Chris Anderson is a professor at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on the faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Professor Anderson’s main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works in the application and development of revenue management across numerous industry types, including hotels, airlines, and rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Professor Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and is the regional editor for the International Journal of Revenue Management. At the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Anderson teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.
Hospitality Digital MarketingCornell Certificate Program
Overview and Courses
Marketing encompasses the various ways you communicate, differentiate, and reinforce your hospitality brand promise to potential customers. In the hospitality industry, the world of digital marketing is opening doors no one knew existed and driving customer engagement, feedback, and endorsements faster than ever.
Whether you are a marketing professional or have found yourself taking on the marketing responsibility for your organization, this certificate program will prepare you to apply fundamental hospitality marketing concepts and principles, focused on the world of digital marketing, in your organization. In this program, you will investigate the current status of your marketing strategy; assess the different levers that can be adjusted to drive revenue and react to demand; and develop a diverse collection of digital marketing strategies to apply, monitor, and evaluate. Through best practices and industry case studies, you will contextualize these concepts and lay a solid foundation for applying them to your workplace.
This program includes a year of free access to Symposium! These events feature several days of live, highly participatory virtual Zoom sessions with Cornell faculty and experts to explore the Hospitality industry’s most pressing topics. Symposium events are held several times throughout the year. Once enrolled in your program, you will receive information about upcoming events.
Throughout the year, you may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete the certificate program.
The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear.
Successful marketing and revenue generation in hospitality requires the management of an array of new media including, social, mobile, and search. While these new media enable marketers to reach customers in ways that were previously not possible, successful use must be anchored by core marketing and demand management principles. This course provides you with a grounding in brand management and focuses on the importance of identifying and establishing your "brand promise": the experience your guests take away from engaging with your brand as the basis of new media management.
You'll experience the challenges involved in maintaining your brand's promise across a growing array of new media channels. You'll be exposed to sound marketing concepts, advice from industry experts, and actual experience with new media in exercises and simulations. You'll then take what you have learned and apply it to your existing marketing efforts based on industry best practices and time-tested frameworks for profitable marketing.
You'll learn directly from some of the heaviest hitters in new media for hospitality - CEOs, search, social and mobile media consultants, property-level managers, and more through interactive projects and compelling video exercises. See first-hand how the successful implementation of new media can help you deliver on your firm's "brand promise", enabling you to deal with market uncertainties and guide your organization toward sustained profitability.
Hospitality marketing is fast shifting from traditional media to digital forms (e.g., social media, video, website and search, plus mobile applications). New-media technologies have changed the ways consumers experience and value a product or service. So how can you draw on these technologies to enhance your operations and provide distinct customer value? And how can you be sure your efforts in new media are producing tangible returns?
In this course, you'll examine innovations and trends in new media, and ways to leverage them to your brand's advantage. You will consider how new media can improve your marketing efforts by managing customer expectations and enhancing the consumer experience, and you'll discuss how to measure the success of those efforts. You'll also determine what organizational considerations will allow you to better leverage the evolving impact of new media and plan the future structure and role of your organization in this important area.
Explore this content through a mix of input from hospitality industry experts, hands-on practical activities, and the presentation of sound principles by Cornell faculty. Experience the content through the use of a fictional hotel case study with valuable feedback provided by your online instructor and peers.
You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Marketing the Hospitality Brand Through Digital Media
Digital marketing is fast becoming the primary means for hospitality and related service firms to reach, engage, and transact with consumers across their multiple devices. Consumer planning, shopping, experience, and sharing through digital media is quickly changing how marketing is done, as well as how marketing effectiveness is measured.
Owners and managers must be able to make effective, data-driven, analytical, and integrated decisions related to digital marketing using the right metrics and reports. These decision support tools may be generated internally and/or by vendors, like digital or social media marketing agencies. Managers must be able to understand, evaluate, and communicate recommendations in line with the firm's overall business and marketing strategies. This course provides managers with the insight and tools to do the job.
In this course, you will make marketing and service enhancement decisions based on the interpretation and the integration of digital media performance metrics. Through this analysis, you will evaluate the effectiveness of digital marketing activities using standard and new performance metrics. You will use digital media reports and available analytic tools to assess the competitive position of a business and articulate recommendations to improve performance.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Marketing the Hospitality Brand Through Digital Media
- Implementing Brand Strategy Through Digital Media
In order to be successful with your social media marketing, you must first understand how and why to structure a social media strategy to guide campaign execution.
