What Steve Jobs Can Teach The Bowling Industry

I just finished reading Steve Job's autobiography by Walter Isaacson. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. You can get it at www.Amazon.com for your Kindle reader, I Pad or even I Phone and probably for an Android device you may have.

Steve Jobs

While Jobs was mercurial, temperamental, a bully and totally lacking in social graces, he was also a brilliant "magician genius" who could charm the likes of Bill Gates to provide software for Apple, bully the likes of big music companies to help him create an Apple I Tunes store as well as to blow off Intel to develop his own A4 computer chip for the I Phone.

More importantly, his focus and intensity were unrelenting.  He had the unique ability to focus not only on the big picture vision of the product, but also to get involved in the shape and design of the staircase that he would put into the Apple store or the size, color, layout and diameter of a circuit board that NO consumer would ever see. To Jobs, even the circuit board had to look beautiful.

We in the bowling industry could learn a few things from Steve Jobs.  Of the many lessons, I learned from his book, here are, I believe the three most salient ones.

1. When he took the reins back from John Sculley, Apple's existing CEO at the time, Apple had hundreds of products in the works, far too many even for Apple to do a great job on.  Apple was basically lost, so Jobs first task was to pear down the product list to just four or five that his teams could work on.  The result was the I Pod, the I Phone and I Tunes followed by the I Pad. Makes you want to look at your products, doesn't it?  If you worked to make 2 open play programs not just better, but awesome and 2 league programs awesome, wouldn't you be more focused? Or your corporate parties or fund raisers?
2. Make the products the best they can be and make the users experience the best it can be. Focus on the products, not the profit. When Scully was in charge, Apple focused on the profits and the stock dropped to under $10. When Jobs was in charge, the stock went to over $400. Apple today is at $583 and the company is worth $546 Billion Dollars!!  That's what focusing on the product does for you and your company.
3. The challenge for good centers, profitable centers and those that are surviving and wish to be even more profitable as well as manufacturers and distributors is, and this is our strategic challenge:  How can we build a product or service that our customers don't know they want until they see it.  Now while I am a believer in market research, I think you need to start with a vision of  a model to test as opposed to just asking people what they want. After all if Henry Ford would have asked people what they want before he built the Model A, they probably would have said, "A Faster Horse."

Thank You for reading this. What do you think? What are your comments?

What Larry The Cable Guy can Teach Us About Marketing

Larry The Cable Guy, a comedian from, I believe, Louisiana, has a take on comedy that stems from his blue collar view of the world.  In his world, nothing is sacred. Wives, husbands, homes, dogs, kids and jobs; he goes after 'em all.  But his motto, at the end of almost every joke is "Git R Done." And that's probably the best marketing advice anyone can give us.

When I work with clients and lay out a marketing program along with to do action steps, assign responsibilities, timetables, write the copy, design the emails, update their website, provide them with Facebook posts, blog/newsletters, flier copy, telephone answering techniques, train the staff for inside sales and outside sales, I am sometimes surprised that during my follow up conversations I come to find out that they didn't implement.

When I ask why, I would get answers like:

• Something came up and we had to have all hands on deck to solve that problem
• We were too busy
• We had some people out sick and just couldn't get to it
• I went on vacation and my people didn't do it
• The dog ate the notes
• I couldn't open the attachments
• My marketing girl quit
• My kids came in from Chicago and we had to babysit the grandkids
• I had too much paperwork and had to empty vending machines
• And on and on

Bottom line: It didn't get done because Mr./Ms. Proprietor did not see it as a priority or if they did it became less important than flipping burgers because the snack bar girl didn't come in.  All too often it didn't get done because the proprietor did not have the discipline to get it done or didn't impart a sense of urgency upon his/her staff. 

And if  building your business is not your priority, then what else is?

At that point, I become the so called "nag" and bug the center to get it done.  Finally, when all is implemented and the program is a success, the proprietor finally "gets it" and like Larry The Cable Guy, he understands what it means to "Git R Done."

Ideas with out action are worthless. 

Action without a plan is mindless.  

But planning with action taken will crush it...and make you money.


So if you're not there for the money (and the fun) what are you doing in that box anyway?
Git R Done!

You Can't Take It Back

Yesterday, the local news reported that a woman who donated her kidney to her boss, and was subsequently fired by her 6 weeks after the organ transplant, wanted her kidney back.  No she can't have it back declared the judge. "You made the commitment to donate your organ based on your goodwill towards your boss and because you were let go, that is not a reason to get it back. Case dismissed."

