The scene is 1996 on a sunny, mid-winter Saturday at Mt. Terrific, U.S.A., where 3,500 recreationalists are having a ball in the snow. I am a 1993 visitor, privileged to get this peek into the future. My guide is Mt. Terrific’s GM, a veteran from the old days, who is one of the leaders of “New Wave Skiing,” a movement which has shown signs of rekindling the growth of winter recreation in the mountains.
“You’ll see the fundamental difference in our approach in the ticketing,” he told me. “We now just charge admission and that entitles the skier to equipment and coaching. Your magnetic ticket is your charge card for the day. It’s not just the skiing and boarding: you can use our tubing facility at no extra charge, ditto our luge run. That’s not really radical; after all, most recreational facilities like Disney World have long operated this way.”
“You mean rentals and ski school are free?” I asked in astonishment. “Rentals used to be one of the most profitable parts of an area’s whole operation—a license to steal, you might say. And ski school could turn a pretty penny too,” I added.
“Well,” he said smiling, “it’s not really that way. We just decided to pick up on some old concepts, apply some modern technology and present it in the contemporary format of a package. This way everyone pays for what you call ‘rentals,’ and ‘ski school,’ whether they use our skis and snowboards or not and whether they use our coaching services or not. Everyone pays for it in the admission ticket. There is none of the old stigma attached to using rental equipment.
“It’s not really that new: in the old days of roller skating rinks your price of admission included use of a pair of skates; only a few really fancy skaters owned their own.
“We, as part of a consortium of about 15 areas, did some focus group research and found that about 85 percent of our customers were put off by lots of things we took for granted as gospel—things that they would just have to learn if they were ever to become ‘real’ skiers. For instance, we found most didn’t relate to all the high-tech equipment; they just wanted something that worked and was easy to use. So, our consortium drew up specs for some simple, efficient equipment and put it out to bid, with the promise of initial orders that would be in the six-digit range.
“Key words in the specs for skis and boards were easy, fun, forgiving; key words for boots were comfortable, simple, convenient, efficient; key words for bindings were safe, simple, efficient. All members of the group got the same equipment, except for graphics.
I was dumbfounded. “I’d love to know what this stuff was like,” I said.
“Well,” my guide obliged, “the ski is essentially what evolved out of the Ergo ski that Kneissl introduced in ’93—the one with the radical sidecut and broad tip and shovel. That was a great introduction. The techies hated it because it was so easy to ski on. We ordered in two sizes. For boots we went back to a high-grade rear entry. We all realized that this design had been driven from the market because of a bad image, and not because of bad performance. Its matchless comfort and convenience factor more than compensated for its inadequacy as a competition boot given that 95 percent of our customers had no illusions about needing a racing boot. The binding predictably turned out to be a highly efficient, reliable, convenient device for attaching the boot to the ski with appropriate release features. As for the ski performance features the binding people like to promote, the 85 percent we cater to cannot detect these features so we factored it out.
“You’d be astonished at the price we got for what is extremely good equipment that is fun for everyone to ski on. Ordering in only two lengths helps, of course, as does the high volume. Manufacturers have long known how to design and dial in precisely the characteristics you want. Their variable is the volume, and if you provide that in a competitive market the result is a shocker!”
“All very interesting,” I interrupted, wanting to express some of my skepticism, “but didn’t you face a whole lot of resistance by your staff, especially ski school?”
“Sure we did,” my guide acknowledged; “attitudes and habits die hard. But leadership starts from the top and we insisted on a total area commitment, just as we had earlier on the quality and service delivery program. Starting with me and the director of coaching services, every single area employee uses this standard equipment, including—especially including—the coaches (whom we used to call ski school instructors, but which we abandoned because we found people plain don’t want to go back to school). The only exception would be for special race coaching.
“That way, our customers understand that the coaches are good because of their skills and not because of performance-enhancing equipment. This eliminates a negative and wholly unnecessary barrier we used to have between the elite and the customers we thought of as ‘turkeys.’
“You see,” said my guide, warming to the task, “we found that what people most wanted to do was have fun in the snow. Yes, they realize they may have to work on their skills increase, but that doesn’t mean they have to be able to carve instead of skid their turns to enjoy the sport; it doesn’t mean they have to develop ‘snow feel’ to be a real skier.
“What we’ve done is dedicate our resort to the 85 percent instead of the 15. Those elite skiers are still with us, having fun, still buying expensive, performance-enhancing equipment—or demo-ing it—still doing their techie thing and showing off with their techie jargon.
“This total package concept has meant a lot of things for us: 1) It has uncomplicated the whole process of going skiing, reducing the hassle, reducing the number of intimidating decision thresholds for our customers; 2) It has increased the perceived value of the experience; in absolute terms it may have decreased the cost by ‘empowering’ the consumer to choose not to buy equipment that is expensive, and possibly inappropriate; 3) The efficiencies of inventory control, standardization, pre-mating etc. have greatly increased our crowd-handling capabilities; there’s a whole lot less hassle despite the increased numbers; 4) Marketing the total package concept is so much cleaner and easier; we find we’re able to sell it out of our season.”
“Yes,” I said under this torrent from my guide, “but what are the disadvantages. There must be a downside,” I insisted, settling for a fishing expedition.
“Sure,” he replied coolly, “but none that would make me go back. To help a little we have some choice of graphics, but essentially we have committed to de-tuning the old focus—obsession is more the word—on equipment and performance. We have freed the skier from a lot of duties and worries.”
Space compels us to bring this fantasy to an end here. Is it a fantasy? Well, for now, yes. Is it a peek into the future? Who knows? Maybe in some form. We hope, if nothing else, it persuades a few people to think about the images they project, many unintentionally. We hope it makes us think about the messages we send and whether we’re talking to the right people.
A SAM editorial
