Tag: research

The ‘Tiger Effect’

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The ‘Tiger Effect’ and How to Leverage the Influence of Tiger Woods on Millennial Golf Interest

On the eve of this year’s Masters Tournament CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz said, “This might be the most anticipated Masters any of us has seen in our lifetime.” And for good reason: the hype surrounding the return of modern golf’s greatest icon to battle it out against a plethora of ‘new age’ stars. Ironically, many of these rising stars say they found their passion and motivation for the game as a direct result of idolizing Tiger’s dominance in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Fast forward to the 2018 Tour Championship, which concluded in storybook fashion with Tiger claiming his 80th career victory and his first in over five years. NBC announced the PGA Tour’s season finale drew a 5.21 overnight rating, the highest of any non-major championship this year. That number is also up a whopping 206 percent over last year’s event, all the while competing for ratings against NFL Sunday.

Tiger’s impact on the growth of the game has been well documented over the years. Tour earnings increased at 10x the rate of inflation when comparing 1985 to 2010. No one has ever moved the needle in his or her sport more than Tiger Woods. His presence in only a handful of events this year has brought measurable spikes in TV Ratings and tournament attendance. More importantly, for club managers, another byproduct of the ‘Tiger Effect’ is an increase in golf participation levels (defined by the NGF as people age 6+ who played golf on a golf course).

Let’s examine the trend in US golf participation since Tiger burst onto the scene in 1996 with his first victory and began capturing the attention of the golfing world. Since that time, there seems to be an unavoidable lagging correlation between Tiger’s ‘presence’ (number of starts and number of wins) and the golf participation trend. As an example, the two-year time period between 1999 and 2000: it is widely regarded as the height of Tiger’s dominance and included 17 wins and 4 major championships. The lagging effect on golf participation was an increase from 26 million to 31 million golfers in the US over the next three years. Jump ahead to 2008, when Tiger’s first major injury-riddled season limited him to 6 starts and golf participation began a declining trend that was then amplified with the economic downturn and Tiger’s hiatus for ‘off-the-course’ indiscretions. As the economy has recovered in recent years, we find ourselves returning to the level of participation in the mid-90s, the pre-Tiger era.

What that may infer is the jump from 25 million to 30 million has a lot to do with the ‘Tiger Effect’. While we likely won’t experience the same participation rise as we experienced at the height of his dominance, past history suggests that the more we see the red shirt on Sunday afternoons, the more latent golfers will flock to the links. According to the NGF, non-golfers interested in playing golf was 12.8 million in 2017, up from 11.9 million in 2016 and double what it was five years ago. The estimated number who say they are at least ‘somewhat interested’ in taking up golf was 40.6 million, and well over a third of that number (15.2 million) were Millennials (18- to 34-year-olds), which made up the largest single age group of non-golfers who expressed interest in playing golf.

As a Millennial, I can vouch for the declining interest I witnessed in my peer group post-2008. Ten years have passed, and as Tiger tapped in for victory to win the 2018 Tour Championship, my social media feed was flooded with excitement from friends and colleagues who have been on hiatus from the game but are still fans and players at heart. I can’t help but believe that Tiger’s return to the top of golf will provide a ‘kick’ that many latent Millennials need to get the golfing itch back, and with it the decision to become club members again.

To all club managers out there watching your membership continue to increase in age while the club struggles to attract new Millennial members to join, I urge you to promote aggressively this winter and take advantage of the current momentum and excitement among the Millennial audience. It may just be the best opportunity in a decade to attract an audience that is crucial to regenerating the membership pipeline at your Club.

Tactics to consider:

  • Organize a ‘golf pool’ for each major championship in 2019 and extend the invitation via social media channels. Encourage members to invite their friends to participate and to visit the Club on the ‘Major Sunday’ for a viewing party social event.
  • Consider adding team events/competitions for younger members, specifically in the spring. Again, scheduling these events surrounding major championships can spike interest in latent Millennials who become most engaged during these weekends.
  • Be sure the pro shop has Nike/Tiger apparel in the pro shop or club-branded ‘red shirts’ of its own. Perhaps consider a discount sale on all ‘Tiger’ related merchandise in advance of the Masters Tournament next spring.
  • Golf simulators resonate strongly with the Millennial audience, reminding them of their days playing the iconic ‘Tiger Woods EA Sports’ video game as a child. If your club has simulators available for use in the winter, allow guests of members to pay-for-use and accumulate credits towards their entrance fee if they decide to join in the Spring.