In the same vein, there are some things in business that you can't get back either.

If you haven't trained that new desk employee how to be a problem solver and a marketing coordinator, you will end up with a "shoe sprayer".  No, you can't have that back.

If you haven't invested marketing dollars to promote your business, you can't have the lost sales back.

If you didn't plan your menu and cost of sales accordingly, no you can't have the dollars you left on the table back

If you have no outside sales effort that targets companies, schools, organizations, non profit groups and clubs then you can't have those lost sales back either.

If you're waiting for a new idea with years of proof positive experience that it works, then no you can't have the lost time you spent waiting come back.

If you rarely hold staff meetings and rarely inspect the service element of your business, then you can't have those customers, who left because of poor customer service, come back.

If your social media sites are not attended to daily, weekly and monthly, then you can't have those lost site visits, clicks and party reservations come back either.

If you are not constantly looking for new ways to improve traffic flow, lineage and revenue, then you can't have those lost games back either.

If you haven't invested in your facility, then you can't have those customers, who pass it by because it looks  shabby, come back for a wonderful experience.

If you don't get involved in your local community as a sponsor, a fund raiser or a member of a local group, then you can't expect these people to want to do business with you.

Bottom line; if you do nothing to get more business, don't expect your business to come back.

There's A New Sheriff In Town

Social networking site Pinterest is gaining popularity in the media and among brands. This "online pin board" allows participants to organize and share all the things they find on the web. This includes images of food, home, decor, clothing and furniture which users "pin" to their pages.  They could also pin images of bowling at your center.

Here is some data on Pinterest according to "Hitwise" a digital marketing research company.

* Visits tot his invitation only site increased in the second half of 2011 to 11 million viewers, an increase of 40% from just 6 months earlier.
* Visitors skewed female 958%) and between the ages of 25 to 44 (59%).
* The greatest share of visits come from the states of California and Texas and is strongest in the Southeast and Northwest.

What Pinterest gives the bowling operator, the FEC operator and any other company looking to speak to women is a greater share of the minds of women 25 to 44, predominantly young Moms or single women.

Pinterest is here to stay and will undoubtedly grow even stronger. You need to look at this new social media channel and see how it can work for you.

In an age of ever expanding social media networks, you cannot afford to not being aware, involved and noticed on these new sites, simply because your customers and potential customers are moving there.  If you don't your customers will begin to ask: Why isn't Happy Lanes Here? And that is not a place you want to be.

You may not think you have to be on all these social media sites, but the reality is you do; because your customers expect it.

Check these social media networks and see if you are involved *Facebook, *Twitter, *Linked In, *Google+,
*Pinterest.

 And especially, checkout the new Sheriff in town, and she is called http://pinterest.com/

Fred's Five Marketing Must Do's For Summer Revenue Increases

As Alice Cooper once said: "School's out for the summer, school's out forever!  And when school is out for the summer, the bowling business changes.

So here's a couple of  "Fred's Marketing Must Do's" to get your summer going in a good direction.

1.  Have you joined the Kids Bowl Free Movement?  Last year over 1.2 million Moms registered their kids for this program in almost 1,000 centers across the United States and Canada. And this year, even more centers are joining the program.  Don't miss this opportunity to generate traffic, additional paid games, increased shoe rental and food and beverage income as well as getting a database to which you can re-market all year.  Visit http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/ and call 866.798.4502 to register your center.

2. Don't automatically drop your price to 99 cents like so many centers do. Its OK to do this in certain time slots, but for other slots, stay at $1.99 or higher and offer a Free 2 liter bottle of Pepsi for anyone who gets a "blue pin" head pin strike.  About one out of 10 games will result in this, so your actual cost will be about .13 cents a game (thirteen cents).  Give out theatre style tickets to the people that win and WHEN THEY LEAVE the building they redeem the tickets.  Your employee will then tear the tickets in half and put one half of the ticket into a box.  At the end of the shift, your tickets in the box should match your beginning inventory MINUS the number of tickets in the box.  If not, go fire someone!  get Pepsi to make you a banner; hang empty Pepsi cartons from the ceiling; build a display on the sidewalls, email, Facebook and twitter this information to all open play customers. Mt of Pepsi is NOT valid for league games, or FREE games.