In this course, you will explore social media marketing platforms, publishers, tools, agencies, and the foundational elements of running a successful social media campaign. You will also examine what social media marketing is and how it is part of a brand-driven integrated marketing communications strategy. As the course progresses, you will evaluate the main social platforms used for digital marketing and practice aligning these platforms with your marketing goals and campaign strategy. You will also examine how marketers incorporate effective social media content generated by the brand, influencers, or users. Lastly, you will assess the role of social media agencies to help you decide if and when to outsource your campaigns.
Symposium sessions feature three days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Marketing Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.
Join us for the next Symposium, in which we’ll share experiences from across the industry, inspiring real-time conversations about best practices, innovation, and the future of marketing work. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to some of the most pressing topics and trends in the marketing field. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from across the industry.
Upcoming Symposium: TBD
All sessions are held on Zoom.
Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.
Symposium sessions feature three days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Hospitality Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.
Join us for the next Symposium, in which we’ll discuss how both day-to-day operations and strategic goal setting in the hospitality sector have rapidly evolved over the past two years, opening up new space for real-time conversations about the future of the industry. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to various areas of the industry, examining the innovations and accommodations you have all had to make throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and strategizing on future directions. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from across the industry.
Upcoming Symposium: TBD
All sessions are held on Zoom.
Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.
Services marketing is often viewed in terms of outcomes, but services marketing is also an ongoing analytic process. In this course, you will learn how to properly analyze frameworks, tools, channels, data sets, customer behavioral data, decision-making factors, and strategies that support broader marketing decisions.
Authored by Robert Kwortnik from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, this course will teach you how to review the way marketing works in your organization and how to create and apply a services marketing process.
A smart pricing strategy is the best way to increase revenue. This course teaches you how to set prices, develop rate fences (differentiate prices by customer type), and use multiple distribution channels to manage price more effectively.
You'll also learn about the impact of variable pricing and discounting on revenue management in the context of price elasticity, optimal price mix, perceived fairness, and congruence with positioning and sales strategies.
Discover the ins and outs of channel management, an essential tool for controlling differentiated pricing, maintaining rate fences, and increasing revenue. Explore various approaches to managing distribution channels including direct sales, agencies, the Internet, and opaque pricing channels. Sheryl E. Kimes, professor at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, will provide you with the knowledge you need to help run a successful organization.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Introduction to Hotel Revenue Management
- Forecasting and Availability Controls in Hotel Revenue Management
Today's hospitality consumers rely less upon traditional travel agents and more on web-based research when booking travel. In this course, you'll explore how to develop strategies designed to improve your standing in internet search results, known as search engine optimization (SEO), and increase your visibility to target customers.
You will also investigate how to optimize your position on internet search results and increase conversions: the moment when a search becomes a purchase. Online travel agencies are especially popular because they provide one-stop convenience and notifications for consumers searching for deals and promotional opportunities. The success of online travel agencies is largely attributable to their marriage of leading-edge technology and a keen insight into consumer behavior patterns.
You will have a chance to immediately practice what you've studied by participating in a pricing simulation game.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Price and Inventory Controls
- Price Sensitivity and Pricing Decisions
- Segmentation and Price Optimization
- Displacement and Negotiated Pricing
How It Works
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Faculty Authors
Bill Carroll is a clinical professor (ret.) at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration. For more than 12 years he taught economics, pricing, and marketing distribution courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive-education levels. He holds a B.A. degree in economics from Rutgers, an M.S. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in economics from Penn State.
As CEO of Marketing Economics, a consulting firm specializing in travel industry pricing, distribution, yield management, and strategic planning, Dr. Carroll works with a variety of clients, including global distribution systems, hotel service companies, and travel intermediaries. He also works closely with PhoCusWright, Inc., a travel industry research, consulting, and publishing company, and he has written a number of reports and articles, including a report covering the evolution of hotel distribution and its impact on major chains and intermediaries.
For over 25 years, Dr. Carroll held a variety of senior positions in the travel industry. He was the Division Vice President for Global Marketing Planning at Hertz, where he was responsible for global pricing, yield management, marketing information systems, and counter sales. He implemented the first decentralized yield management system in the car rental industry and a comprehensive executive information system (EIS) that gained national recognition. Following Hertz, Dr. Carroll served as the Global Vice President for Reed Elsevier’s Travel Group, which included responsibility for Travel Weekly, the Hotel and Travel Index, the Official Hotel Guide, and the Official Meetings and Facilities Guide. He was also responsible for production and database systems and the migration of information products to electronic distribution.