This article was authored by Ben Hopkinson, GGA Senior Associate and research-and-insights specialist. 

On Message

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As a business, it’s important to step back at times and ask yourself the question: who am I talking to?

When it comes to local marketing, clubs can easily get caught up in getting their message out without really being aware of who they are aiming to reach. Sadly, this can amount to hurling words into the abyss in the hope that they will find someone relevant.

The fact is, it’s impossible to craft a truly compelling message if you don’t know who you are talking to. The key to effective messaging is targeting, and the key to targeting is thorough market research.

Internal Market Knowledge

Knowing your market starts with knowing your own club.

The first step in this discovery process is to build a clear picture of your current club members. Better understanding who and where your club is right now will help you to visualize who and where it could be the future, as well as tuning you in to areas of opportunity that exist around you.

This type of information from your members can be sourced from surveys, focus groups, suggestion/comment boxes, informal meetings with management or staff, or operational metrics tracked as part of a broader business plan.

What insights should you be looking for?

Member/Customer Information

  • Demographic profiles (age, gender, family composition, ethnicity, income level, other club memberships, political leanings, religious affiliations, etc.)
  • Home addresses (zip codes, secondary homes, distance from work, school districts)
  • Contact information (names of family members, email addresses, phone numbers, social media habits)

How Members Use the Club

  • Rounds played by segment and month/week/day/hour
  • Revenue by type
  • Amenity utilization metrics (fitness, dining, tennis, event attendance, etc.)

Understanding the habits, preferences, lifestyles, wants, and needs of existing members is invaluable, because it will enable your club to identify and target individuals with similar profiles to existing members.

This is the “low-hanging fruit” for clubs, and it is the first place you should invest your energies. If you have successfully sold to people of a certain demographic in the past, then there is a good chance you will have success selling to similar prospects in future. People are also prone to associate and identify with likeminded individuals, so these prospects will be drawn to your club if they see that they can relate to your existing members.

The next step is to use this data to build a picture of who is missing from your club. What market segments are you not connecting with? Is it female golfers, Millennials, fathers with young children?

Understanding who is missing at your club will teach you a lot about where your messaging may be letting you down. Depending on the demographic around your club, you may find that some of these missing segments are on your doorstep, and it is just a case of reaching out to them in the right way.

External Market Knowledge

Once you have learned all you can from within your club, it’s time to turn your eyes outward: who are your neighbors and who are your competitors?

What data should you be looking to gather?

Demographic/Psychographic Information

  • Demographic and income data
  • Details on lifestyle groups in your area (psychographics)

Supply/Demand Data

  • List of all competitors in your market area
  • Summary of service and amenity offerings at each
  • Collect data to quantify demand (golf participation rates, studies, visitor information etc.)

Local Market Data

  • Demographics on public websites like governmental or municipal agencies
  • Customer and demographic mapping through Google
  • Comprehensive reports available through sites like Tactician or Environics

Putting a ‘face’ to local market areas will provide pertinent insight to help define your targeted message. If the profile of certain local market areas doesn’t match that of club members, then you may be faced with making bigger changes to your messaging than you expected. Armed with this information you can adjust your communications strategy accordingly, or else decide that you could invest more fruitfully in membership recruitment elsewhere.

The club must also know who its competitors are – what they are offering, their strengths and weaknesses – in order to create a message that differentiates your club’s offering.

This type of external information can be sourced anecdotally from calls to neighboring club managers or through online reviews, backed up by qualitative data sourced through competitor websites.

