Tag: market

How to Develop an Enviable (and Profitable) Events Calendar

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A thriving events calendar, if delivered well, can propel member satisfaction and loyalty to new levels. But first you need to understand what works, and how to measure event success. We enlisted the help of GGA’s Patrick DeLozier, who has over 14 years’ experience delivering events at some of the top clubs in the country, to explain what clubs need to know.

A thriving events calendar has been a staple at the top clubs I have been fortunate to manage in recent years. Are they hard work? Yes, absolutely. Are they worth it? Without a doubt.

I have witnessed first-hand how events create memorable and meaningful moments in people’s lives, strengthening the bonds they have with a club and enriching relationships with other members.

While a number of events you deliver may not quite achieve this ‘magic’, there is a formula and steps you can take to deliver a compelling events calendar.

Keeping it fresh

The key to delivering outstanding club events lies in not standing still. Inject some creativity and fresh ideas into each and every event. This does not mean needing to stage new events every year, but adding new twists or new dimensions to established, traditional ones.

Sometimes this could be as simple as hosting an event in a different area of your property. Not only does this create a different ambience, it also serves to introduce members to parts of the property they may not normally see, or facilities they may not typically utilize. This is something we would routinely do at Augusta National to great success and satisfaction amongst members.

Timing it right

Simply put, one of the critical things to get right is timing. It can be easy to overlook, but so fundamentally important. Clubs of a certain size will need to communicate with other departments to avoid internal date conflict with other events, but all managers should also be attuned to events happening elsewhere either in the community or beyond.

Sports events, school events or charity fundraising events may all impact your club’s event calendar, so don’t fall into the trap of choosing the wrong date and marketing the event before needing to change. The same can be true of major sporting events such as the Super Bowl or The Ryder Cup. Set dates carefully, then market them with confidence and assurance.

Understanding what works

Fundamentally, you want members to engage with and enjoy the events your club chooses to stage. And when it comes to measuring success, their satisfaction should feature prominently. But events need to be well attended for them to be viable, both from a satisfaction standpoint for members and commercial standpoint for the club.

At the point of conception or planning, it will help to determine what constitutes reasonable participation numbers for particular events. This will provide a sound barometer of success not only for the current year, but future years too. If the popularity of certain events begins to grow, you can begin to unpick the reasons why and use the insights to fuel ideas for new ones.

When it gets to the events themselves, attend. Especially If you are relatively new to the club; it will give you the opportunity to engage with members and see for yourself how the events are received. Although we want to put a measure next to all aspects of an event, sometimes you have to accept some events carry a special aura – which you can only experience by being there.

Beyond the event, there can be a tendency to focus on what’s next, but don’t miss out on the crucial feedback and insights. There should always be a team debrief for those involved in the event delivery. Typically, we would spend 10% of the time on what went well and 90% of the time on how we could improve, with all staff and committee members challenged to come up with new ideas covering all aspects of event delivery.

Externally, send a feedback form to event attendees (do this quickly, so that you collate as many insights from the most members possible while the event is still fresh in their memory). This will enable you to identify areas for future improvement and pick up on any negative feedback (where appropriate).

Bringing it all together

By implementing this defined approach to event delivery, from planning through to evaluation, you will establish a culture of measuring success, defining continuous improvement, and translating this through to the events you choose to stage.

Combine this with a sprinkling of creative flair and you should have the basis for a calendar of thriving, well-attended events.

It may take some time to get there, but the impact on member satisfaction and the bottom line will be more than worth waiting for.

Boosting Your Club’s Brand Through Events

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Sustaining a lively events calendar can be challenging – on a practical level, operational level and commercial level. However, even though they may not always pay their way, they are fundamentally important to conveying what your club is, and what it represents. GGA’s Linda Dillenbeck explains why.

Beyond access to an enjoyable round of golf, people join golf and country clubs to socialize with each other and participate in unique experiences. To many, the social aspect of country club life is even more important than the golf, particularly when only one member of the household is an avid player. Whether it is a member/guest golf event, wine tasting dinner, holiday celebration or speaker series, events will build relationships and friendships within the membership that will increase the sense of community throughout the club.