Prior to his work in the travel industry, Dr. Carroll was an assistant professor of economics at Drew University, where he taught courses in econometrics, public finance, labor, and environmental economics. He also served as a member of the economics staff at AT&T, where he was an expert witness before state regulatory bodies and prepared filings on pricing and forecasting with the Federal Communications Commission.
Dr. Carroll has written numerous academic and popular-press articles on economics and travel industry topics. In addition to his business and academic career, he is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and was a university lacrosse coach for over 10 years.
Sheryl E. Kimes is an emeritus Professor of Operations Management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. From 2005 to 2006, she served as interim dean of the school, and from 2001 to 2005, she served as the school’s Richard and Monene P. Bradley Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Kimes specializes in revenue management, restaurant revenue management, and service operations management. She has been named the school’s graduate teacher of the year three times and was awarded a Menschel Distinguished Teaching Fellowship by Cornell University in 2014.
Dr. Kimes’s research interests revolve around revenue management in the restaurant, hotel, and golf industries. She has over 100 articles in leading journals, such as Interfaces, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Service Research, Decision Sciences, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. She was awarded the CHR Award for Industry Relevance in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and she was given a lifetime achievement award by the Production and Operations Management Society in 2010. In addition, Dr. Kimes was given the Vanguard Award for Lifetime Achievement in Revenue Management by the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International in 2017.
Dr. Kimes has served as a consultant to many hospitality enterprises around the world, including Chevy’s Fresh Mex Restaurants, Walt Disney World Resorts, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Asia-Pacific, and Troon Golf. She earned her doctorate in Operations Management in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin.
Rob Kwortnik, Associate Professor of Services Marketing, joined Cornell’s faculty after earning his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University in 2003. He also earned a B.A. in Journalism from Temple and an MBA from California State University, Northridge. Professor Kwortnik’s research focuses on consumer behavior in service contexts, with special attention to service experience management. He has published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, The International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, among others. He has been honored eight times as a Teacher of the Year by students at the School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his career in academics, Professor Kwortnik held several professional positions in marketing and was a travel industry consultant. He is a recognized expert on the leisure cruise industry.
An entrepreneur from a young age, Stephanie Cartin walked away from her corporate career to launch Socialfly, a leading social-first digital and influencer agency based in New York City. Socialfly has blossomed to over 30 full-time employees, helping over 200 brands including the Girl Scouts, Samsung SmartThings, NEST Fragrances, 20th Century Fox, and Univision. Ms. Cartin is the co-author of “Like, Love, Follow: The Entreprenista’s Guide to Using Social Media To Grow Your Business” and the cohost of the Entreprenista Podcast. She has appeared and been featured on Bloomberg, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, Refinery29, and CheddarTV. Ms. Cartin is also a recent recipient of the SmartCEO Brava Award, which recognizes the top female CEOs in New York, and a Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year.
Chris Anderson is a professor at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on the faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Professor Anderson’s main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works in the application and development of revenue management across numerous industry types, including hotels, airlines, and rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Professor Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and is the regional editor for the International Journal of Revenue Management. At the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Anderson teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.
Bill Carroll is a clinical professor (ret.) at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration. For more than 12 years he taught economics, pricing, and marketing distribution courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive-education levels. He holds a B.A. degree in economics from Rutgers, an M.S. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in economics from Penn State.
As CEO of Marketing Economics, a consulting firm specializing in travel industry pricing, distribution, yield management, and strategic planning, Dr. Carroll works with a variety of clients, including global distribution systems, hotel service companies, and travel intermediaries. He also works closely with PhoCusWright, Inc., a travel industry research, consulting, and publishing company, and he has written a number of reports and articles, including a report covering the evolution of hotel distribution and its impact on major chains and intermediaries.
For over 25 years, Dr. Carroll held a variety of senior positions in the travel industry. He was the Division Vice President for Global Marketing Planning at Hertz, where he was responsible for global pricing, yield management, marketing information systems, and counter sales. He implemented the first decentralized yield management system in the car rental industry and a comprehensive executive information system (EIS) that gained national recognition. Following Hertz, Dr. Carroll served as the Global Vice President for Reed Elsevier’s Travel Group, which included responsibility for Travel Weekly, the Hotel and Travel Index, the Official Hotel Guide, and the Official Meetings and Facilities Guide. He was also responsible for production and database systems and the migration of information products to electronic distribution.
