It’s an early Friday morning...and I find myself taking a train to visit a client in New England. The Acela train whisks me thru the Northeast corridor at 150mph amidst a blanket of white; our first real snowstorm, some 12 inches of the white stuff having fallen so far.
As I sit and gaze out the window, I am also watching my fellow passengers, many older dudes sitting and staring at the pure whiteness of the moment, listening to their Ipods and strumming their air guitars. It is absolutely great to see. Guys buttoned up to the top, their wingtips shining, blue suits glistening and their stainless steel bracelet watches with the black face shining, digging some music and “chillin”. What are they listening to? Maybe its from Lady Gaga or the Black Eyed Peas or the Beach Boys or Bruce Springsteen or ZZTop. Maybe even a little Mozart or John Coltrane. Or Taylor Swift. Who really knows?
Not only are they listening to their music, many are working on their laptops, as am I, talking on the phone and playing solitaire. What a great time we live in! What great communication options we have. We just have to learn how to use the NEW tools or we will get left out in the wood shed with a Remington electric typewriter and no carbon paper!
So with that in mind, I want to pass along a communications tip to help you reach your target audiences with your message VERY efficiently. It’s a Facebook tip. Do you know how to place a facebook ad for your center? If you don’t, please read on. Well, first you need a facebook page for your center. Ok, go to Google, plug in facebook and set up your page. Got it? Cool.
Once you get that done, go back to Google and plug in facebook.com/ads. It will take you to a page where you can absolutely target any demographic group you want in any city you want. Plug in the key words “bowling”, your city or suburb or multiple cities. You can even experiment and plug in league bowling (if that’s your message) or cosmic bowling, if that’s your message. Or whatever message you want. The broader you make the key words, the more eyeballs will see the message. The narrower the target, the fewer eyeballs.
At the bottom of the page you can select married, male female, none of the above or single. Experiment with your target, because after you complete that task, Google will tell you how many facebook people in your city, within your target demographic will see this advertisement. All for $50 a day plus a pay per click (.25 to .75 cents). If it sounds expensive, think again. You are getting a measurable, definable audience that is highly targeted for your message. And you don’t have to do it for a long time. Maybe 5 to 7 days. Maybe 10 days. The beauty of this stuff is that you can test it and change it up…and get results in a heart beat. Once the respondent sees your ad, he or she will click on it and be automatically directed to your “landing page.” Drop me an email or text me @ 516 359 4874 if you need some assistance with setting this page up.
Go for it…and rock on!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Profitability
Some business owners lead their team in the wrong direction. Other leaders lead their team in any direction. Both of these types of leaders are wrong.
Similarly, some proprietors believe that the only way to greater profitability is to turn the microscope on every single cost. They're so busy picking up dimes, that they step over dollars at every turn. Then there are those proprietors that focus only on getting new business; whether it be from the center down the street or from a consistent .99 cent bowling price.
What is the right way? Is there a right way?
Logic would say that you need a combination of both controlling expenses AND
increasing sales.
My logic says that if you consistently do the unexpected, become an amazing remarkable seller of bowling, you'll figure out the costs.
And the profitability will follow.
Similarly, some proprietors believe that the only way to greater profitability is to turn the microscope on every single cost. They're so busy picking up dimes, that they step over dollars at every turn. Then there are those proprietors that focus only on getting new business; whether it be from the center down the street or from a consistent .99 cent bowling price.
What is the right way? Is there a right way?
Logic would say that you need a combination of both controlling expenses AND
increasing sales.
My logic says that if you consistently do the unexpected, become an amazing remarkable seller of bowling, you'll figure out the costs.
And the profitability will follow.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Defining Ourselves
Every now and then I like to go back and look at old advertising posters. Its what i do when I can't/won't sleep and what I find makes me happy. It's a way of getting my head into simpler times and a way to unclutter my thought process. I look at these old ads to see how advertising agencies and marketing people reinterpreted the motivations for certain products or, in the case of bowling, which advertisers associated bowling with their products.