Equally important is the fact that well-planned and thoughtful events will provide the Club the opportunity to enhance its reputation and standing among members. One of the best things that can happen after an event is to have participants telling their friends about the incredible experience, which creates a desire to be part of that experience.

Anyone who has planned an event understands that success doesn’t happen by accident. Rather it requires a combination of creativity, organizational skills, cooperation and, most importantly, a keen attention to detail.

Present Your Brand in a Creative and Consistent Manner

The type of events to include on your club’s social calendar should reflect “who you are” as a Club, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun and have a creative theme that sets your event apart from the myriad of options available to private club members.

Creativity does not have to mean expensive. As a private club member I recently spoke with told me, “My favorite event is the Show Up and Shut Up Halloween tournament.

“Everyone comes dressed in costume and on two holes you hit your drive wearing a pumpkin on your head. It’s so different from so many other events in which I play and provides an entire day of fun and entertainment for my guests.”

While a Show Up and Shut Up event might not be in keeping with your brand image, that should not discourage your creativity in developing themes and memorable touches more in keeping with your brand. This might be a badge of honor tee gift (think beyond shirts, hats and golf equipment), a surprise egg with a special present in the annual Easter celebration or a wine not available to the general public presented by the winemaker during a special dinner. Your goal should be to think different, because when you do, your brand and club will become known for its must-attend events.

The Devil is in the Detail

Small details can have a big impact. They can be the difference between a good event and a great event, between memorable and forgettable, or the difference between clearly communicating who you are and being vague and predictable.

Are all names spelled properly on place cards? Are the pins set in spots that will allow for a quick pace of play? Is there an adequate quantity of the proper wine glasses for the tasting? Can your team identify all members by name? Is there adequate signage to direct guests to the proper place within the club? All of these questions and more should be asked and answered before event day.

Events Create Content

Another benefit of a robust event schedule is that is provides fresh content for your club newsletter, social channels and website. To capture the content, a staff member should be assigned the task of taking photos, not only of the members and guests, but of the special details. For example, the place setting for a wine dinner, the line-up of carts or the baskets of treats to be given out during a Halloween event. Pictures are a very effective way to tell your event story so create a wish list of the images you want and need, and take plenty.

To encourage participants active on social media to post about their experience create a hashtag of your event name and include it on invitations, golf carts and tables. This will help to expand your story across all social platforms.

When appropriate, it is beneficial to consider inviting a prominent member of the media to participate in your event. For example, the food writer might be invited to a wine tasting dinner or the business editor could be invited to a speaker series session featuring a noteworthy presenter.

Successful events don’t happen by accident. They require a lot of hard work. But when done properly, events will provide members and their guests with experiences they can’t get anywhere else. When that happens, your brand becomes the talk of the town – and that will deliver prospects to your door.

What Works on Social?

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The most popular channel may change over time, but the social media momentum continues to grow. For some clubs it can be difficult to know what to post, when and how often. We asked GGA’s Linda Dillenbeck to spell out all things social.

There is not a day that passes that doesn’t have a news report about something posted on a social media channel. Nor does a day pass when you don’t see consumers glued to their devices and feverishly typing the latest content they simply must share.

Whether we like it or not, social media has changed the way consumers communicate and gather information. Today, brands must have a social media presence or they miss the opportunity to reach 78% of the U.S. population who rely on these platforms to connect, gather information and socialize.

Consider these facts from Statistica and the Pew Research Center:

  • 68% of U.S. adults report they are Facebook users. Roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook daily.
  • Facebook use is relatively common across a range of age groups, with 68% of those in the 50 to 64 age range and nearly half of those 65 and older report they use the site.
  • Over 70% of Instagram users are between the ages of 25-65. The share of users 35-54, a key target for future club prospects, is 30.2%.
  • Twitter has 67,000,000 users in the U.S. Of that number, 46% access the site daily.
  • LinkedIn has approximately 154,000,000 users in the United States, around half of whom are college graduates living in high-income households.
  • Women are nearly three times as likely as men to use Pinterest (42% vs. 15%).

Despite the reach of social media, we often hear the reason clubs are not active on most of these platforms is because they don’t have enough time. Our first recommendation is always this: Find the time.

