It’s Not, “Ski It to Believe It”
By Rick Shoup
Mention a national demand-building program to veterans of the ski industry and “Ski It To Believe It” invariably comes to mind, with a shake of the head and a moan. There were a number of lessons to be learned from that experience.
The good news is, we’ve learned these lessons and are not making the same mistakes with the current Industry Marketing Initiative.
We entered the Ski It To Believe It program with the premise that targeting first-timers was the best way to grow our sport. That recommendation was generated by the esteemed McKinsey & Company and was never seriously challenged. McKinsey based the recommendation on sheer numbers of never-evers who fit the profile of prospective skiers and might be moved to trial. What it did not take into account is, that in virtually any product category, the most difficult and expensive marketing task is the conversion of a new user. And a $7 million national budget was well below the threshold needed to accomplish that task.
The problem of creating a new user is magnified in the case of snow sports. The level of intimidation and alienation experienced by an uninformed consumer when confronted with strange equipment, special clothing needs, cost, multiple lines and mountain driving are hard indeed for advertising alone to overcome. That is why friends and family are and will continue to be the avenue through which most newcomers enter the sport.
Also, the industry’s retention of first timers needs to be improved. I was encouraged with the discussion of efforts in that area at Ski Industry Week. Focusing efforts on providing a comfortable, convenient, fun and successful first experience must continue to be a priority for resort companies and manufacturers alike.
All of which led the Industry Marketing Initiative Committee to choose the lapsed and infrequent skier and snowboarder as our target. There are 22.5 million skiers and snowboarders in the U.S. who did not participate last year, but plan to go again. (Potential Market For Skier And Snowboarders; Leisure Trends Group, Sept. 1998.) They dropped out because of career or family, not because they have a negative impression of the sport. Indeed, most have fond memories of their experiences, which is why they plan to go again. We don’t need to teach them why they should participate in snow sports; we need only remind them and bring it to top-of-mind. That is a much simpler message to communicate.
The industry has also learned that it is best to hire experts for the job to be done, and to get out of their way. The Ski It To Believe It campaign was micro-managed by the industry throughout its development. In the case of the current marketing initiative, the committee of resort and manufacturer executives representing the industry has sought the best outside thinking regarding strategies for industry growth and has selected the firm that showed us the best capability to grow the business. Leagas Delaney of San Francisco was chosen for their keen strategic insight combined with a demonstration of emotionally powerful creative capabilities. Following that selection, the committee is being updated on the progress of the campaign development but is not directly involved in the planning and creative development process. We believe the result will be a more focused and impactful campaign.
In short, to say that the current industry marketing initiative will have the same result as Ski It To Believe It because both are national marketing campaigns is akin to saying that a steak at The Palm tastes like a McDonalds hamburger because both are lunch. We have a unique opportunity right now to insure the health of our sport for the next generation. Let’s not allow one bad experience, from which we’ve learned our lessons, to be an obstacle.
Ski Marketing Conundrum
by David Rowan
The circular conundrum endlessly whizzing around in this writer’s head since listening to the meaty discussions at Ski Industry Week (see page 56) goes something like this: Skier/boarder visits are flat and have been for a while, so we need to build the customer base by launching a $60 million promotion over three years that will increase visits by 11 percent or more→→→Research shows that the industry’s greatest problem is a very low retention rate (about 12 percent) among customers trying our snowsports→→→American Skiing Co. research also shows we do a poor job of serving our existing customers, inflicting bottlenecks and waiting lines and other annoyances→→→Dave Crowley of Wachusett Mt., Mass., says their greatest problem is turning away the crowds they can’t handle on weekends and holidays→→→The NSAA’s promotional programs (Snowblast and the lapsed skier initiative) succeed in pumping more skiers into the marketplace→→→Peak weekend crowds increase even more, perhaps reducing the retention rate still further→→→Industry leaders call for more promotional programs to combat the declining customer base.
Well, you get the idea. The conundrum was posed in a slightly different form by Andy Clurman, president of The Skiing Company and host of the event, and he didn’t get very clear responses.
And there are other conundrums with circular and often contradictory messages. For instance, while skiers cite the beauty of the scenery and escape from urban hassle as reasons for enjoying the sport, the resorts create urban environments (base area villages) as part of an unprecedented real estate boom, which co-exists with a flat or declining skier market which is being combatted with multi-million dollar market growth campaigns at the same time people are saying the only way to cope with strangulating skier traffic on corridors like I-70 is to do nothing in the hopes the hassles will discourage more building.