3.Don't become invisible.  Because, as an industry, we do so little media advertising in general, its easy for consumers to forget about us.  Don't be invisible.  Buy two weeks of adverting flights in May,June, July and August on cable TV and promote your cosmic bowl or Pizza Pins N Pop or Mt of Pepsi.  Buy Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 4pm to midnight. ask for freebies after midnight.  Budget $1,000 per month.  That should buy you almost 50 spots a flight.  DO NOT BUY ROTATOR SPOTS, regardless of what the media person tells you. Yes, rotator spots will be cheaper, but do you really want an commercial  at 7am to promote cosmic bowling.  Buy the spots from BPAA and do your own voice overs. 4 spots cost about $80 bucks Have the media people do the voice over.

4.E-Mail special offers for Cosmic bowling on a Thursday valid for Friday and Saturday only and only this Friday and Saturday! (Example:  bring 4 people to comic bowling and get a free pizza; bring 4 people to cosmic bowling and the 4th person is free. You get the idea.  Do this every other week or so and measure your results.

5.  Christmas in July.  Invite all the people you had company parties with this past Christmas season and offer them 50% off a summer party if they reserve a Holiday party in December...and get a deposit.

Try these "Fred's Five marketing Must Do's" for improving your summer revenue. You won't be disappointed.

And if you have any questions, please call me 516 359 4874. Like this blog?  Like it on Facebook. Go to kaploe marketing group on Facebook and hit "like" or comment.  Thank You very much.

Caine's Arcade

Please watch this short  film about a 9 year old boy who built a cardboard arcade in his father's used auto parts store in east LA.  It is amazing!! http://cainesarcade.com/  It will inspire anyone to take his entrepreneurial skills to the next level.

Thanks for watching.

Are You The Best Option Now?

When I first watched TV, I had a choice of three national networks. So all a program, on a specific network in a specific time slot, had to do was to be better than the other two networks.  Today, a program on a specific network  has to be better than at least a million other networks to be the winner.

Maybe when you or your Dad or even Grand Dad got into the bowling business, the choices for entertainment were pretty simple.  Bowling, TV, Movies, Ice Rinks, Seasonal Mini Golf courses and maybe a car cruise or two.

Fast food, restaurants, kids soccer and basketball leagues, video games, Blockbuster, Netflix,  personal computers, smart phones, tablets, health clubs, air travel vacations, shopping malls as entertainment, movies on demand on your HD TV, Kindle and Nook readers, On line shopping catalogs, the 24/7 work week, Ebay, Home Shopping Network, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs, Email and probably 5000 more competitive venues, attractions and distractions exist, all competing for the precious consumer's discretionary entertainment dollar,  and are now YOUR competition. They are serious-take-no- prisoners-competition!

The only way you win in this wired weird world is to be the best option AVAILABLE  for the person who is looking for entertainment value NOW. And I mean RIGHT NOW when they are searching on the internet for something to do  (Over 90% of Americans do that as a matter of habit. And that's a fact, Jack).

You don't have to be the cheapest or the most glitzy, you just have to be available and be the best choice for me NOW.

To prove you are the best available choice for me right now you must consider these options:

* Using testimonials every chance you can and have other people talk about you
* Developing a useful, relationship building blog  that speaks to your customers wants like (affordable entertainment that is close to home- and prove it)
* Having a stellar social media presence that is more social than it is is "sales."
* Being open, available and answer the phone professionally (sounds silly, but you would be amazed at the responses I get when calling some centers!!)

Yes, you have more competition than ever.

Now what are you going to do about it to differentiation your business and be the best available option now?

5 Ways to Be Really Different In Your Customer's Mind

Every marketing "guru" will tell you that the purpose of your marketing is either to: solve a customers problem, alleviate their pain, enhance their pleasure or create excitement in their life.


But you're marketing bowling and/or family entertainment centers and, lets face it, your product is pretty much of a commodity. A bowling lane and bowling ball have very specific dimensions, specifications, etc. This cannot be changed. What can be changed is the environment that your product is delivered and the perception of consistent quality service.


So you are left to "differentiating your center" thru the use of product offerings, programs and pricing.  Of course, all of your competitors, in a heartbeat, can change their programs to match yours or even undercut you and you will find yourself right back in the  same old "me too" marketing pie.


But here are a couple of things you can do to differentiate yourself that other centers can't readily do, especially if you  fight for and ask for an exclusive


1. Sponsor, and become identified with,a local charity that has great exposure in your community. Many communities have one or two big charities that get a lot of press and can get you face time with the people running it. This gives you an instant opportunity to conduct  a fund raiser in your center as well as meet people in important places (companies, government, retailers, etc)  who might be open for future company parties, and or "a league of their own;" all tied to the charity you are helping to sponsor.   Reach out and touch someone and it will come back to you.


