Let’s take the issues of the day that relate to ski area marketing: consumerism, energy shortages, supply/demand (ski area growth/expansion/RARE II), product quality and liability, the cost of skiing, safety, regulation, inflation, to name a few. Headline grabbers all — on almost a daily basis.
How about inflation? Ski area marketing people say inflation isn’t a factor because the price of everything is going up. Yet many of them feel compelled to wheel-and-deal: “Our adult all-day, all-lift ticket costs $18, but we have a real deal for you — if you’re over 65 and ski on Thursdays between 3 and 5 p.m. — except during Christmas week, of course.”
A classic “deal” a few years back resulted in “The Great Coke Bottle-top Redemption Fiasco.” On the other hand, some folks living in a ski town who felt they weren’t getting the “deal” they deserved, convinced a U.S. Senator to draft a bill governing the issuance of land use permits by the U.S. Forest Service for ski areas.
Today, many marketing directors are out in the market place selling, selling, selling — at the same time the industry is telling skiers, “Sorry, we’re full and, by the way, skiing may be hazardous to your health.” I suspect some marketing directors still promote their ski area saying it’s “safe,” the slopes are “groomed like a ballroom” and the skiing is always “great!” How many are creatively taking industry dilemmas into account while continuing to sell their product in a positive manner?
Marketing directors talk about competing with other recreation destinations for the public’s discretionary dollar. But have they looked at their own resort lately to determine whether it is worth that discretionary dollar?
I’ve heard many make reference to the importance of product quality. But how many of them are following up on their lift line survey information, making sure that the hamburgers won’t taste like rubber and the johns will be clean every day this year? Will there be enough parking, now that a great weekend ski package with a rental car company has just been finalized?
How many marketing directors are concerned with resort problems like the availability and cost of employee housing and ski passes? A supply of service personnel is as important to product quality as the daily snowfall is.
Furthermore, I’m not so sure alternative recreation destination resorts encourage policies that allow hotels to charge for more nights than the length of stay “because we have a required minimum of nights.” Or, to refuse to refund deposits or package payments to people cancelling reservations.
What about energy? At this time, how many ski resort marketing directors are formulating energy-efficient ski packages, making sure there are mass-transit alternatives to the rental/personal car? Have they determined what winter operation hours are being contemplated by the gas station operators in their community? How about their own operating hours — are those trails going to be lit up far into the night? Are ski resorts developing ways to communicate with the consumer regarding the availability of gasoline, mass transit, car pools?
Marketing directors have told me that they aren’t involved in energy planning, product quality monitoring, pricing and other issues. That’s someone else’s responsibility. But don’t they want to know whether they’ll have the promised heated swimming pools at their resort hotels this winter? Whether customers will be able to get to their resort? Don’t they want to have some input in lift ticket pricing decisions, taking into account feedback they get in the marketplace? Don’t they want to be a part of the entire decision-making process so they might credibly promote their ski areas? Shouldn’t marketing directors become “politicized” so that they might translate their awareness of the mood of the public into sound programs for their resort?
They can start by reading the newspaper.