By gathering the right market knowledge from both internal and external sources you will be equipping yourself for growth. Not only can you identify the “low hanging fruit”, but you can also target demographics that your club is missing out on. Your message will become stronger by understanding what separates you from your competitors, and also, most importantly, by knowing exactly who you are talking to.

This article was authored by GGA Senior Manager and Market Intelligence expert Michael Gregory.

GGA and the CSCM Partner to Enhance Research and Impact

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Global Golf Advisors (GGA) and the Canadian Society of Club Managers Partner to Enhance Research and Impact
GGA recognized as Platinum Corporate Partner of the CSCM

TORONTO, Ontario – October 15, 2018

Global Golf Advisors (GGA) and the Canadian Society of Club Managers (CSCM) are pleased to announce the formation of a strategic partnership to produce research and insights for the benefit of the CSCM members and the club industry at large. The CSCM Corporate Partner program recognizes industry partners that share the values of the CSCM and offer members support as leaders in the club management profession in Canada.

The CSCM and GGA have enjoyed a history of collaborative research and investigative solutions to many of the club industry’s toughest problems. The evolution of this relationship into a formal partnership furthers the mission and core objectives of the Society’s strategic plan and positions GGA to more directly support the CSCM through funding, education, and research for its members. Each year, GGA and the CSCM will collaborate on valuable industry research as well a lifestyle research paper.

“Achieving the CSCM’s strategic plan, ‘Vision 2020 – A Clear Focus For An Even Stronger Future’, is one of the most important mandates of our National Board,” explained Trevor Noonan CCM, CCE, CSCM president. “For many years CSCM and GGA have maintained a longstanding and valued relationship. By formalizing our partnership, we bring the plan’s ‘Research & Impact’ pillar to life.”

The CSCM’s vision is to create great clubs through excellence in professional club management and its mission is to promote and develop the profession of club management. The CSCM offers a variety of programs and services in response to member needs and expectations including the certification program leading to the Certified Club Manager (CCM) designation, career opportunities, and a networking forum for executives and managers involved in club management.

GGA is committed to club management and helping facilitate key elements of the CSCM’s provision for providing research, resources, and education to its members. “Club managers are charged with immense responsibility and deserve all we can do to help.” said GGA partner Derek Johnston. “We are proud to lend our support and are eager to work collaboratively with the CSCM to develop beneficial research and insights drawn from GGA’s core competencies in strategy and operations consulting, business intelligence and analytics. ”

“The creation of this valuable and timely industry research continues to position the CSCM as the industry leader it is, providing benefit to the CSCM members and the clubs they lead,” declared Suzanne Godbehere, CSCM chief executive officer. “We are very much looking forward to delivering this joint research.”

For more details about the CSCM and partnership, click here.

About The Canadian Society of Club Managers
Established in 1957, CSCM is the national professional society representing the club management profession in Canada. Of our approximately 600 members, over 70% are from golf clubs, and the remainder from a variety of city, recreation, fitness, curling and other types of clubs.

The Society’s members hold position titles that include General Manager, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer as well as Assistant Manager, Clubhouse Manager, Controller and Food and Beverage Manager.

About GGA
Global Golf Advisors is a highly specialized consulting firm dedicated to the club and golf industries. GGA serves a global roster of clients from its four offices in Toronto, Phoenix, Dublin and Sydney. The firm was founded in 1992 as a specialty consulting practice within KPMG Canada, KPMG’s Golf Industry Practice. Since inception, the firm has provided industry-leading advisory services to over 3,000 clients worldwide.

Harnessing the Power of Strategic Intelligence

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When a club undergoes a strategic planning event, they do so by assessing a number of key data sets: member preferences, club operations, finances and market forces.  All of these come together to help inform strategy and the action plan moving forward.

The fundamental challenge I see clubs struggle with all too often is keeping the information that informed their strategy up to date.

The intention is right, but the execution falls short.  Let me tell you why.

Most clubs are stretched for resources.  This typically necessitates a focus on immediate challenges, which tend to be operationally driven with solutions that are tactical in nature.  It is not surprising that most business intelligence utilized by clubs focuses on revenues, expenses and certain utilization statistics.

