INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ACTIVITIES OF REDDOORZ INDONESIA: A STRATEGY TO PRESERVE THE BUSINESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The online budget hotel business has grown since 2015, became a new primadona in 2019 and was forced to lay down due to the pandemic hit the whole world in 2020. One of the budget hotel network that can survive is RedDoorz. This study aims to analyze the integrated marketing communication activities which is conducted by the management of RedDoorz Indonesia as a strategy to preserve the business during the pandemic. Research designed was qualitative descriptive. The data was transcripts of interviews with the Country Marketing Head and Public Relations Manager of RedDoorz, observation records, and literature searches from online mass media were processed by the analysis guidance of Miles and Huberman's interactive model. The results of the study found that the integrated communication activities performed by RedDoorz Indonesia as a strategy to preserve the virtual hotel operator business during the pandemic included: 1) advertising configuration was billboard until 2020; 2)publicity and public relations in the form of collaboration with the Indonesian Association of Public Health Experts to issue HygienePass certificates for properties that invited to cooperate and educate on health protocols acquired publicity in online media; 3)sales promotion format was discount promotion, 4)personal selling format was word of mouth (WoM) by personal social media employees/partners of property owners, 5)direct marketing by means of telephone management directly to consumers, 6)interactive marketing by means of Mobile Apps and social media.