Your members and prospects are engaging with these platforms on a daily basis, and what they read, see and hear there plays a part in their decision-making. Without any Club presence, you forego this opportunity to engage with their lives and influence them.

Furthermore, a lack of presence can leave you at a competitive disadvantage. In the cases of Instagram and Facebook, these social media platforms will create “unofficial pages” displaying user photos and comments about their experiences. This hands consumers control of your brand message, allowing them to dictate the tone of conversation and could lead to a misrepresentation of your Club in this space.

Channel choice

To select the social sites most appropriate for your Club it helps to understand each platform’s purpose as well as consumer expectations for the type of content they seek.

Facebook users want to be entertained, educated, informed and obtain answers to questions in real time. On Facebook, your posts can be longer and include website links. You can also create events (open or closed) to promote to your members, prospects and wider stakeholders.

Instagram is a platform to share your story through photos and video. When users log onto Instagram, they want to be inspired and surprised by what they see at your Club.

The primary purpose of Twitter is to allow people to share thoughts, opinions, news and events with a large audience. Tweets that generate the most engagement are “how-to” lists, questions and quotes.

Remember, both the nature of the platform and demographic of the users there will dictate that not all are appropriate or impactful for your Club. So be selective, and double up your efforts on which are most fruitful rather than spreading yourself thinly across too many of them.

Crafting your message

The thought of creating content for social sites can be intimidating at first, however, we believe there is plenty of information to share. A few examples include:

  • An individual post of each golf hole with a short description of how to play the hole (that’s 18 or 36 posts).
  • Photos or short videos of your chef preparing signature menu items.
  • Unique and interesting design features found in your clubhouse.
  • Member events and activities. A word of caution here, never post a photo of a member unless they provide permission when the photo is taken.
  • Short golf, swimming or tennis videos offering tips from the professionals on staff.
  • Announcements of staff hires, renovations, special events, etc.
  • Flora and fauna found around the grounds of your Club.

Once you begin posting your content, it is important to monitor the statistics for likes, shares and comments. This information will help you to understand the type of posts generating the most engagement. Once you are equipped with that information, you can focus on how to generate more of the same.

Social media marketing does require time and effort. But once you establish a habit of a monthly or weekly content plan and roll this out you can manage your time investment efficiently, and focus your efforts on establishing a two-way conversation and social identity for your Club. One that, crucially, is consistent with its brand and ethos.

Inspiration

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

 

This article was authored by GGA Manager and Marketing expert Linda Dillenbeck.

Covering Isn’t Just For Music

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The inimitable Elvis Presley’s version of Hound Dog sold 10 million copies and holds the 19th spot on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Best Songs of All Time. But the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll can’t claim Hound Dog entirely as his own. Elvis was covering a version recorded three years earlier by Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter.

Elvis has been accused of stealing or culturally appropriating Hound Dog. But the truth is that covering was even more popular in his day than now. The more important takeaway is that we should always be paying attention to the past, learning from others and developing our own plans for success. There are three distinct plans that club leaders should have within easy reach at all times.

Strategic Plan

A strategic plan should clarify two aspects of purpose: what we are and what do we intend to accomplish. An effective strategic plan builds on the knowledge of past experience and market understanding to describe the club’s goals and objectives.

All businesses benefit greatly from the discipline and clarity provided by sound strategy. Although many golf facilities lack formalized strategy, those that actively use their strategic plans hold a distinct competitive advantage. According to research completed by Global Golf Advisors, 73 percent of clubs that rely on a strategic plan to guide their operations outperform their competition.

Marketing Communications Plan

Most golf courses and private clubs do business in markets that are extremely oversupplied. Further, many of these facilities lack a current and actionable understanding of the people who are their customers, members and prospects. In highly competitive and crowded markets, the advantage goes to those who know whom they are looking for, where to find them and how to communicate with them effectively.

Effective and purposeful communication plans are target specific. Knowing how to communicate with your baby boomer audience is different than reaching millennials, for example. The best communications plans utilize multiple media and reinforce messaging on a disciplined schedule.

Most people find time only for trusted information sources. Thus, golf courses and private clubs have the advantage in most cases of being “known” to their active market segments. What tactics are working best?