Not surprising it was the beer, booze and cigarette guys that helped to define bowling's image in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Every now and then Coke, Pepsi or Seven Up jumped in and associated their product with bowling which gave us a more family style image. But it was too little and sometimes too late.
And we are still fighting that image today, although much less so. Yet, we are STILL letting the beer, beverage and chicken people define us. For the 240 million people who do not bowl, but may buy beer, frozen pizza and frozen chicken products, this is WHO we are. We are beer, frozen pizza and chicken wings. Its OK, but it isn't what I would call "cool" or a motivationally inspiring reason to go bowling.
Somehow we need to begin associating ourselves with cooler products. Products that say we are modern, cool, hip and something "desirable."
Why not Apple I Pods or I Phones or Levi Jeans or Nike sneakers? Who wears more jeans than bowlers?!?
It isn't that hard to do. We need to march up and down Madison Avenue and tell these agencies about our demographics; show them how much product bowlers buy and why a bowling motif for their product makes sense on cable TV, network TV, in print, on radio and of course, of course, on line!
At a recently attended seminar, I heard my favorite ex-Coach of the NY Knicks say, "Don't let anybody tell you who you are." He was talking about being in control, of being the master of our own destinies. So why are we still asking people to control us?
Isn't it time WE told people who we are.
Not surprising it was the beer, booze and cigarette guys that helped to define bowling's image in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Every now and then Coke, Pepsi or Seven Up jumped in and associated their product with bowling which gave us a more family style image. But it was too little and sometimes too late.
And we are still fighting that image today, although much less so. Yet, we are STILL letting the beer, beverage and chicken people define us. For the 240 million people who do not bowl, but may buy beer, frozen pizza and frozen chicken products, this is WHO we are. We are beer, frozen pizza and chicken wings. Its OK, but it isn't what I would call "cool" or a motivationally inspiring reason to go bowling.
Somehow we need to begin associating ourselves with cooler products. Products that say we are modern, cool, hip and something "desirable."
Why not Apple I Pods or I Phones or Levi Jeans or Nike sneakers? Who wears more jeans than bowlers?!?
It isn't that hard to do. We need to march up and down Madison Avenue and tell these agencies about our demographics; show them how much product bowlers buy and why a bowling motif for their product makes sense on cable TV, network TV, in print, on radio and of course, of course, on line!
At a recently attended seminar, I heard my favorite ex-Coach of the NY Knicks say, "Don't let anybody tell you who you are." He was talking about being in control, of being the master of our own destinies. So why are we still asking people to control us?
Isn't it time WE told people who we are.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
A Bowling Holiday
35% of all people go to dinner on Valentines Day. What a home run for the restaurant industry, the flower industry and the chocolate industry. Oh did I forget the greeting card industry!
Now if we can just go about finding a holiday for the bowling industry. I nominate the NFL Super Bowl as the bowling industry's holiday. We could celebrate it by placing a commercial inside the game itself. And it would be worth it. Some 108 million people saw the Super Bowl this year. At a cost of $3 million per spot, that's just $3 per thousand set of eyeballs. Cheap by today's standards!
After all, we would only need one "fantasmagoric" 30 second spot and we would have a PR buzz for a week before and after that. Maybe a month.
People would talk about it. Advertising agencies and media people would look at us and discuss our strategy at their cocktail parties.
Tennis and golf people would be apoplectic. How could bowling do that?
Easy. We thought about it first.
Now if we can just go about finding a holiday for the bowling industry. I nominate the NFL Super Bowl as the bowling industry's holiday. We could celebrate it by placing a commercial inside the game itself. And it would be worth it. Some 108 million people saw the Super Bowl this year. At a cost of $3 million per spot, that's just $3 per thousand set of eyeballs. Cheap by today's standards!
After all, we would only need one "fantasmagoric" 30 second spot and we would have a PR buzz for a week before and after that. Maybe a month.
