Doubletree Hotels – The 1st Purple Goldfish Project Hall of Famer

Doubletree Hotels receives the 1st Purple Goldfish Project Hall of Famer award.  Its signature cookie was listed 3 separate times in the first 50 entries for the project.  It embodies what a ‘purple goldfish’ or ‘marketing lagniappe’ is all about.

For 20 years, Doubletree Hotels have built a reputation on a unique treat that keeps leisure and business travelers coming back for more: its legendary chocolate chip cookie presented to each guest at check-in. Their signature Doubletree chocolate cookies are baked fresh daily providing a warm welcome and refreshing hospitality for travelers around the world.

Here are a few fun facts about the cookie:

• Doubletree gives out approximately 30,000 chocolate chip cookies each day. That’s more than 10,500,000 each year!
• Doubletree began giving out chocolate chip cookies in the early 1980s, when many hotels across the country used them as treats for VIPs.
• In 1995, Doubletree enlisted the services of Nashville, Tenn.-based Christie Cookie Company to hold the brand’s secret recipe, which ensures that the same, delicious cookie is delivered consistently at every Doubletree hotel and resort.
• Every Doubletree chocolate chip cookie is baked fresh daily at each hotel.
• Each cookie weighs more than 2 ounces and has an average of 20 chocolate chips.
• The Christie Cookie Company uses more than 580,000 pounds of chocolate chips each year for Doubletree’s cookies.
• In June 2002, Doubletree presented its 100,000,000th cookie!
• To date, more than 200,000,000 cookies have been served to delighted guests and customers.
• More than 1,000,000 chocolate chip cookies have been donated by Doubletree hotels to celebrate and thank deserving members of the community from doctors and nurses to police and firefighters as well as non-profit groups such as orphanages, food banks and homeless shelters.
• From the United Kingdom to Canada and Italy to China, the signature chocolate chip cookie welcome is now being presented to travelers at Doubletree by Hilton hotel locations around the world.

Lagniappe defined: A marketing lagniappe, i.e. purple goldfish,  is any time a business goes above and beyond to provide a ‘little something extra’. It’s that unexpected surprise that’s thrown in for good measure.

How do you stand out in the sea of sameness? How do you win repeat customers and influence word of mouth?  Are you Giving Little UnexpectedExtras?

What’s Your GLUE?

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