  • Robust and engaging websites are the platform for any communications plan today. They must be inviting, engaging and functional.
  • Print communications – newsletters and postcards, for example – are sticky with many golfers, especially those over 50, and should not be disregarded even in a digital age.
  • Engaging social media help create conversations within your community of members and prospects.
  • Video that shows images of people enjoying the golf course and clubhouse activities help tell the club’s stories in authentic ways.
  • Person-to-person contact from key staff members remains a difference-maker. There is no substitute for a personal invitation.

Staffing Plan

Access to affordable labor is one of the most important operational challenges at most golf clubs. With labor costs now exceeding 55 percent of most clubs’ operational expenses, thoughtful planning is essential. Borrowing ideas from the past enables managers to create meaningful relationships with employees and keep them committed to their jobs. What’s more, clubs that encourage their best employees to recruit friends and relatives have an advantage in attracting top talent.

A reliable staffing plan identifies the utilization flow of the facility to ensure that the club is properly staffed at all times. The plan must calculate labor and payroll burden costs to enable dependable budget projections. The best staffing plans show the position title and description, number of employees required, allotted compensation and benefits, and options for flexing staff size and positions as conditions change.

Big Mama Thornton inspired Elvis to lay claim as the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll. Who’s your inspiration, and what’s your plan for success?

This article was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Avoiding a Category Overload

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When was the last time you conducted a thorough review into your membership categories?

GGA’s Bennett DeLozier explains how a streamlining process can help to slim down the number of categories and keep them relevant in today’s marketplace.

“Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attributes of information” – Edward Tufte

Across North America and Europe a competitive landscape for membership has emerged, with more leisure pursuits competing with one another than ever.

Naturally, club leaders across the world are not sitting back and watching the evolution of customer needs and wants without acting. But while a great deal of this action is well-placed – from the introduction of intermediate and family memberships in North America to flexible membership schemes in Europe – in other instances it is leading to an uninformed inflation of membership categories, creating confusion for customers and an administrative headache for club leaders.

A trail of memberships

It is common for categories to emerge at a particular point in time, often as a reaction to an event, as an attempt to appease a vocal minority, or in an effort to attract a specific new member cohort.

Many clubs react to changes in the market by adding or creating a new membership category to appeal to specific segments. When structured properly, this can be an effective way to cast a wider net and appeal to different audiences. However, when this happens in an unstructured way over a number of years, a club may end up administering upwards of 15 to 20 categories at a time.

More categories mean more discounting, different access, and different privileges. Membership samples per category get smaller, and it becomes too much to administer and too confusing for existing and prospective members alike.

Top-performing clubs have fewer membership categories, largely because they enjoy demand such that members are attracted to them versus the other way around. For others, what should be a set of simple, straightforward membership categories becomes a patchwork quilt, absent of any tangible strategy or current solution to underpin its creation.

Naturally, tackling this issue has its challenges. How do you begin to evaluate and streamline so many categories? How do you negotiate shifting members from one category to another?

Streamlining your categories

Current market intelligence and supporting research is essential to guide this process. Once you understand the current market circumstances and positioning of your club, you can identify where membership categories may need to be realigned to attract future members.

The key is to study internal membership utilization rigorously so you can understand where your club has the capacity to grow. The adjustment of existing categories or development of new ones should be based on creating access and privileges in areas where the club has room to grow, not necessarily where prospective members desire it.

To illustrate the importance of proportionate categories, think about one which has emerged in recent years particularly: the intermediate or young professional category.

Typically offered to those between the ages of 25-35 (with a great deal of variance depending on the club and location), its origins are rooted in the issue of affordability both in dues and initiation fees. This has given way to lower dues, waived initiation fees, or a tiered system based on a particular age bracket.

While the introduction of such a category has been, in most cases, an appropriate tactic, it is one in need of constant analysis. As young intermediate members age into their mid-thirties their lifestyles begin to evolve, so does what they need, want and expect from their club experience.

This poses a challenge to clubs: do you change the existing intermediate category or create a new one to meet evolving demands?

The answer comes back to robust intelligence – intelligence which enables club leaders to get ahead of this challenge long before it makes its way to the doorstep. Intelligence allows you to measure and monitor utilization, enabling category adjustments which match lifestyle changes and market trends.

