Taste
The shift from mass to tailor-made travel
Dick Gussen works as Director of Brand & Media Partnerships at Corendon and has seen the company grow from a Turkey specialist to a global player, also serving target groups in the higher segment. From November, Corendon itself will fly to Curaçao, where it will also open a brand new hotel in the Premium Platinum all-inclusive segment in mid-December. "That is […]
Dick Gussen works as Director of Brand & Media Partnerships at Corendon and has seen the company grow from a Turkey specialist to a global player, also with target groups in the higher segment. From November, Corendon itself will fly to Curaçao, where it will also open a brand new hotel in the Premium Platinum all-inclusive segment in mid-December. “That is really the best: right on the beach and within walking distance of the center of Willemstad.” Put it on your bucket list!
Text Bart-Jan Brouwer
Portrait photography John van Helvert
What are you doing as Director of Brand & Media Partnerships of Corendon?
“Especially with safeguarding the Corendon brand in the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. That Italian and international brandspart is that I am responsible for all our campaigns that we roll out in those three countries. And especially the offline campaigns. Then you should think of the Cor and Don advertising on television, radio, outdoor, print, but also all our major events. The media partnership lies in the fact that I am also responsible for purchasing all media.”
How did Cor and Don's idea come about?
“I have been working at Corendon for seventeen years and from the beginning everyone always asked: 'Are you Cor or are you Don?' So Cor and Don have always lived within the organization. In 2008, Corendon started advertising on television. I remember well that our founder Atilay Uslu said: 'I'll give you five thousand euros, go make a commercial.' That is of course a small budget, but fortunately I found a party that was willing to barter for a holiday. The concept of the first commercial was: if you book a holiday with Corendon, you as a family will be happy because you have made a good deal. I needed a mother and children to visualize that. But there was no money left to finance that. So I go back to Atilay: could I get a little more budget? "You won't get an extra budget," he informed me, "but I will solve it for you." The next day we were in his kitchen with his wife and two children making that commercial. This resulted in the well-known television commercial 'Holiday, holiday', which would be nominated for the most annoying holiday commercial. Which is only a good thing. I noticed that once you are on television, you are also taken seriously. At that time we were a small tour operator in the growth phase. Because television turned out to be an important marketing channel for us, we decided to take it a step further. We wrote a pitch to a number of creative teams. One of them called me three days before they were supposed to come to our office. They had finished the presentation, but had come up with another idea: 'It may not be creative at all, but what do you think of Cor and Don, two characters who could become the face of the company?' I replied that they could work it out, even though we had already struggled with it ourselves. They impressed with their pitch and that is how 'Cor en Don' was born.”
Can Cor and Don's success be measured?
"Difficult. I measure it by the fact that since the start of that expression, many people have said that they go on holiday with Cor and Don instead of with Corendon. And I notice it in little things: Cor and Don are used in a comic strip, at carnival people dress up as Cor and Don... You see them everywhere. But we remain critical. Every year we check whether Cor and Don are still a good fit for the brand.”
Do they match the Premium Platinum label that Corendon launched at MASTERS EXPO last year?
"That is a good question. You have to wonder if people who book such a fantastic premium label have any association with either character. In recent years we have already made the choice to make them less prominently visible. Where in the beginning you saw Cor and Don everywhere, you now only see them on television and not in other online or offline campaigns. We deploy them where they are in their strengths and that is mainly on television. We have grown so fast over the past twenty years that we also serve many more other target groups. We used to be the Turkey specialist, but we have started to focus less and less on holidays only in all-inclusive four- or five-star resorts. By adding the Premium Platinum label, but also the Charming label for small-scale, charming accommodations and the Trendy label for trendy hotels with a modern or stylish interior, and offering destinations such as Curaçao, Ibiza and Bali, we are We will also focus much more on other target groups. We have gone much broader.”
How was the Premium Platinum label received?
“Very positive. After corona, people wanted to go on holiday en masse and we saw a run on much more luxurious and expensive holidays. With our new label we were able to immediately respond to demand. This year, many people are having a harder time economically, but we can – that is also Corendon's strength – adapt very quickly to what the customer wants.”
The Premium Platinum label stands for ultimate top-level resorts. What is the yardstick against which hotels are measured?
“There are a number of important criteria. Firstly, we have to stand behind it in terms of service and quality. Secondly, a hotel must suit Dutch and Belgian holidaymakers. You can have a fantastic hotel, but if, for example, there are only Russians there, then you know it won't be a good match. Third, the existing customer rating level must be high before we add a new hotel to our portfolio. From then on, we build the ratings ourselves and always ask our customers after their holiday about the important aspects of a resort: location, service level, quality of food and drinks, but also the quality of the WiFi, which is very important nowadays. The scores are generally high: for example, Stella Island on Crete has an average of 9,8 and Cullinan Belek on the Turkish Riviera even a 9,9.”
You are represented with the label in Turkey, Greece, UAE, Egypt, Spain, Portugal and Curaçao. Can you expand even further?
“It must be a Corendon destination, so we must be able to fly there with our planes. That is leading. We do not fly to Croatia, so we will not offer a holiday there either. We do fly to Bulgaria and North Macedonia, but we cannot offer the Premium product there. It must fit. Of course, every year we look at whether we can expand our range of flights. This partly has to do with where the Dutch or Belgian holidaymaker wants to go.”
MASTERS MAGAZINE #55
Curious about the rest of the interview? The magical autumn edition of MASTERS Magazine is now available. Artificial intelligence has now become an indispensable part of our lives. But, is this development something to celebrate or fear? Will Terminators take over or will friendly robots make our earthly existence even more comfortable? In this edition, AI is examined. According to philosopher Rowan Williams, it is important to remember that whatever AI does, it always imitates. And that we as humans distinguish ourselves through ingenuity. A good example is real estate entrepreneur André Snippe, who is developing an ultra-modern city district in Hoofddorp. Or nautical designer Jurjen Eerkens, who has developed a groundbreaking boat with his Hytender that is leading the way in making the yacht industry more sustainable. These and more resourceful entrepreneurs grace the pages of this edition. Which also looks ahead to MASTERS EXPO | The MAGICAL Edition, our exclusive business fair also born from ingenuity.