The research and insight required to monitor and adjust strategy on an ongoing basis goes beyond revenues and expenses.  It must provide club leaders with a 360-degree view of all forces impacting their club: from member attitudes and preferences to finances, capital sources and uses, from competitors to the economy, from real estate to a wide assortment of market conditions, the list goes on.

There is a tendency to assume many of these things do not change quickly, certainly not as quickly as daily operations; however, changes do occur significantly from year to year.  For clubs today, sustained competitive advantage is critical.  An off year in membership recruitment can hurt the club.  A few off years over a five-year period will hurt the club and can be significant.

This is where strategic intelligence is so important.  One of the biggest obstacles clubs encounter in their quest for better and current strategy is the sourcing, analyzing and visualizing of important strategic intelligence.  An effective strategic intelligence process requires careful planning and resources, and this is the obstacle GGA’s Strategic Intelligence program has been designed to help club managers overcome.

The strategic jigsaw puzzle

The key to harnessing the power of strategic intelligence is this: piecing the right data together in a cohesive way and creating a culture of staying in tune with current trends.

This is something that clubs have, historically, struggled with. However, by enabling clubs to stay connected to all of the factors impacting their long-term success, this is an area GGA can really make a difference.

One thing is clear: clubs who actively engage with current strategic intelligence to inform their decision-making perform better in the short, medium and long-term.

 

To discover how to leverage Strategic Intelligence for your club,
connect with Derek Johnston

Strategic Intelligence at Work

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Guest author – Lonnie Lister, General Manager, Portland Golf Club

Lonnie Lister attended the University of Arizona for a degree in music education.  He worked on the wait staff at private clubs during his college summers and found that he was drawn more to club management than to a music career. Prior to joining PGC as its GM in January 2017, Lonnie was the GM at Skyline Country Club in Tucson, AZ where he spent 23 years working in various areas of the Club. Lonnie is active in CMAA and has served on the board of the Greater Southwest Chapter.

Portland Golf Club has a rich history, but like other private clubs it faces ongoing challenges.

The city of Portland has grown tremendously over the last decade, leading to dramatic shifts in both the market and demographics.

While this growth brings opportunity, it also brings about change.  For us that change impacts a number of areas – specifically around membership recruitment and retention; staff hiring and retention, and being able to control operating costs without compromising the service we provide to members.

With this in mind, the board of Portland Golf Club voted last year to adopt GGA’s Strategic Intelligence (“SI”) platform, which features several components: a Market Scan, a Member Survey, and an assessment of the Club’s “Operational Vital Signs” which compares our performance to clubs of similar stature both within our market and in other markets.

Selective targeting

The initial Market Scan, which revealed potential member households within a two to five-mile radius of the Club, was fascinating.  We learned that within a five-mile radius of Portland Golf Club there are more than double the number of golfing households than is typical for private clubs nationally.  That was a welcome surprise.

Though our Club is still very selective, the Market Scan revealed that there was much more potential for outreach than we’d been aware of before.

As membership recruitment and retention was our number one issue, what we learned inspired us to send a “welcome letter” from the Club to home buyers in our prime market neighborhoods.  This was not a recruitment package, but rather a gently informational welcome note – letting people who might be new to Portland know that this wonderful club exists nearby.

Taking the time to listen

As a club manager, one can often find themselves guilty of favoring (or at least focusing on) one ‘R’ over the other – namely, recruitment over retention.

But retention can fuel recruitment.

A Member Survey can inform what changes are necessary based on the actual needs that current members identify, which is vastly more effective.  And the satisfaction and sense of positivity this can create reverberates beyond the four walls of the clubhouse.

What was critical for us was surveying our membership in a way that was specific to the Club, not just a broad-brush approach.  This meant we could directly address concerns of our membership and maximize the effectiveness and insights of the survey.  Already this has delivered responses that are candid and honest, and provided a robust foundation to inform strategic decisions.

Reassuring the Board

The SI platform has also been incredibly helpful in reassuring the Board that the Club is operating efficiently.