Moving members

Whether you’re dealing with category overload, wrangling legacy categories that you are looking to streamline, or have members moving up an age category where there are implications to their dues or privileges, at a certain point in time it is necessary to change.

But it’s difficult to change members from one category to another.

Legacy categories can be contentious, as members are unlikely to welcome category change – especially if this means an increase in dues. Club leaders should enter the process with the primary aim of growing where the club has the capacity to grow and a secondary aim of establishing a fair playing field across the membership base.

The best practice approach is to identify categories that have become irrelevant and essentially ‘grandfather’ those members into new categories which fit the room-to-grow bill, allowing them the opportunity to transition into new categories under advantageous terms.

If we look back to our young professional categories, when the time comes for them to move up the ranks to full membership, invest time and attention into the process. Why? Because these members have reached a pinch point, a ‘fight or flight’ moment in their membership tenure. If they decide to progress through to full membership now, the likelihood that they will stay for the long-term increases substantially.

Communicating your product

Before communicating your streamlined categories, club leaders should have answers to the following: Are the current categories relevant? Are they performing financially? Are category offerings causing issues with facility accessibility or compaction of activities? How do they situate within the local market and relative to competitor offerings? What benefits will category changes provide existing members? What benefits will they provide the club?

Once in position to communicate the changes internally, preempt what members will think. The primary concern for them will be, naturally, “How does this impact me?”. But the club’s agenda should also form part of the equation. Communicate how the changes will make the club more attractive to future generations and how they will support the club’s financial sustainability. Although it may feel self-serving, it will help to mitigate any ill-feeling among members by giving clarity and a sense of purpose to the changes.

For the change itself, successful clubs provide the option to transition into a new category that has similar access under favorable terms (such as a lateral move into a new category at no cost; or, upgrading to a higher privilege category at a lower incremental entrance fee compared to that of a new member off the street).

Externally, the focus should be on competitive advantage through value. It’s easy to compete with local competitors on price, but it’s not necessarily advantageous to the club. The best clubs look at ways to establish their competitive advantages by adding new programming and subtle category elements that make the value proposition more attractive. Injecting value is preferable to cutting costs.

Clarity over confusion

A proactive and streamlined approach to membership categories has much to offer: an easy-to-manage administrative process and clarity for existing members, prospective members and the Board.

A review of your membership categories also offers the opportunity to view each through the lens of the future and under the guidance of current research. With membership dues representing a hugely significant revenue component for any club, this process is time well spent.

For guidance on how to revise your club’s membership categories, connect with
Bennett DeLozier.

Managing Your Club Identity

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A private club’s brand is not the same as a chain of hotels or other hospitality business. It’s more personal, more emotional. And when it comes to the set of services, programs and events it offers, they should reflect this emotionally charged identity. GGA Partner, Henry DeLozier, explains how to manage a private club brand and realize what a powerful an asset it can be.

Your brand is in everything you do…and fail to do.

In the Old West days of the open range, where livestock roamed freely across the land, brands were burned into the hides of cattle to identify the ownership. For them, “branding” was a formalized approach of asset demarcation.

Unfortunately, even today, many private club leaders still think that a brand is simply an iconic mark, like that on the rump of a cow, indicating ownership. In the book Principles of Marketing, authors Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong show that a brand is defined as a “name, term, sign symbol (or a combination of these) that identifies the maker or seller of the product.” However, the concept of brand has advanced significantly from the notion that a trademark could serve as a brand.

Today, brands are stories. They are an intentional assortment of identifying characteristics of goods and services. And leading brands are carefully developed and aimed at pre-identified market segments whose wants, needs, and expectations align with the intended benefits of the product.

Many private club leaders mistakenly believe that their club is a brand similar to Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, or other businesses that promise superior hospitality services and amenities. A club’s brand – like a private club itself – is highly emotional, and the way the brand is managed must align with that.

In a private club, the brand establishes a promise of services, programs, and events which – together – constitute a promise of emotional reward. The manager will know and use your name, servers will know your preferences, other members will know you to be a person of accomplishment and social standing – thus, the club’s brand is in every interaction and memorable moment.