No one ever promised that life would be simple, but is it any wonder some of us are more than a little confused?
At the same time that we carefully and thoughtfully plan our industry marketing efforts (and if you haven’t already done so, please read Rick Shoup’s speak-out that precedes this), we should try to make them fit in with some emerging realities.
For instance, our industry and sport cannot grow in a vacuum. The Vail arson attack, no matter who its sick authors were, is a useful reminder that we may face determined opposition. This is not just a Canadian lynx issue. Space, mountains and openness are the issues. And traffic and clean air and water. Also, a ski area industry driven as never before by real estate sales.
We are seen as a principal carrier of a disease called industrial tourism. And we carry it to what some innocents like to think of as their inviolate mountains. We are not just the lift company. We are the people responsible for all the new base area villages and, further out, the golf courses and palatial second homes, many in gated communities. We are seen as responsible for the increased traffic. There is nothing particularly new in all of this. Indeed, this magazine and Snow Country organized a major conference on mountain resort development in 1991 at which these and related issues were laid out and discussed at length.
A report we ran by Michel Beaudry in 1990 on a conference at Whistler is also haunting. Summarizing, he asked, “Are lifts simply loss leaders for mountain real estate, and the resort towns fated to become mere alpine suburbs, their residents electronically linked to the major business centers of the world?” The future is surely here.
Obviously, these are issues of direct and immediate concern to only a small percentage of *SAM* readers, but indirectly they should be of concern to all of us in the field. If nothing else, there is an image problem to face as we prepare to commit to a major industry growth strategy.
It would be premature for *SAM* to comment on the Marketing Initiative being laid out this month for our industry’s consideration. It is interesting that it evolved from NSAA’s “Future of the Industry Summit” in Charleston, S.C., where we were all persuaded to concentrate on the youth market. The compelling demographics of the echo boom generation became our mantra. This approach to the 10 to 23-year-old market eventually became Snowblast and Sno-Core.
It was something of a surprise, then, that the ad hoc “think tank” substituted the lapsed skier as the target for the big marketing program. It will be interesting to hear and test the reasoning behind this decision. The industry appears to be unprejudiced and open-minded. Clearly, most want to make *some* sort of industry-wide effort. Whether it wants one that is so costly and demanding of such a large commitment, remains to be seen. We feel the decision to base the fund-raising just on areas with 100,000+ winter visits is a sound one. The biggest danger we see is that basic and essential local promotion might be compromised in meeting the contribution level requested.
We are also skeptical of the approach that an area’s contribution can be covered by modest lift ticket increases. We feel the suggestion is, at best, disingenuous, and more reflects ‘the real estate revenues pouring into some ski operations. But that is not an equal-opportunity spigot.
Finally, we pass on a thought expressed by one prominent member of our industry. “I’m not against the “Initiative,” as such,” he said, “but I wonder if it wouldn’t be more effective if the industry spent a much smaller sum developing the strategies and messages to reach the target audience(s) and then leave it to the individual areas to put them into play in their own target markets and at a cost level that makes sense to them and their own game plans.”
Wanted: Common Sense
Over the years we have not been preachy about matters of safety. We have not felt the need. But the recent events at a California resort compel us to speak out.
Hard on the heels of two very serious accidents involving ski area lift employees that should have hammered home a lesson or two, a highly experienced lift worker, under contract to the same area, fell from a tower. Please read about the former on page 56: there is a rich and brave story that goes with these accidents.
As for the most recent “event,” it is too early to pass judgment. But, for God’s sake, you who have to climb lift towers in the line of duty, there is nothing brave about doing it without following the simple and basic safety rules and clipping on. There is only stupidity. You know who you are. Just do it!
Sure, sure, it may be a pain and not cool to clip on while climbing. But that’s not the point. There are critical OSHA considerations that NSAA is painstakingly negotiating. Training and use of double clip harnesses may spare us the nightmare of caging towers. It is key that both management and lift employees get on board.
Besides, it could save you from a life in a wheelchair.
June Currier, 1917-1998
One of the delights of the ski area business lies in the decent people who make it work. Two of those are Bill and June Currier, who met over 50 years ago at Temple Mountain, N.H. “The best thing that ever happened to me,” Bill often said.
The inseparable couple, both skiers and mountain climbers, became well known and respected throughout New England as rope tow and surface lift experts. Their company was Currier Ski Lift Service. If Bill wasn’t available to splice one of their 200-plus rope tows, June was.
June, 81, died November 16. She will be missed.
