Answer: They’re still slicing.
Market segmentation, or as Bob Hamilton, director of sales and marketing at Schweitzer, Id., calls it, “dissecting the frog,” is all the rage at ski areas this winter as ski marketers search for ever more creative ways to get a piece of the pie.
“So much of ski marketing in the past has been done anecdotally or because ‘That’s how we’ve always done it,’” said Wendy McInerny, marketing manager at Sunday River, Me. “As we bring in more experience from outside the ski industry, I think we’re becoming more sophisticated about how we do things.”
At Sunday River, they’ve even started dicing as well as slicing. “We carve out different markets and different segments of those markets and different time segments for those market segments,” McInerny said.
Early season is one good example of how Sunday River slices and dices the market. “We’ve always known that we could get people from fairly close by to come early,” she said. As a result, Sunday River aimed most of its early season marketing at nearby Portland, Me. But recent surveys revealed early-season skiers also tended to be college-age or young professionals, not just locals. Now, Sunday River also spends heavily in the Boston market before Thanksgiving, targeting alternative rock radio stations and TV’s “Seinfeld.” The message is “hot, fast, exciting, with upbeat music and same-day TV shots to get young skiers excited,” said McInerny.
After Thanksgiving, the Sunday River message switches to families, targeting women as the decision makers. The message changes and so does the medium, moving from alternative rock radio to contemporary, easy listening; from “Seinfeld” to the six o’clock news.
As at most ski areas, radio is the medium of choice to carry Sunday River’s message—mainly because radio does so much of the slicing for marketers. “I have 25 stations to choose from in Boston and 10 in Portland, each with a different listenership,” McInerny said. “Radio segments the market. All I have to do is put the right message on the right station.”
At Crested Butte, Colo., where many skiers are more than a radio signal away, the area relies heavily on direct mail to slice up its market. “We talk to someone in Colorado differently from someone in New York City,” said Marketing Manager Susan Gellert.
Besides just geographically segmenting the market, however, Crested Butte also slices up those geographic pieces demographically. For instance, Crested Butte goes after extreme skiers with a direct mail appeal, ads in vertical publications like Powder, and special events such as the U.S. Extreme Skiing Championships. But the area has a much different message and media strategy for families, going after them via direct mail and publications like Ski and Snow Country. Snowboarders, of course, get their own message in their own media.
“Almost everything we do is aimed at a very precise market,” Gellert said.
This year at Alpine Meadows, they are giving up marketing the off-the-trail experience in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach that appeals to the emotion of skiing. (Since Alpine Meadows does not allow snowboarding, it does not have to worry about trying to appeal to that market.) Robert Olmer, director of marketing, likens Alpine Meadows’ switch to Nike’s experience. First, the giant sneaker company tried a campaign that explained its technology to the public. When that flopped, Nike switched to the “Just Do It!” campaign, targeting an athlete’s emotion. Alpine Meadows hopes its “Life Has No Pause Button” campaign will strike the same emotional cord in all skiers.
Market segmentation at Squaw Valley, Calif., for instance, means targeting Britain and Australia, and to a lesser extent Japan, using primarily ski shows. Otherwise, marketing at Squaw Valley, said Leroy Hill, executive marketing manager, is primarily image: “People want an international resort that appeals to any level and type of skier with the infrastructure to support that reputation,” he said.
While image may work for an international destination resort like Squaw Valley, “generally positioning ads don’t fly for areas like ours,” said Hamilton at Schweitzer, Id. Because Schweitzer is a regional area, Hamilton said he markets to anyone and everyone—in that region. It’s come one, come all, with a different message (and a different price) for each.
“We identify each specific group in our regional area with a specific price,” Hamilton said. “We always include price in all of our promotions, but we don’t compete purely on price. We offer the attraction of our size and our ski experience, plus price. We never do just image ads. Consumers want the nuts and bolts.”
Shanty Creek, Mich., another strongly regional area, has come up with one of the more novel approaches to market segmentation — Gandy the purple goose. Besides the club market, Shanty Creek has singled out the family market. Unlike Sunday River, which goes after the family market through mothers, Shanty Creek gets them via the kids using its new purple mascot, Gandy. Gandy greets the children when they arrive, gives them “Gandy bills” they can spend at the area and a Gandy drink cup. Gandy even sends the kids birthday cards after they get home. Shanty Creek takes Gandy on the road to ski shows and other promotions.
“We’re trying to get to mom and dad through the kids,” said Barry Godwin, director of marketing. “If the kids want to come here, we think that will help parents make up their minds to come here.”
Amidst all this rush to slice and dice ever finer markets, Scott van Pelt, marketing development manager at S-K-I, Ltd. sounds a cautionary note. “A lot of people ask me who our market is, and I think they expect a neat, tight, precise answer to that question. But it really doesn’t work that way anymore.
“Skiing has become a composite of a multitude of markets, many of them with somewhat different needs and expectations. To be successful you really have to pay attention to all of them.”