Following are three disciplines that every club leader should exercise in recognizing and managing their club’s brand:

1. Become knowledgeable about the power of brand.

This requires that club managers and leaders understand the market segments being served by their clubs. Careful market analysis identifies the psychographic motivations that make one club more attractive to members than another. The emotional context of private clubs requires that club leaders understand the human side of what motivated their members to join the club. Status, aspiration and recognition is far more important to club members than price. Club membership is not a transactional relationship.

2. Remain alert to proper brand management methods.

Use the club’s brand to establish and maintain a position of authority for the lifestyle promise made by the club.

Brand management is a full-time job. Seth Godin, the brand and marketing guru who has written some 18 books on related topics, says, “In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

Given that most private club markets in North America and Europe are significantly over-supplied, the successful clubs are those able to stand out from the crowd and achieve genuine market differentiation. “The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate,” Godin adds.

Three keys to managing your club’s brand are (1) leveraging your unique selling position to promote your strengths, (2) use marketing and communications to increase brand awareness, and (3) develop your brand internally so your members can attract their friends.

3. Use your brand to develop relationships.

Empower members to promote the club’s brand through the stories you tell about your club.

When it comes to private clubs, people are attracted by two key elements: brand factors (the key distinguishable traits of your brand), and buyer relationships and stories (how members came to be members, what influenced their decision and how the club now plays a significant role in their day to day lives).

Understand that your club brand is not a trademarked transaction – it is the stuff of imagination and achievement. Godin summarizes this truth observing, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.”

This article was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier.

Making the Connection

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Do you know what makes your club special and different? GGA’s Linda Dillenbeck explains the power of understanding what makes your club unique, and how to communicate that with messages that resonate with your target consumer.

If you want to make your marketing efforts more effective, your first step is to take a step back and look at your Club’s marketing message through the eyes of your prospective customer.

If your message isn’t telling potential members how your Club is unique in the marketplace, and distinct in fulfilling their desire for a club membership, then you are missing an opportunity to make a connection.

And that connection that can be the difference between choosing your club or your competitor’s.

Define Your Brand with A Unique Selling Proposition

That’s simple, right?

You probably have a championship golf course, offering a variety of tees for players of all skill levels, along with a courteous professional staff, in a beautifully manicured setting, with first-class amenities for an active lifestyle…

If these are the phrases you use when describing your Club, then you have fallen into the “sea of sameness” trap. A quick review of your competitor’s brand messages and websites will probably reveal they are using the same descriptions to promote their Clubs.

Defining your brand goes deeper than a recitation of what you have. It’s about who you are. Prospects want to know how you are unique, why you are different and what your Club offers that no one else can.

This is defined as your Unique Selling Proposition, the purpose of which is to inform your prospects why your Club is the best choice, and to justify why your target customers should choose your Club over the competition.

To develop your Unique Selling Proposition, ask your Members and staff to tell you:

  • The one thing that makes your Club different
  • The three words that best describe your Club
  • The short description they use when their friends ask about your Club.

These responses will reveal the current perception of your brand, and provide the starting point for determining what truly makes your Club unique.

Speak to Your Specific Audience

Communication serves several purposes: to inform, to influence, to engage the imagination, and to satisfy expectations.

To ensure your brand message is relevant, you must first define specific audience to whom it is to be delivered. Whether your Club’s target audience is families, low-handicap players, couples or business executives, the information presented should use terms and phrases conveying that your Club understands the audience being addressed, and values what that audience holds in high regard.

All too frequently, marketing messages focus on the Club, whereas prospects want to learn how the Club will improve their lives. By focusing your message on satisfying a need and fulfilling a desire you will capture the attention of your prospect much more often.

And most important, your Club’s marketing messages must create trust and connection with its audience. Today’s consumers appreciate simple and honest messages, unencumbered by hollow boasts. By speaking truthfully, consistently and authentically with your audience, your messages will be much more effective.

Tell Your Audience Your Story

Too often, we observe Club marketing focused on providing a laundry list of adjective-laden amenities in their effort to distinguish their facility from the competition. Unfortunately, most Clubs have a lot of the same amenities.

