MARKETING
Memorable
Moments
48
Winter 2005
GOLF BUSINESS CANADA
GOLF BUSINESS CANADA
Winter 2005
COLIN GOEHRING
Many golf courses attempt to
gain a competitive advantage by
continuously dropping their price.
This marketing strategy will
inevitably fail over time because
you create a perception of being a
discount golf facility. You will
begin to attract the “BottomFeeder Golfers” who rarely
spend any cash in your pro shop
or bar and usually carry cold-cut
sandwiches in their golf bag.
Instead, why not just
become more appealing to
people who like to spend
money for quality services? A
better pricing strategy will
always be to overwhelm your
customers with added value.
Your focus should be on
finding creative ways to
differentiate your golf course
and your customer service
and increase demand so
substantially that you no
longer have to compete with
the price cutters.
49
MARKETING
THROW IN THE TOWEL
Price cutting is ultimately a losing
game. A better approach is to add
value so you can increase rather than
decrease prices.
For one, all your advertising should
create value propositions that provide
enticing offers and premiums for a
great golfing experience. You can “throw
in” a golf towel, hat, complimentary
lunch (hot dog & beverage), range pass,
yardage book, poster or a screensaver.
By adding these types of premiums,
you can easily raise your price to more
than cover the cost of the premium and
create a higher perceived value at your
club. However, you may want to limit
these promotions to your tee spots that
are already in high demand (such as
weekend mornings) so you can raise
your fees considerably without it affecting your traffic flow. Consider how the
airlines do this by offering their ‘Space
Available in First Class’ decoy.
The exception to the rule of
discounting is to use price reductions as
a reward for your most loyal customers.
Give financial incentives to people who
buy in volume and pay upfront. Have
discount programs for the players who
want to buy a 20-round pass or a series
of 10 lessons.
50
MAKE IT
LIKE DISNEYLAND
Think about how much fun it is
to go to Disneyland, “The Happiest
Place on Earth.” The park is always
immaculate and the staff is highly
trained to make people smile.
Disney is in the entertainment
business - and really, so are you.
Everything at Disney is designed for
fun and to create memories. It’s more
than just a theme park with rides, and in
the same way, your golf course should be
more than just golf – it should be about
the experience you help them to have.
Think about how you can raise
the level of customer service and
improve the “WOW” factor at your
golf facility. How can you make the
whole experience at your course more
enjoyable and entertaining?
For instance, make sure your
washrooms are impeccable. Women
rank this as the #1 most important value
in a quality golf course and as we all
know, women are the ‘next big thing’ in
golf, so doing anything
to impress them will pay
big dividends. Try communicating to the staff who are in charge of
these essential environments just how
integral their roles are to the overall
experience – it can mean the difference
between a loyal customer for life and a
one-time only visitor.
It really pays to ‘sweat the small
stuff ’, as this is what ends up being
impressive to the end customer…for
example:
Why not serve up scented towels at
the turn? Make them hot in a microwave
on cold days and icy cold on hot days.
Very refreshing.
Have a friendly staff member greet
each and every guest as soon as they
arrive and take bags to the range or starting tee. You could go so far as to dress
him or her in white coveralls like at the
Masters.
Give your marshals ‘Instant Replay’
vouchers for disgruntled clients, or have
them give balls away to people hunting
for their lost balls. This really helps
improve slow play and quite simply
makes people feel better and forget their
bad shots. Now the marshal is seen as a
friend rather than a police officer.
Winter 2005
GOLF BUSINESS CANADA
Never underestimate what bars and
restaurants already know - staff your
beverage carts with young, fun and
attractive staff who have been given
great training and know how to make
people smile.
Why not take a digital photo of
every golfer at your signature hole and
send it to them by email? (How’s that
for collecting email addresses? Disney
now does this by taking the digital
shots with some of their rides - and
even charges you if you want the printed
photo.)
What about having a few more
“Fun Tournaments” with crazy prizes
and great social events afterwards?
If you can manage to build a sense of
community, you have won loyalty and
created the coveted atmosphere that
keeps your golfers coming back.
Essentially, you should make it your
goal to have your golf course become
“The Happiest Golf Course on Earth!”
DO IT LIKE CHEERS
Remember the television show Cheers?