People would talk about it. Advertising agencies and media people would look at us and discuss our strategy at their cocktail parties.
Tennis and golf people would be apoplectic. How could bowling do that?
Easy. We thought about it first.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Recessions and Tuxedos
Yesterday, I gave a seminar to some 40 or 50 bowling proprietors in Seattle WA. on "Marketing In and After a Recession." While there are many similarities in the strategies that should be utilized in both of these scenarios, two specific strategies are noteworthy.
The first strategy is to go after your existing customers. Sure, its more fun to go get new customers, but in times of economic strife, customers will gravitate towards and buy from people they trust. And if your customers trust you to provide a consistently good entertainment experience, then they are more likely to frequent your bowling center then to go experiment at some other center in town.
The second strategy is to make a concerted effort to find those existing customers that fall into the "high potential for purchase" segment. What does this really mean? It means that these high potential customers are people with more discretionary income, people who have been far less affected by the recession than the rest of us and people who will not be as concerned about spending their discretionary income on "a good time" or a "good cause"
Now if your data base lets you sort these kinds of people (zip codes will help to define those areas where these high net worth people live),then you have an opportunity to attract them with a great offer. If your data base does not allow you to do this, then work with those companies and executives that have had company parties in your center. if that fails, go to the charity and ask them to help you to communicate with their bigger donors.
Then, send these folks an engraved invitation offering them the opportunity to bowl for a noteworthy, high profile charity. Choose one that has some local community appeal, a noted local spokesman and one that is willing to work with you. These folks may not come bowling very frequently, but they will come if it is for a good cause and it is where "they can see and be seen."
Then when the event happens, be remarkable. Get your people dressed in tuxedos, serve upscale food, and let them know that while bowling spans all age groups, demographics and social strata, this night is especially for them!
OK, so bag the tuxedos if you don't like it.
Just remember to create a memorable experience...an experience where you can demonstrate trust, concern, community involvement and a high degree of professionalism.
And you can do that by doing the unexpected.
Here are 9 ways to do that:
1. Valet park their cars.
2. Have special bowling shirts made with the charity's name on it.
3. Offer lane service and serve your food on silver trays.
Use great glass ware. You can rent this stuff. Really
4. Hire a bathroom attendant.
5. Train a personal escort to take them down to the lanes
to assist them in getting their shoes and house balls
and enter their names in the scorers.
6. Provide them with free socks for their rental shoes.
7. Hire some entertainment; a DJ, Karaoke, Magician, etc.
8. Get a quality hand held microphone.
9. Be the MC or find someone who knows HOW to be an MC.
I still like the tuxedos.
The first strategy is to go after your existing customers. Sure, its more fun to go get new customers, but in times of economic strife, customers will gravitate towards and buy from people they trust. And if your customers trust you to provide a consistently good entertainment experience, then they are more likely to frequent your bowling center then to go experiment at some other center in town.
The second strategy is to make a concerted effort to find those existing customers that fall into the "high potential for purchase" segment. What does this really mean? It means that these high potential customers are people with more discretionary income, people who have been far less affected by the recession than the rest of us and people who will not be as concerned about spending their discretionary income on "a good time" or a "good cause"
Now if your data base lets you sort these kinds of people (zip codes will help to define those areas where these high net worth people live),then you have an opportunity to attract them with a great offer. If your data base does not allow you to do this, then work with those companies and executives that have had company parties in your center. if that fails, go to the charity and ask them to help you to communicate with their bigger donors.
Then, send these folks an engraved invitation offering them the opportunity to bowl for a noteworthy, high profile charity. Choose one that has some local community appeal, a noted local spokesman and one that is willing to work with you. These folks may not come bowling very frequently, but they will come if it is for a good cause and it is where "they can see and be seen."
Then when the event happens, be remarkable. Get your people dressed in tuxedos, serve upscale food, and let them know that while bowling spans all age groups, demographics and social strata, this night is especially for them!
OK, so bag the tuxedos if you don't like it.
