NSAA Domestic Marketing
Action plans to be offered to membership
Since reconstituting, NSAA has been at pains not to reawaken any old marketing ghosts that might conjure up memories of “bad old days.” At the same time, many feel that though this has been good association politics, it is time to move on and have at least some sort of marketing program. Not, they hasten to add, something to throw money at, but something that members can use or tie into.
Last July, with this in mind, the NSAA board appointed Pam Murphy, marketing director of Mammoth Mt., to chair the NSAA Marketing Committee, with an initial mandate to report back at the 1994 convention in Marco Island with recommendations. She in turn selected an additional 14 marketing professionals (see box) and they started out from scratch: establishing the role of the committee and agreeing on a mission statement.
The latter reads: “To establish success and growth of the ski industry by creating more awareness of the positive attributes of skiing while communicating more effectively to our membership.”
They established their immediate role as the development of marketing programs to be presented at the Marco Island convention, which were seen as involving three areas, with a subcommittee selected to develop action plans for each: 1) internal public relations/communications; 2) external publication relations/communications; and 3) research.
Under the internal program, the action plans to be presented include:
- Update marketing and PR manuals currently available through NSAA.
- Prepare a complete media list, to be available to members, and which would include publications in such non-vertical media as outdoors, fashion and business.
- Assign a marketing liaison to any NSAA committees which might have public relations or communications needs, including (but not limited to) the education committee and environmental committee.
- Add marketing workshops to any preseason NSAA regional workshops.
The external program is recommending:
- Preparation of proactive news releases on important issues.
- Preparation of reactive white sheets for hot issues facing the industry.
- Preparation of Public Service Announcements for TV, radio and print, using ski celebrities as well as celebrities who ski.
Under research, the plan is to “compile existing data from around the country to form a comprehensive general study for the industry.” Presumably this will become clearer at Marco Island.
Chairman Murphy is anxious to make it very clear that her committee is looking for some action, not just words.
“It is important,” she says, “to note that the marketing committee’s recommendation to the board is to increase the priority of marketing and public relations within the NSAA by the addition of a staff public relations professional or the use of a public relations firm.”
Murphy also hopes that the open marketing committee meeting at Marco Island (Sunday, May 22 at 2:00 pm) will result in a lot of input from the floor. “Also,” she says, “ideas and comments may be sent to me at Mammoth ahead of the meeting, or discussed with committee members.”
NSAA Marketing Committee
- Chair—Pam Murphy, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area
- NSAA Staff Liaison—Stacy Gardner
- NSAA Board Liaison—Larry Hutchinson (Spirit Mountain)
- Chris Brink—Sunday River, Me.
- Joel Bourassa—Loon Mountain, N.H.
- John Clifford—Killington, Vt.
- Mike Cobb—Ski Liberty, Penna.
- Kelley Davidson—Copper Mountain, Colo.
- Kathy DeGree—Mt. Bachelor, Ore.
- Jim Epperson—Snow Trails, Ohio
- Kari Gemmel—Jackson Hole, Wyo.
- Bob Kunkel—Vail Assoc., Colo.
- Julie Maurer—Northstar-at-Tahoe, Calif.
- Rusty Martin—Snowbird, Utah
- Will Seccombe—Loveland Ski Area, Colo.
- Tony Waddell—Cataloochee Ski Area, N.C.
International Marketing
Time presses: structure to be resolved
One of the extraordinary successes enjoyed by our industry over the past decade has been the development of the overseas market. It is hard today to recall how tiny was the trickle of Brits, Kiwis, Aussies, Japanese, South Americans and continental Europeans just ten years ago.
Today, the trickle has become a steady and predictable flow and an important part of our annual skier visit totals. To quantify that, there are probably 150,000 ski vacationers from overseas—quite apart from those who come over for other reasons and who grab a chance to ski. These vacationers come for an average of 10 days (that’s 1.5 million skier visits!) and U.S. travel authorities report they spend at five times the pace of domestic vacationers.
True, this business directly benefits only a few resort operations, but overall industry health—translating also into industry funds generated by NSAA member dues—is clearly helped by the overseas business.
It is a puzzlement, then, why this component should currently be in disarray when it should be enjoying a lovely ride before the wind.
At the risk of oversimplifying a situation that tends to be confused with details, the problem is two-fold. First, there is a powerful push for market share in our industry, and it makes for shaky footing for many types of joint marketing initiatives. Narrow focus tends to displace broad vision.
Secondly, there is the almost quaint, perhaps quirky history of international ski resort marketing in the form of Ski USA and its unlikely pilot, Bernie Weichsel. The program, as Bernie has developed it, is demonstrably the creator of the book of business cited above. The problem: it grew to the point where its needs— and opportunities—could not realistically be attended to by the underlying BEWI (Bernie E. Weichsel, Inc.) organization. What was brilliantly developed almost as a labor of love by the irrepressible Bernie, has outgrown itself. What developed as a democratic membership association now needs to be a business.
Bernie saw salvation in having NSAA take the program under its wing, presumably contracting in some way for his experience and expertise. But NSAA has been leery. Yes, it makes a lot of sense, but…
The “buts” were several: Too much on our plate… Too early in our new life as an association… Tough to take on a program that directly benefits only a small percentage of the dues-paying membership…and others.
There were solutions, of course (for instance, Ski USA would be run as a stand-alone, self-supporting operation, at no cost to the general NSAA membership); but still, NSAA apparently decided to make haste very slowly, even though matters were at a point when international commitments had to be made if the program was to continue.
Enter Colorado Ski Country USA (CSC), a.k.a (depending on your outlook) “The Terminator,” the “fly in the ointment,” the “cavalry to the rescue,” the “800-lb. gorilla.”
We are going to operate our own international marketing program for Colorado, said CSC. Colorado skiing is a desirable product to sell; in and of itself, it is attractive to the overseas market; and nobody can package it and sell it as effectively and efficiently as we can ourselves.
Logic or Team
There was clearly some logic here. But what about the market that had been developed for California resorts, for Jackson Hole, for Killington? What about the team effort—the successful national umbrella inherent in the name Ski USA that had been welcomed by the international travel industry? What was to become of that if Colorado seceded from the skiing U.S. of A?
And that is essentially where it’s at today. The dust will soon settle, but hasn’t yet. To forestall complete meltdown of the whole program, Weichsel has, albeit reluctantly, taken hold of the reins again. “I’m back in the saddle (sort of) again—but for how long, we’ll see,” wrote Bernie. But there’s a difference this time. As he puts it, “BEWI/Ski USA…[will] operate a program as a business, not as an association.” The vintage 1994 Ski USA, he proposes, “will be a reduced, more service-oriented organization” than it was before. Translated, that means Bernie’s role will not be as an association staffer, but as a business contractor with the resorts which sign on.
He envisions Ski USA as the national program for international marketing that can enhance and supplement any marketing efforts undertaken by individual resorts or by regional groups such as CSC. Also, he insists, the arrangement will be “just a temporary adjustment until the time that NSAA is prepared…to completely assume the responsibility for administering the program.”
In the meantime, Weichsel set May 1 as the sign-up deadline. But, also in the meantime, the world spins on. Two all-important Australian consumer shows take place between April 29 and May 15, and another in Caracas, Venezuela. The basic and collateral print materials needed by the international tourism market are, perforce, in preparation and production.
There will, of course, be a resolution to the whole affair. This sort of business does not go by default. But many are concerned, and hope that exploitation of narrow interests will not result in a loss of continuity and momentum in the marketing of the American ski experience.