A more successful way to engage consumers and break out of the “sea of sameness” is to tell the story of who you are, why you exist, the shared values of the Club and its members, and the unique experiences available.

Stories engage people and their imagination, particularly stories about people and experiences. The storytelling method of presenting your Club will engage your prospects, allowing them to cast a role for themselves in the narrative and visualize becoming part of the Club’s story.

Below is a good example of successful storytelling we recently came across. The text appears as the opening paragraph on the Club’s website.

“Imagine a private retreat, nestled among citrus groves, rolling foothills and lush fairways.
Picture a place of connections, camaraderie, competition and ease from the pace of life –
an idyllic environment for a gracious way of living.”

This introduction to the Club highlights both its uniqueness – a private retreat among citrus groves, rolling foothills and lush fairways – and a distinct impression of what the Club values – camaraderie, competition, a gracious way of living – thereby inviting the like-minded prospect into the story.

Understanding what differentiates your Club from the competition, communicating those appealing attributes to the matching audience, and doing it in a fashion properly tailored for their consumption will elevate your Club’s message above the competition and entice your prospects to want to learn more.

This article was authored by GGA Senior Associate and Marketing expert Linda Dillenbeck.

Clubs Should Be Selling Memories

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Today’s fast paced tech savvy society is often called The Experience Economy, which references the ever-rising expectations of customers coupled with the desire for memorable experiences rather than physical possessions (See “Managing Expectations” PCA September, 2018).

The Experience Economy is forcing clubs to prioritize creating unparalleled experiences for their members over simply providing great service, quality amenities or good membership value.

According to Henry DeLozier of Global Golf Advisors, “The memory itself becomes the product and in private clubs today, members relish an unforgettable experience far more than a bargain.”

Different from the past, members now relate membership value to the club’s ability to deliver memorable experiences to their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Experiences in this context are preplanned activities or events that are packed full of emotional, memorable, shareable impressions that are difficult for others to duplicate. “The key to this entire concept is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” DeLozier explained.

Club executives and operators must shift their focus from simply ensuring enjoyable experiences (dining at the club, great round of golf, good tennis lesson, etc.) to building opportunities for members to establish stories. When members (and their families) become part of a holistic experience, they become part of a story and that is when a positive and lasting memory is formed.

The sky is the limit as each club has endless opportunities to create experiences that speak directly to member perceptions of value.

“Club leaders will find the greatest success in innovative ideas, unforgettable experiences and fresh new concepts that are unique to their club and community,” DeLozier concluded.

This article was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for the Private Club Advisor.

Will Millennials Save Golf?

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A few years ago, Time magazine published an exhaustive look at millennials titled “The Me, Me, Me Generation.”  The story took some shots at a generation characterized as “lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents,” but concluded that the world’s 80 million 18- to 34-year-olds will “save us all.”

Global Golf Advisors has done extensive research into what makes millennials tick – especially from a golf perspective – aimed at answering this question: “Will they also save golf?”

Their numbers portend their potential.  Millennials are responsible for the majority of purchases of everything from groceries to automobiles.  They’re also beginning to settle down, with careers, homes and kids of their own.  As they do, their global spending power is estimated in excess of $600 billion a year.

There are about 6.4 million millennial golfers, according to the National Golf Foundation.  That’s more than any golf cohort, other than 6.8 million Gen Xers, whose birth years are generally considered 1965 to 1984.  By contrast, there are 5.4 million baby boomers, once thought to be golf’s saviors, but now on the back nine of their golfing careers.  Here’s what else we know about millennials:

  • They are the first generation of tech natives. They practically teethed on their PCs, tablets and smartphones.  They love their phones, but hate talking on them.
  • They crave new experiences, even more than material goods.
  • They need to feel like what they’re doing is important.
  • They aren’t as willing as former generations to sacrifice their personal life to advance their careers.
  • They’re heavily influenced by product reviews, Q&A’s and photos posted by other consumers.

But what will it take to turn their potential into our reality?  Global Golf Advisors teamed up with Nextgengolf to survey millennial golfers across the U.S. Here’s what we learned:

The No. 1 reason millennials play golf is to hang out with friends.  That’s closely followed by enjoying being outdoors and athletic competition.  Interesting, business-related reasons, such as growing their network, were last on their list.  They just want to have fun.

