Conference Findings

2010 Annual Conference Insights - Solving the Marketing Puzzle: Course Owners Go through the Process

More than 20 educational sessions designed to help course owners and operators better manage their facilities were presented during the NGCOA’s 2010 annual Conference. The following summarizes the session titled Solving the Marketing Puzzle: Course Owners Go through the Process.

Course owners Dutch Cragun (The Legacy at Cragun’s, Brainerd, Minn.) and John Gehman (Butter Valley Golf Port, Bally, Pa.) participated in a marketing exercise led by Jay Ehret, CEO of The Marketing Spot in Waco, Texas, to learn more about effective marketing.

Ehret, who specializes in marketing for small businesses, facilitated a number of conference calls during the past year to guide owners Cragun and Gehman through a multi-disciplined process designed to help them develop a marketing plan for their facilities. “All marketing is connected,” Ehret said, referencing four key marketing functions: promotion, branding, experience and conversation. “You can’t do one part without it affecting the others.”

Gehman said he found the process enlightening, even if it did take him out of his comfort zone. “I’m used to doing the work of a golf course owner, making sure the grass gets mowed and those kinds of things,” he said. “This was time-consuming, but valuable.”

One of the lessons he took away from the project, Gehman said, is the need to stay focused when trying to identify a facility’s unique brand promise. “You don’t want to eliminate any market segments, but once you commit to a specific focus, you have to work hard not to fall back into the trap of trying to be all things to all people,” he said. “In the end, you have to make a commitment. You have to say this is who I am.”

Cragun said an important lesson for him during the process was the difference between a slogan and a brand. “In our 70 years, we’ve had all kinds of slogans,” he said, “but we’ve never had a brand.”