notkin developed SavvyAuntie.com out of need. When she become an aunt in 2001, she quickly realized there was a dearth of information available to help her—and professional women like her—better engage and connect with the children in her life.
It wasn’t until 2008 when her efforts materialized in the form of the online information portal. Since then, it has garnered national media attention for not only serving an oft-forgotten population but also for raising awareness about it.
Hoteliers are only now getting the hint.
“They’ve been practically ignored by marketers,” Notkin said of the one in five, or 23 million, American professional aunts with no kids, or whom she calls PANKs, according to “The power of the PANK” report. The segment, when extrapolated for a global audience, is much larger, she added.
Euromonitor International has caught whiff of the opportunity in this emergent marketing niche. The global research company named PANKs as one of the top segments to watch in its “2013 global trends report.”
“Lots of potential,” said Caroline Bremner, the group’s head of travel and tourism research, when asked to describe PANKs. “At the moment it’s very much in the (United States), but it has the potential to leapfrog into other countries. We definitely thought the (United Kingdom) was the next market this would work very well.”
These are women who not only have the career status and discretionary income to spend on travel, Notkin explained, but also the desire to spend time with nieces and nephews, or the other children in their lives, through travel.
“Here’s this woman who’s completely besotted by her nieces and nephews by relation or by choice. The word ‘aunt’ is that larger maternal word for a woman who loves another child,” Notkin said. “And she also has the opportunity to use discretionary income on other things like herself. One of those things is travel.
“Market to the PANK as one who may decide to take a niece or nephew,” she said.
Marketing to PANKs
Though the segment is ripe for the picking, hoteliers have generally been slow to target PANKs directly. Several major hotel companies reached out to for this report said they recognized the market potential but had yet to execute a marketing campaign to target them. Others neglected to share marketing strategies in general.
Brenda Fields, founder of hotel sales and marketing consultancy company Fields & Company, said the first step is to make the aunt feel like a hero.
“The decision maker is the PANK herself, so making sure the hotel website is well optimized and includes special amenities to help her look like a hero is important,” she said.
Notkin shared the same sentiment. “Bring her back into the spotlight.”
These women are not beholden to the children in their lives, so anything they provide is technically a gift.
“Often enough she’s underappreciated for this gift. If the hotel gives her this wink and make sure she’s the hero, it can be very powerful,” she said.
How to raise the hero? Offer her little perks—an upgrade, a points-based nod in the loyalty program, or just something to let her know you recognize her and appreciate her business, she said.
Another key is safety. “Sometimes some women may avoid traveling alone for that reason—not because she’s not independent and perfectly capable of taking care of herself,” Notkin said. “If hotels can assure her, assure her safety legitimately and not as marketing copy, it may sway more PANKs to choose that hotel.”
And finally, make the booking and planning process simple, Notkin said. Marketers should create packages that keep the needs of children in mind. Perhaps that includes on-property activities and amenities, or tie-ins with local attractions and events.
Multigenerational travel
PANK marketing tactics are generally similar to modern family marketing strategies, Bremner said. The days of the traditional family unit with a mom, dad and two children is a thing of the past. Now families come in all shapes and sizes.
“Accept and recognize and acknowledge that we no longer have a traditional family unit. We have to be more open minded as to what the family may now look like,” she said.
Euromonitor also highlighted multigenerational travelers as an emergent market segment in its trends report. That demographic shift was especially pronounced given the boomerang generation of young adults who returned to live with their parents when they lost their jobs during the Great Recession./
In many cultures, multigenerational market shifts incorporate elderly parents who live with their children during the latter stages of their lives.
Hoteliers should target offers to each of these variations, offering not only room packages but smarter configurations as well, such as sections of hotel floors that can be blocked off for larger family units and suites with more than the standard two beds and pull-out sofa bed, Bremner said.