Diversifying Expedia in crowded skies — Brendan Dell // Brendan Dell

Quotes

• "The challenge with an example like Expedia is that they're dealing with very different market dynamics than the average company because they are at this level of scale, where people make very discrete choices. There are not 50 options of Expedia versus it Expedia, booking their subsidiary brands and crumbs." - Brendan Dell

• "There are two sides to Expedia; there's the big consumer side, and there's the side that has to go get people onto the platform. This whole behind-the-scenes thing happens when you're fighting for inventory. Like hotels can open up X amount of inventory to you, small properties can open up X amount of inventory. And they can set different rates; they can develop various promotions. And so, the question is, how do you then influence this?" - Brendan Dell

• "Expedia had tried to market itself to the greater partner ecosystem, meaning hotel owners and so forth, as the most partner-centric organization out there. However, the things they were saying and their story were not congruent with the actual means they were taking." - Brendan Dell

• "For any brand out there that's making a big promise like we're an influencer marketing platform, and we're helping to amplify the voices of creators everywhere, whatever the big promises you're making in the market, are you living that promise you're making? Because if you're not authentic to what you're saying, people will buy it the first time, but they will not return." - Brendan Dell

• "Expedia, their promise was always around value for a long time. What booking did was that they introduced a much better, more consumer-centric experience that was much easier to use and was much easier to look at. And so, they changed the promise to a market and created one instead of just a value to ease and efficiency. And they were able to make huge inroads against a Coca-Cola competitor." - Brendan Dell

• "What makes marketing successful? You're trying to optimize for fame. You're trying to be the trusted authority in a space. The famous brand is the one that gets the outsized win." - Brendan Dell

• "Fame is trust among a clear group of buyers, the right somebody, a succinct tribe that understands who you are and how you uniquely help them solve a problem." - Brendan Dell

• "Early-stage companies must be able to communicate. What is the thing you want people to know about you? If they can get to know one thing about you? What's that thing? You need to be able to articulate that as leadership; otherwise, if you can't, how the hell is your sales team going to do it? How the hell is your marketing team going to do it? How's your success team going to know? It's impossible." - Brendan Dell

• "There are too many companies out there with solutions searching for problems." - Brendan Dell