Just remember to create a memorable experience...an experience where you can demonstrate trust, concern, community involvement and a high degree of professionalism.
And you can do that by doing the unexpected.
Here are 9 ways to do that:
1. Valet park their cars.
2. Have special bowling shirts made with the charity's name on it.
3. Offer lane service and serve your food on silver trays.
Use great glass ware. You can rent this stuff. Really
4. Hire a bathroom attendant.
5. Train a personal escort to take them down to the lanes
to assist them in getting their shoes and house balls
and enter their names in the scorers.
6. Provide them with free socks for their rental shoes.
7. Hire some entertainment; a DJ, Karaoke, Magician, etc.
8. Get a quality hand held microphone.
9. Be the MC or find someone who knows HOW to be an MC.
I still like the tuxedos.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Valentines Day
There is no end to marketing creativity. No end to glamorizing the ordinary. No end to what will motivate people to buy your product. But is there an end to good taste?
A Toronto Restaurateur is taking Valentines Day to a new level by encouraging patrons to get "frisky" in their bathrooms. Is this the end (or just the beginning) of "the new" creativity?
This article from the Huffington Post says it all.
Visitors to Mildred's Temple Kitchen, a restaurant in Toronto, Canada, are invited to spice up their love life this Valentine's Day with a trip to the bathroom.
"Have you given any thought to moving beyond the bedroom?" patrons were asked in a not-too-subtle promotional e-mail.
The individual bathrooms will be open for sexual escapades from the 12th-15th of February. According to the manager, Rory Gallagher, a french maid will be working the toilets, making sure everything is "going smoothly and kept clean."
"We've always had little trysts in our bathrooms," co-owner Donna Dooher told The Toronto Star. "We're taking it to the next level on Valentine's weekend." She added that customers are expected to bring their own condoms.
Perhaps surprisingly, Toronto's Public Health food safety program manager said the restaurant wasn't breaking any laws as long as there's no intercourse in the kitchen and the bathrooms are kept clean.
"As far as bodily fluids, it's pretty much similar to the other human functions going on in there," said Chan, slightly undercutting the erotic value of the venture.
While I am all for product differentiation as a marketing strategy; somehow, for me, this spills over the line.
What do you think of this strategy?
A Toronto Restaurateur is taking Valentines Day to a new level by encouraging patrons to get "frisky" in their bathrooms. Is this the end (or just the beginning) of "the new" creativity?
This article from the Huffington Post says it all.
Visitors to Mildred's Temple Kitchen, a restaurant in Toronto, Canada, are invited to spice up their love life this Valentine's Day with a trip to the bathroom.
"Have you given any thought to moving beyond the bedroom?" patrons were asked in a not-too-subtle promotional e-mail.
The individual bathrooms will be open for sexual escapades from the 12th-15th of February. According to the manager, Rory Gallagher, a french maid will be working the toilets, making sure everything is "going smoothly and kept clean."
"We've always had little trysts in our bathrooms," co-owner Donna Dooher told The Toronto Star. "We're taking it to the next level on Valentine's weekend." She added that customers are expected to bring their own condoms.
Perhaps surprisingly, Toronto's Public Health food safety program manager said the restaurant wasn't breaking any laws as long as there's no intercourse in the kitchen and the bathrooms are kept clean.
"As far as bodily fluids, it's pretty much similar to the other human functions going on in there," said Chan, slightly undercutting the erotic value of the venture.
While I am all for product differentiation as a marketing strategy; somehow, for me, this spills over the line.
What do you think of this strategy?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Ordinary to Glamorous
I had an opportunity, today, to speak before a group of New Jersey bowling proprietors; a savvy group of proprietors that are withstanding the economic woes of the Northeast corridor. With NYC unemployment approaching 11% and parts of New Jersey facing similar woes, these proprietors are finding ways, as a group, to meet these challenges head on.