We can see in the Operational Vital Signs report that in almost every measure Portland Golf Club is performing well.  Where we find anomalies, we can take a closer look to understand what these are, and we can then decide if they are something we need to act upon or factor into our strategic decisions.

One such anomaly we found at Portland Golf Club was that most golfers prefer to walk, explaining why our cart revenue is below national benchmarks.  This is not a trend we see changing, so rather than acquire more carts or attempt to upsell them at every opportunity, we decided to focus our efforts in other, more fertile areas for business development.

Going deeper

There’s no doubt Portland Golf Club has embarked on a journey which places strategic intelligence at the forefront of the decisions we make.

Now we are in the second year of our SI subscription and have engaged in a Market Analysis to take a deeper look into what we learned from the original Market Scan.

As analysis looks at trends, rather than simply a snapshot of the market, this will allow us to plan better in what is clearly a fast-changing region.

Portland’s metro region now numbers more than 2.4 million people.  Almost 50% of the adult population has a college degree, and in Portland Golf Club’s primary market areas that percentage is even higher.

Armed with this knowledge, we can embark on our membership recruitment and retention activity with a clear sense of who our prospective customers are and where they are situated in relation to the Club.

Empowering the manager

Given my history working in a number of different roles in the club environment, I have always felt very comfortable on the operational side of the business.  However, the three most important issues we face at Portland Golf Club are all byproducts of local market growth outside of our Club’s operations.

Strategic research is providing us with data and insights we need to address each of these issues and is helping the Club in both the short and long-term.

This journey is changing the way I think and the way our team strategizes.  It provides me with more data than I have ever had available to me at other clubs and is full of relevant information that we depend on daily.  Our management team and committees routinely refer to the intelligence reports, our budgeting process benefits from the availability of current data to support assumptions, and our Board meetings are more productive and efficient.

I now feel that there is a greater connection between the service we deliver on the ground to the level and breadth of service prospective members are looking for – because we are armed with the data and knowledge to have confidence to be more aware of market needs.

Moving forward

So, where do we go from here?  Whereas before we were a Club reacting to changes and adjusting plans for the following year, now we are a club looking 2, 3, 4, even 10 years into the future.

For a time, it felt as though the city of Portland’s growth was getting away from us.  Now, we are ready for how it will develop and who will move here, giving us the ability to refine the value proposition that this Club offers them both now and well into the future.

Learn more about Strategic Intelligence here. 

Strategic Intelligence Overview: Part 2 of 3

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Clubs are beginning to discover the power of utilizing data to operate more strategically (see “Strategic Intelligence Part One,” September 2018). While enterprise grade analytics platforms that help to consistently track and analyze data may still be out of reach for many clubs, Derek Johnston of Global Golf Advisors says there are steps clubs can take now to lead to better decision making. He recommends club managers start with straight forward objectives for using and analyzing data:

  1. Inform key decision makers at your club with customized, accurate, timely and actionable intelligence about your club’s membership, market, operations and finances.
  2. Improve productivity and effectiveness of board and management meetings with sophisticated and reliable business intelligence.
  3. Help club executives efficiently and effectively evaluate, develop and adjust strategy on an on-going basis.

In order to effectively collect, analyze and present the right information to the right audiences, Johnston suggests you look at your club’s strategic plan and overall club goals to identify the key questions you need to answer first. For example: If your goal is to increase intermediate membership conversion rates and build a larger pipeline, some of the things you would likely want to know are:

  • Conversion rates of intermediate membership over the past five years.
  • Number of prospects in your pipeline in the past five years and how many are in it currently.
  • Reasons intermediate members have and have not converted in the past.
  • Preferences and attitudes toward the club of those who have converted to full membership in the past.
  • The size and make-up of their personal networks and their willingness to recommend the club.

“If you could gather all of this information, track it and trend it over time, you could come up with a pretty good action plan to achieve your goal,” explained Johnston. “Work through this exercise for each of the most important categories of strategic intelligence: governance, membership, market, utilization and participation, employees, operations, capital and finance.”