The millennials in the survey who play at daily fee courses are frugal.  Slightly more than 80 percent want to spend $50 or less on a round of golf.  Sixty percent typically spend between $25 and $50.

Three-quarters of millennials will consider joining a private club in the future.  Twelve percent are already a private club member.  Nearly half of participating millennials plan on joining a private club within the next three to 10 years.

Factors influencing their decision to join a club also show the importance of the social side of the club experience.  The most important factor that influences a membership decision is a recommendation.  Eighty-three percent of survey respondents said encouragement from a friend, colleague or family member might cause them to join a club.  These are folks who are accustomed to reading reviews and acting on the recommendation of others.  The second most influential factor was a positive experience while attending a tournament or special event at the club.

For most, though, golf is not enough of a draw to join a club.  You must remember: millennials are social animals.  Many are involved in as many as 10 recreational activities.  That’s why a workout center, for example, is a valuable investment for clubs and golf facilities that want to increase their appeal to millennials.

Millennials like options and flexibility, and that characteristic was borne out in the portion of the survey focusing on entrance fees and dues.  Forty-one percent of millennials would prefer to pay more annually than pay an entrance fee to join a private club.  Approximately half said they would prefer an annual fee of $3,000 or less to belong to a club.

The challenge for clubs?  To create an environment that not only appeals to the new wave, but also one where members of all generations can co-exist.

This piece was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Strategic Intelligence Overview: Part 3 of 3

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Top performing clubs around the world are finding newer, faster and more efficient ways to leverage business intelligence and create competitive advantages for their clubs. The first two articles in this three-part series included what business intelligence is and why it is important (see “Strategic Intelligence Part One,” September 2018) and how to use and implement business intelligence (see “Strategic Intelligence Part Two,” October 2018). The final article will identify desirable outcomes and key results for clubs that have leveraged data.

While the initial infrastructure set up does require an investment of time and money, business intelligence should be viewed as a tool to aid and support club leadership with sound decision making and strategy, not another chore to be completed. Informed decisions require a combination of competitor, market and operational data along with member feedback data. Many clubs use this information anecdotally and it hinders everyone from staying on the same page.

One of the most important benefits of utilizing a strategic intelligence process is the time and effort saved during board, committee and staff meetings due to reduced deliberation and off topic discussion. “It’s hard to argue with the facts,” stated Derek Johnston of Global Golf Advisors. “But those facts still need to be secured, analyzed and regularly prepared, which can be time consuming.”

Johnston shares that a Global Golf Advisors client recently had a breakthrough because of the information brought to light through its strategic intelligence process. “Club X had always raised annual dues by 2.5 percent each year but its bottom line was struggling due to labor and other cost increases. A historical trend analysis of key competitor clubs revealed that Club X’s competitors had been raising dues annually by an average of four percent for the past three years. In addition, member survey feedback identified high satisfaction in the Value for Money category. Armed with this data, Club X raised annual dues by five percent without backlash and is planning similar increases in the future as long as subsequent data supports it.”

Another client, Club Y, had recently completed a major renovation that included the addition of a fitness and racquet sports facility. The club was achieving member satisfaction ratings above comparable clubs but was struggling to recruit an ample amount of new members each year. According to Johnston, Club Y’s lead generation relied heavily on member referrals with minimal marketing effort beyond the current membership.

Using mapping, demographics and real estate trends to enhance marketing effectiveness, Club Y implemented a tracking process to identify the source of the prospective member lead along with the lead’s home address. This process exposed a significant disconnect. Leads that came from new members had a conversion rate of 17 percent over the past five years. Leads from tenured members were less than four percent. This data lead to healthy discussion and ultimately a new strategy for lead generation and membership sales.

When asked the question, “What does strategic intelligence success look like?” Johnston answers with “Readily available data in every board and management meeting that is analyzed and presented in a manner that improves the efficiency of the meetings, enables more focused discussions and results in a higher quality output. Ultimately strategic intelligence leads to a superior strategy and increased support for the decisions that club leaders make.”

This article was authored by GGA Partner Derek Johnston for the Private Club Advisor.

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