In fact their Associations won the BPAA award for Best Promotions by a local proprietor group. One promotion was for a company party program that the Associations rallied behind in early October to generate leads for Holiday parties. The other promotion was a summer program that drove traffic into the centers in non peak times.
In both instances the key to success was the ability to take the ordinary and make it glamorous I spoke about this today at the seminar.
If you look at some of the successes in our industry, over the years, think about the ordinary items that have been glamorized. here are just a few:
1. Moonlight bowl became cosmic bowl
2. Bowling balls became Vis A Balls
3. Rent a lane became hours of fun bowling
4. Pizza and bowling became Pizza Pins N Pop (Pepsi or Coke)
5. Company parties became team building events
6. Bowling alleys became Lucky Strikes, Dave and Busters, BowlMors and a host of
other upscale venues
7. Settee areas became soft luxurious sofas
8. Bars became themed venues
9. Birthday parties became themed parties and party rooms
10. Silence in bowling centers became super sound systems with choices of music.(see
Bowlingmusic.com )
11. Carpeted sidewalls became graphic panels
12 Masking units became movie screens
13. Snack bars became food delights
14. Mass marketing became niche marketing
15. Knowing our customers became data base marketing and mining
16. Video games became redemption centers
Like the Jersey proprietors, many of us have taken the ordinary and made it glamorous. The corporate party program they did in October became a little more glamorous because of the communication that was professionally done and delivered to the recipient; how it was followed up and what party offerings were constructed. Some proprietors even offered magicians, karaoke, face painters, limo rides; all options available for potential company parties.
As always, the question is what can you do NOW, in your center to make an ordinary promotion glamorous; to give it a perspective from which your customers can only say "Wow?"
Because at the end of the day, to be truly successful at marketing, you have to know how to get positive results under negative circumstances (i,e, a hold n save economy vs. a get n spend economy. Which one do you think we are in now?
Exactly my point.
p.s. Stacy Karten and Fred Kaplowitz are the E.D.'s for the two New Jersey Proprietor Associations.
In fact their Associations won the BPAA award for Best Promotions by a local proprietor group. One promotion was for a company party program that the Associations rallied behind in early October to generate leads for Holiday parties. The other promotion was a summer program that drove traffic into the centers in non peak times.
In both instances the key to success was the ability to take the ordinary and make it glamorous I spoke about this today at the seminar.
If you look at some of the successes in our industry, over the years, think about the ordinary items that have been glamorized. here are just a few:
1. Moonlight bowl became cosmic bowl
2. Bowling balls became Vis A Balls
3. Rent a lane became hours of fun bowling
4. Pizza and bowling became Pizza Pins N Pop (Pepsi or Coke)
5. Company parties became team building events
6. Bowling alleys became Lucky Strikes, Dave and Busters, BowlMors and a host of
other upscale venues
7. Settee areas became soft luxurious sofas
8. Bars became themed venues
9. Birthday parties became themed parties and party rooms
10. Silence in bowling centers became super sound systems with choices of music.(see
Bowlingmusic.com )
11. Carpeted sidewalls became graphic panels
12 Masking units became movie screens
13. Snack bars became food delights
14. Mass marketing became niche marketing
15. Knowing our customers became data base marketing and mining
16. Video games became redemption centers
Like the Jersey proprietors, many of us have taken the ordinary and made it glamorous. The corporate party program they did in October became a little more glamorous because of the communication that was professionally done and delivered to the recipient; how it was followed up and what party offerings were constructed. Some proprietors even offered magicians, karaoke, face painters, limo rides; all options available for potential company parties.
As always, the question is what can you do NOW, in your center to make an ordinary promotion glamorous; to give it a perspective from which your customers can only say "Wow?"
Because at the end of the day, to be truly successful at marketing, you have to know how to get positive results under negative circumstances (i,e, a hold n save economy vs. a get n spend economy. Which one do you think we are in now?
Exactly my point.
p.s. Stacy Karten and Fred Kaplowitz are the E.D.'s for the two New Jersey Proprietor Associations.
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