Once you know the information that you need to frame your decisions, then you can begin to source the information from both internal (POS, member database, P&L) and external sources (population demographics and psychographics, real estate data, social media, web traffic, etc.). When you have the necessary data, you can analyze it in a way that considers your club’s unique circumstances, visualize the information in a manner that provides historical context and trends, and then determine the best approach for presenting the information to the various decision makers at your club.

Stay tuned for Strategic Intelligence Part Three in the next issue which will address examples and the key results of clubs that have leveraged data to achieve a desirable outcome.

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

Strategic Intelligence Overview: Part 1 of 3

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As the world becomes more data centric, the club industry is beginning to discover the power of utilizing data, research and analysis to operate more intelligently and strategically. According to Derek Johnston of Global Golf Advisors, informed intelligence planning increases the likelihood of current and future success.

The biggest challenges clubs face in their quest for better strategy is how to source and analyze the data and then apply that intelligence to determine future action. Comprehensive business intelligence is extremely important for clubs, especially those where boards are comprised of volunteer members with varying backgrounds and professional experience. “Everyone must be working from the same set of facts when discussing and ultimately setting strategy,” Johnston said.

Business intelligence is often new to clubs and tends to be misunderstood. “Simply put, you want to use information to help determine what has happened and why,” he explained. Using data to derive insight that helps with decision making is most impactful when 1) internal and external data from multiple sources is synthesized, 2) combined with experience and key business assumptions and 3) enabled by technology in order to identify unique insight.

“This means that relying on financial information or data from your club’s information system is not enough. It will not provide the specifics needed to develop the most successful strategy for your club,” Johnston warned.

Global Golf Advisors believes business intelligence requires a 360-degree view of all the factors impacting a club’s success from competitive market forces to member perceptions to operational and financial performance evaluations. It should also be defined based on who will be using it and the reason for which they will be using the information. Global Golf Advisors warns that anecdotal information in a board room is distracting and disastrous.

“Develop a strategy that supports both operational and strategic decision making that goes beyond typical financial data and key performance indicators. The top performing clubs around the world are consistently tracking, analyzing and reporting data to leverage intelligence and create competitive advantages,” Johnston concluded.

Stay tuned for Strategic Intelligence Part Two in our next issue which will address how to implement key practices to establish a strategic intelligence process at your club.

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

What Millennials Want

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Earlier this year Global Golf Advisors, in conjunction with Nextgengolf, released a follow up report to its ground-breaking 2017 study entitled ‘The Truth About Millennial Golfers’. GGA’s Michael Gregory, backed by the findings of the research, gives a Millennial’s take on what clubs need to do next to realize the clear opportunity this group presents…

We run the risk of a two-tier club membership model emerging. One where the long-held expectations and perceptions of existing, ageing members are at odds with the entirely different needs and expectations of a new wave of younger, more casual members.

The challenge for clubs? To create an environment which not only appeals to the new wave, but where members, of all types, can co-exist. For some club decision-makers this may be a source of discomfort, because enacting a change that leans one way or the other could potentially upset or alienate the other group.

From my experience, however, it’s clubs who resist change entirely that do themselves a disservice; sub-consciously siding with a diminishing number of older members, which, over time, makes their membership product less appealing to younger prospects.

Now, being a Millennial, it would be natural or somewhat biased having conducted this research to declare that clubs need to change their value proposition for a younger audience, and that their survival depends on it. But while there is truth in this, clubs can and should choose to see this as an opportunity – it’s real, it’s there to be seized, and at some point (whether now or in the future) everyone will need to appeal to this new wave.

Seeing things from a Millennial’s perspective

To help you on this journey, I’d like you to see the following as an insight into what Millennials think and feel about the prospect of joining your club. Each of the findings can provide the fuel for you to create a genuinely appealing product to this (potentially) lucrative group.

Millennials want flexible, scalable membership aligned to how they will utilize the club

Think about what’s important in the life of a Millennial: work, health and fitness, family, friends – all of which impact on free leisure time.

With such time and (in some cases) financial commitments already in place, a high-ticket membership subscription and entrance fee will not only be unappealing, it won’t even be on the radar.