Prior to his work in the travel industry, Dr. Carroll was an assistant professor of economics at Drew University, where he taught courses in econometrics, public finance, labor, and environmental economics. He also served as a member of the economics staff at AT&T, where he was an expert witness before state regulatory bodies and prepared filings on pricing and forecasting with the Federal Communications Commission.
Dr. Carroll has written numerous academic and popular-press articles on economics and travel industry topics. In addition to his business and academic career, he is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and was a university lacrosse coach for over 10 years.
Sheryl E. Kimes is an emeritus Professor of Operations Management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. From 2005 to 2006, she served as interim dean of the school, and from 2001 to 2005, she served as the school’s Richard and Monene P. Bradley Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Kimes specializes in revenue management, restaurant revenue management, and service operations management. She has been named the school’s graduate teacher of the year three times and was awarded a Menschel Distinguished Teaching Fellowship by Cornell University in 2014.
Dr. Kimes’s research interests revolve around revenue management in the restaurant, hotel, and golf industries. She has over 100 articles in leading journals, such as Interfaces, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Service Research, Decision Sciences, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. She was awarded the CHR Award for Industry Relevance in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and she was given a lifetime achievement award by the Production and Operations Management Society in 2010. In addition, Dr. Kimes was given the Vanguard Award for Lifetime Achievement in Revenue Management by the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International in 2017.
Dr. Kimes has served as a consultant to many hospitality enterprises around the world, including Chevy’s Fresh Mex Restaurants, Walt Disney World Resorts, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Asia-Pacific, and Troon Golf. She earned her doctorate in Operations Management in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin.
Rob Kwortnik, Associate Professor of Services Marketing, joined Cornell’s faculty after earning his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University in 2003. He also earned a B.A. in Journalism from Temple and an MBA from California State University, Northridge. Professor Kwortnik’s research focuses on consumer behavior in service contexts, with special attention to service experience management. He has published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, The International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, among others. He has been honored eight times as a Teacher of the Year by students at the School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his career in academics, Professor Kwortnik held several professional positions in marketing and was a travel industry consultant. He is a recognized expert on the leisure cruise industry.
An entrepreneur from a young age, Stephanie Cartin walked away from her corporate career to launch Socialfly, a leading social-first digital and influencer agency based in New York City. Socialfly has blossomed to over 30 full-time employees, helping over 200 brands including the Girl Scouts, Samsung SmartThings, NEST Fragrances, 20th Century Fox, and Univision. Ms. Cartin is the co-author of “Like, Love, Follow: The Entreprenista’s Guide to Using Social Media To Grow Your Business” and the cohost of the Entreprenista Podcast. She has appeared and been featured on Bloomberg, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, Refinery29, and CheddarTV. Ms. Cartin is also a recent recipient of the SmartCEO Brava Award, which recognizes the top female CEOs in New York, and a Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year.
Key Course Takeaways
- Assess the role of marketing in your organization
- Identify how your organization can best counter the challenges associated with marketing for services
- Discover how to make pricing more variable
- Know how to react to customers’ perceptions of fairness regarding pricing policies
- Understand how online travel agents provide value for consumers and suppliers alike
- Use search engine marketing effectively
- Create a promotional plan for a hospitality product or service
- Design your own effective, product-specific advertising campaign
- Maintain and enhance customer value
- Organize your firm for long-term competitiveness
- Develop a strategic marketing plan that aligns with and achieves your digital marketing goals
- Examine how various social media sites work and explore ways to most effectively use each to target specific markets
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
What You'll Earn
- Hospitality Digital Marketing Certificate from Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration
- 62 Professional Development Hours (6.2 CEUs)
Watch the Video
Who Should Enroll
- Marketers
- Operations professionals
- Revenue managers
- Sales professionals
- Property ownership groups
- Hospitality executives
“Great overview of basic revenue management, search, mobile, and social marketing. Be prepared to discuss ideas that you have or your property already has implemented. Lots of useful information, content is nicely displayed in text and video format. Very interactive projects!”
“I particularly enjoyed the references to industry newsletters, websites, etc. I continue to get current trend information on the course topic having registered to these during the course. If stuck, instructors were readily available to answer questions. Feedback to assignments was also fast, though more details on occasion would have been great to allow for further development.”
“The delivery method was excellent. Also getting instant feedback on any topic I needed help with was outstanding.”
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Hospitality Digital Marketing
| Select Payment Method | Cost |
|---|---|
| $3,699 | |