Ritz-Carlton and Pierre Herme sweet on social for new store launch

Macaroon brand Pierre Herme has opened a take-away only store at The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong.Many hotels have their own brands of restaurants, bars and stores and few would choose to allow non-proprietary brands to open shop in its own hotels.Pierre Perusset, GM of Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, said the new store is an extension of a multi-year partnership between the two brands.  Pierre Herme has also partnered with The Ritz-Carlton's hotel in Kyoto which opened last year."The new Pierre Herme store adds value to our offerings," he said."The macaroon is also a luxury item for all generations, especially to younger clients and perhaps a little more so for the ladies."As part of the new collaboration, Pierre Herme's macaroons have been made available as amenities for the hotel's guests in its top suites, as dessert options for weddings and afternoon tea sets at its cafe.Although the hotel also makes its own macaroons, the afternoon tea sets allow the hotel to promote its own pastries and its chef's expertise, since it is The Ritz-Carlton chefs who design the afternoon tea sets."There is no competition between our macaroons and Pierre Herme macaroons because we do not promote Ritz-Carlton macaroons but rather entire tea sets," Perusset said.The main target audience for the tea sets is the local Hongkonger despite the fact that most of the hotel's guests are from overseas, because most of the customers who frequent its restaurants are locals.Promotional strategySocial media platforms Facebook and Weibo will form the crux of the hotel's marketing mix for the Pierre Herme store and related offerings."Social media is crucial for promoting our crossover campaigns," Perusset said. "Formal advertising isn't really necessary for us.""We work closely with Pierre Herme so that our Facebook and Weibo posts mirror one another. For example, we posted the same post about the store opening on the Facebook pages of both brands at around the same time."At the time of publishing, The Ritz-Carlton post generated almost 200 likes whereas the Pierre Herme post generated just over 130 likes.Video is a medium that the hotel will look into for future social media campaigns in general.Cross-over campaigns in the pipelineFrom the end of April until May, the hotel plans to launch a vanilla-themed afternoon tea. Next, it plans to unveil a white truffle hunt during white truffle season where customers are asked to hunt for Pierre Herme white truffle and hazelnut macaroons just like in an Easter egg hunt.Another idea the hotel has is to invite Pierre Herme, when he visits Hong Kong, to hold an event at the hotel where guests can meet him and be introduced to his book.