51% of Millennial survey respondents stated their preference is a flexible membership with a low social fee that provides full access, with golf on a pay-per-use basis. Understandable when you look outside the four walls and find other leisure amenities and gyms offering ‘Build Your Membership’ options.

So, rightly or wrongly, Millennials prefer to customize and take an ‘á la carte’ approach, experience the product first (do you offer a membership trial?) and have confidence in the commitment they are about to make.

While this might sound like a ‘cake and eat it’ mentality, think about the lifetime value of these customers; if you can be flexible and deliver an outstanding experience from the outset, the likelihood is they will stay with you for years to come.

Millennials would prefer to pay a higher annual fee over an entrance fee

Not only is the financial impact of an entrance fee off-putting, no matter how many years it can be spaced over, but Millennials also aren’t keen to commit or have a sense of being ‘tied-in’. Especially in cases where they are uncertain how much they will get to access the club (because of time constraints and family/work commitments).

This doesn’t mean to say Millennials will be looking to leave or switch clubs shortly after they join. They would simply rather not outlay a large financial sum at a time of life when, away from the golf course, they often have other life events and variable expenses (home-buying, weddings, children) to keep in mind.

The upshot – Millennials are receptive to a higher subscription fee, appreciating that greater flexibility should come at some cost to them.

Millennials want more than just golf

From the research, we learned that 33 was the mostly likely age for Millennials to join – the ‘sweetspot’. A time at which Millennials, when considering membership, are also looking for fitness (71% of respondents), family access (65%) and a swimming pool (62%). Whether these facilities carry an additional, pay-per-use fee is at a club’s discretion, but simply the provision of such amenities can be a significant draw for a Millennial audience.

Something to bear in mind here: the provision of these amenities will help to boost the dwell time of Millennial members. So, when paired with our other findings in relation to how new Millennials join a club (83% through recommendations from friends, family or colleagues) it stands to reason that the more a club becomes a part of someone’s routine or lifestyle, the more chance of them recommending membership to others.

A watershed moment

When we embarked on this research with Nextgengolf, we did so with the ambition to grow the game and give the gift of golf. What’s clear from working with club managers globally is that, actually, this is an ambition we all share.

Whether this is a watershed moment which helps you to rethink and act on how to connect with a Millennial audience is up to you. But from my, perhaps somewhat biased opinion, the ability for your club to shift gear and develop a genuinely compelling product offering to this group could help unlock those long-term members you are looking for – the ones who will form the future nucleus of your club.

Read the 2018 ‘Truth About Millennial Golfers’ Report

Note: The survey sample for the Truth About Millennial Golfers study focused exclusively on a sample audience of active, avid Millennial golfers with prior golf interest and experience in tournaments of golf events.

This article was authored by GGA Senior Manager and Market Intelligence expert Michael Gregory.

Manager Views on Innovation

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Generating growth through culture change is the goal of the Innovation Labs initiative.

Discussions about business, society, the economy or technology invariably include the word “innovation,” which implies a pursuit of inventiveness or change. The word also appears in conversations about golf culture or the club industry, though typically in a negative context or when referring to a lack of change.

By nature, clubs embrace and value tradition. That’s one of the things that defines them as clubs. They are organizations dedicated to a particular interest, activity or lifestyle. However, a culture of tradition does not prevent a club from pursuing change.

Investigating innovation

In recent years, club managers, club members, developers and businesses that serve the industry have used the word “innovation” more frequently. But it’s unclear what innovation looks like for clubs. We see various industries targeting clubs with innovations: Manufacturers are making equipment stronger, lighter and more powerful; agronomic experts are growing turf that is cleaner, greener and more sustainable; technology focused fi rms are developing ways to make golf more accessible and less time-consuming.

As part of its commitment to continually provide forward-looking ideas and advanced education to club managers, CMAA identified innovation as a key research topic for 2018. At Global Golf Advisors (GGA), the goal is to leverage adaptation, transformation, growth and efficiency to maximize the performance of clubs — and innovation is always on the table.