Why did people keep going to Cheers?
Well for one, everyone wants to go
“where everybody knows your name”…
it’s all about making it personal.
Winter 2005
GOLF BUSINESS CANADA
51
MARKETING
Build loyalty through incredible
personalization and create a culture
where staff are not only encouraged, but
both trained and rewarded for being the
best “name rememberer”.
Create all kinds of special social
events at your club where it’s very easy for
people to get to know each other in a
fun, informal way. Make sure there’s
some ‘intentional interaction’ so it makes
it easy for people to connect, even if
they’re new to a group.
And of course, most courses are
finally recognizing that rewarding your
best customers is simply the best business
practice around. Creating a preferred
golfer loyalty program where you reward
your best customers will make them feel
they belong to your golf ‘community’
and feel also that you recognize both the
time and the money they already spend
at your facility.
BECOME HEROES IN YOUR
COMMUNITY
Once you have prioritized making the
‘little things’ really count within your
operation, the next step is to ask how you
can make a positive impression on your
community and earn the right to get
some ink from your local media. It can
only happen if you think creatively and
make your course about more than ‘just
golf’, even if the golf at your course is great!
A strong example is to build activities
and awareness around the other items
your course offers, such as a restaurant,
gardens, natural surroundings and even
‘family togetherness’. Why not host programs for kids to build birdhouses
through the school woodshop for your
golf course, as one option? This program
can be especially effective with special
needs kids - allow them install the birdhouses on the course and make a meaningful contribution to their community.
52
Have your staff,
who are already your
experts within your
course operations,
become experts in
the eyes of your customers. Let
your chef host cooking classes; have your
superintendent host workshops on flower
gardens, pruning, thatch control, lawn fertilization and maintenance, and as always,
have your golf pros teach, but perhaps focus
on etiquette classes to the juniors - complete with a nice graduation ceremony.
Turf and Maintenance
CREATE AN INDELIBLE
IMPRESSION
You only have one chance to make a good
first impression, and in golf, that normally
means a photographic impression.
Great golf course photography is
critical to improving your image and
branding. Make sure you have at least one
outstanding photograph of your signature
hole so that people will be enticed to play
your course. The decision to play or not to
play is often based on this one first impression – so make it outstanding, as great
photography is the easiest lure you can use
to ensnare golfers and bring them to your
course.
So…if you want to exist inside someone’s ‘photographic memory’, discover
what it will take to make their moments
memorable, and generate both great
impressions and even better bottom lines!
AVG. SPENDING
AVG. SAVINGS
Kubota
$14,000
$420
Nu-Gro
$7,500
$2,500
Rain Bird
$4,000
$444
Total Savings
3,364
$
G O L F M A X
P U R C H A S I N G
P R O G R A M
The benefits of membership
Photos: Pages 48-49 Belleview Golf Club,
Woodslee, Ontario
Pages 50-51 (large background photo)
Seven Lakes Golf Course, LaSalle, Ontario
TURF & MAINTENANCE
Kubota Canada
Nu-Gro Corporation
Rain Bird International
Smithco
CREDIT CARD PROCESSING
Moneris Solutions
INSURANCE
Golfmax Insurance Plans
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Ontrak Purchasing &
Consulting Services
COLIN
GOEHRING
Colin is an advertising copy specialist
with Johnson Design Golf Marketing,
a firm dedicated to the pursuit of
marketing excellence in the golf
industry. Colin is an avid golfer
working hard to beat his cousin Dale
Goehring, the 1996 Canadian Amateur
Champion. You can reach Colin by
email at [email protected] or
call (866) 991-GOLF.
Winter 2005
PROSHOP
Club Car
Dollco Printing
Golf Supply House
Nearly New Golf Balls
Top-Flite Canada
Tournament Sports
TECHNOLOGY
Golfmax Inc.
Jencess Software &
Technology
Lenbrook Canada
UNIQUE PRODUCTS &
SERVICES
Burnside Golf Services
Levac Propane
NEBS Business Products
Petro Canada
Sparling’s Propane
For more information, contact (613) 226-3616
[email protected], or visit www.ngcoa.ca
GOLF BUSINESS CANADA
GOLF BUSINESS CANADA
Fa l l / W i n t e r 2 0 0 1
53