Marriott Vacation Club
Company: Marriott Vacation Club, Orlando, FL
Company Description: Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation is the leading global pure- play vacation ownership company offering a diverse portfolio of quality products, programs and management expertise with more than 60 resorts and more than 420,000 Owners and Members. Its brands include: Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz- Carlton Destination Club and Grand Residences by Marriott.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Demand Generation Program of the Year
Nomination Title: The Explorer Collection: Provides Owners Access to a Broad Variety of Non-traditional Usage Options
Tell the story about your organization's demand generation program since the beginning of July 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Just over two years ago Marriott Vacation Club launched the biggest innovation in their long history of revolutionizing the vacation ownership business, the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations™ points based program. A major part of the program is the Explorer Collection, consisting of four sub-collections: Epic Explorer, Ocean Explorer, City Explorer and Active Explorer. During the first year MVC worked hard to refine and improve the product, growing the Explorer Collection from an initial few trips to the thousands of choices available today. This collection provides Marriott Vacation Club’s Owners a choice to use their Vacation Club Points to access a broad variety of non-traditional usage options.
The Ocean Explorer collection includes over 5,000 cruise choices, in six tiers ranging from 2,100 Points to 13,000 Points per cabin, offering all major cruise lines, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Holland America, Costa, Viking, and others. The Epic Explorer Collection trips are provided by our travel partner, Collette Vacations, and they include first-rate accommodations, ground transportation and most meals. These “bucket-list” trips help to fulfill the dreams of Marriott Vacation Club’s points Owners in a way they would have never thought was possible. The collection includes more than 50 organized group tours and 500 departure dates that offer travelers their choice of destination, luxury level, itinerary, and timing for once in a lifetime guided experiences such as an African Safari or a walk on the Great Wall of China.
Active Explorer is for those who don’t think of vacation as time to relax, but rather, a time to get out there and enjoy the great outdoors. With Active Explorer, MVC’s points Owners can enjoy hiking, biking, camping, white water rafting and even golf lessons at the Nick Faldo Institute, located adjacent to two of our MVC resorts in Orlando, Florida and Palm Desert, California.
The City Explorer consists of getaway packages to eight different U.S. cities, combining a stay of 2 nights or longer at some of Marriott’s top hotel and resort properties. With additional amenities such as spa treatments, area excursions and nightlife tickets, it provides yet another way for MVC’s points Owners to enjoy total flexibility in their vacation Ownership.
The Explorer Collection has proved to be extremely successful with Marriott Vacation Club’s Owners. While it accounts for about 5% of the reservations made, it also accounts for more than 10% of the points reserved for packages within the Explorer Collection. The leaders at Marriott Vacation Club listen to their Owners and tour Guests and change and evolve the program based on what they hear.
The feedback on the Explorer Collection was clear; make more trips available, make the departure dates more frequent, and make them more affordable. As a result, since launching the new Marriott Vacation Club Destinations™ program, the Explorer Collection has been expanded to include over 10,000 vacation options and with new offerings being introduced every quarter, there’s always something exciting and fresh for the Sales Executives to talk to Owners about during the sales presentation.
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed and implemented the nominated demand generation program:
Brian Miller is the executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation since 2011. Miller joined the organization 1990 as national director of marketing operations and was appointed vice president of marketing in 1994. From 2007-2011, Miller oversaw the global distribution of Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s timeshare, fractional, and whole ownership products, encompassing three brands – Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Grand Residences by Marriott. Additionally, Miller oversees worldwide customer service operations for those brands, as well as customer research, corporate communications and the company’s Internet operations.