Key objectives for both CMAA and GGA have always been to help clubs optimize their performance and maximize financial, operational and lifestyle related results for club leaders and their members. Earlier this year, CMAA announced the renewal of its business partnership with GGA, a multiyear commitment of cooperation to enhance CMAA’s research initiative using GGA’s business intelligence services and to co-create Innovation Labs to promote and inspire innovation by clubs. The Innovation Labs will explore new ways to help clubs move ahead faster.

Typical research projects analyze past results and projected outcomes. Research on innovation, however, is forward-looking and requires new ideas, new methods and change. Still, successful innovations are difficult to quantify and involve significant risk.

To minimize risk and create reliable, replicable and successful methodologies, GGA and CMAA have established a joint task force that will identify, measure and field-test ideas that have the greatest potential for innovation in club management.

Establishing baselines

This case-based approach to innovation began with a yearlong research project involving clubs that are reimagining the way they operate. The first phase of the three-phase project was to study the relationship between clubs and innovation by talking to the individuals who know clubs better than anyone: club managers.

This effort was launched in advance of the 91st CMAA World Conference on Club Management and Club Business Expo in San Francisco. CMAA members took a 10-minute survey designed to gather managers’ thoughts on innovation, identify research opportunities and assess latent demand for innovation within clubs. The nearly 400 CMAA members who participated represented more than eight types of clubs, and more than 150 individuals volunteered their clubs to contribute to additional research.

Results from the preliminary survey confirmed that innovation is crucial for the future of club management. According to the survey, approximately 95 percent of club managers regard innovation as “important” or “very important” to the long-term success and sustainability of clubs.

Club managers also believe clubs need to improve when it comes to innovation. Managers do not necessarily regard their clubs as innovative. Less than two-thirds (63 percent) described their club in that way. And when asked to quantify the extent of their innovativeness, only 40 percent of managers rated their club as “innovative” or “extremely innovative.”

Participants also rated the extent to which they believe clubs are keeping pace with innovative practices in other industries. Ninety-two percent rated that pace as being between “slightly below average” and “slightly above average.”

The top three challenges that inhibit innovation were determined to be: (1) limited resources such as money, time, space and people; (2) social or cultural opposition to change; and (3) a lack of structured innovation processes or procedures.

Using the right tools

What fuels the engine of innovation? What is required to innovate? Survey feedback identified three keys to innovation: (1) a culture that fosters and supports innovation; (2) willingness to change norms and take risks; and (3) strong visionary business leadership.

Club managers said one of the most important ingredients for innovation is a culture of strategic thinking. This encourages new ideas, supports experimentation, solicits group input and is characterized by fearless, resourceful leaders willing to take calculated risks.

While managers are divided on whether innovation is a priority for their clubs (55 percent said yes; 45 percent said no), it is clear that those who focus on innovation are seeing results. Among managers who indicated that innovation is a primary focus, 91 percent said their clubs seek opportunities to innovate and 90 percent said their focus on innovation gives them a competitive advantage. One caveat: Only 27 percent of clubs that focus on innovation have a clear, well-defined innovation strategy.

Even managers who believe innovation is essential to the long-term success of their clubs do not regard themselves as particularly innovative. They believe the club industry lags behind other sectors when it comes to change. They say they would like to catch up in the areas of marketing, communications, technology, food & beverage and strategy, but they say they are hampered by resource constraints, cultural opposition and a lack of effective infrastructure. Even many clubs that do prioritize and pursue innovation are operating without a deliberate plan of action.

To translate ingenuity into business strategy, managers believe that a broader cultural endorsement is needed within their clubs to support, enable and nurture innovation. Affecting cultural change from the top down, with reliable bottom-up support, is not easy. Clear policies and programs are essential.

The results of this preliminary survey have helped guide the development of GGA/CMAA research and the new Innovation Labs initiative. They will be circulated in a detailed, full report later this year. Stay tuned for more details on ideas, insights and experiments to be generated by the Innovation Labs during the coming year.

GGA’s Bennett DeLozier penned this article for Club Management Magazine, published by the Club Management Association of America.

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