2. Sponsor the local traffic or local weather reports in your community on one radio station and ask for an exclusive in that time slot. No other center will be able to take that radio time as long as you hold onto it.  You can ask for and will get an exclusive if the station wants your business and you are ready to commit to a longer term agreement than normal.


3. Brand your center with an exclusive tag line (I.e. "the home of the short season programs",  "the original birthday party place", "the professional company party place").  When you take this position, anyone else who says this will be viewed as a copy cat and people will then see them as, at best,, a number 2 choice...because you have established the position up front. 


4. Become really active in your local Chamber of Commerce and try to get a seat on the Board so you can help direct fund raising activities, social activities, etc. to your center as well as "proving" to your customers and prospects that you are in it to improve the business environment of your local community.


5. Attend all School Board meetings and find out if there is any opportunity for you to do fundraisers, establish open play programs or build leagues based upon the Board’s needs for funding (and they all need funding!).


Now I can't guarantee that all of these will work to set you apart and create a POD (point of difference) between you and your competitors.  But I can guarantee that if you do nothing, you will end up fighting to differentiate yourself on "price" only.


And that's a real business killer.

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The Five Biggest Marketing Myths and How To Avoid Them Like The Plague

After servicing clients from coast to coast, here are the top five marketing myths I have come across in my travels to over hundreds and hundreds of bowling centers.

So here they are:

Myth 1: Find & Fill a Need

While there has to be a need in order for people to buy into your product or program, the need alone doesn't guarantee a sale. One of the biggest factors in people choosing whom they will buy from is the genuine passion of the person they are speaking to. You have to truly believe in what you are selling. If you're not bought in, or worse if your staff isn’t ALL IN, they won't be bought in.

Myth 2: Teach Them about Me and My Business

Your marketing message is not about you or what you do. Your marketing message is about what your target audience is going through and what they desire to be or to have, and/or do. What you do, (provide entertainment, socialization, competition, do something different or just fun). is the tool to help them achieve what they desire.

Myth 3: Get in Front of as Many People as Possible. It's All About the Numbers

You can get in front of thousands of people, email all of them, send out a Facebook post to your friends and fans and not get a single new customer. It's not about how many people you talk to. It's about talking to the right people about the right thing. This is why it's so important to define your target audience + the challenge they are facing and the solution you offer. Understanding your niche will help you describe their world and what they are experiencing.  What a family wants from the bowling experience and what a 24 yr old male or female want are two entirely different sets of expectations. Do you know what they are?

Myth 4: They Need to See the Value

Yes, they need to see the value. But the emphasis should not be on THEY HAVE TO SEE but rather on WE HAVE TO DEMONSTRATE. It is our job to demonstrate the value of what we offer and justify the prices we are asking.

Myth 5: The Intention of My Marketing Message is to Get a New Bowler

Many times when I ask my clients what is your intention with this marketing message, they say to get new bowlers or to retain existing ones.  The trouble is, a marketing message is meant to be the first step in developing a relationship. The relationship will end in new business.

There are really two intentions you should focus on when writing your core marketing message.

The first is what you would like your target audience to get out of it?  Do you want them to feel understood and heard? Do you want them to know the possibilities of what might be?

The second is what would you like to get out of your marketing message?  Do you want them to see you as an entertainment option? Do you want them to think of you first when they decide they want a fun bowling experience to make a change? Do you want them to know that you are THE BEST choice?  

And how will you demonstrate that? Written or audio or visual testimonials!!

While these are only a few marketing myths out there, they are biggies. Don't fall into the trap of a flat, ineffective marketing message. Your marketing message is often the first impression people will receive about you and your bowling center.

And that’s a fact, Jack J

The Enchilada

Driving home Saturday night, one sees all kinds of cars and all kinds of drivers.  Most go faster than the posted speed limit while less few go slower, but hardly anyone does the actual speed limit.  Huh? Why not?

What is it about a sign that says “Speed Limit - 55mph” that we don’t understand?  And no, it is not regional or even local. It is prevalent in almost every place I have been and, I say appreciatively, I have been in all 50 states multiple times and 5 continents.

Is it our need to be ahead of someone else or to pass someone so we somehow feel a little better, maybe even different, but in a good way? (My daughter taught me a long time ago that “wanting to be different like everyone else” was the new normal).  "Hmm" I said. :)

The pragmatist would say, “They just want to get where they are going faster. Don’t read anything into it.” But that would be like running into a fierce wind; you just don’t get where you need to be. You stop yourself.

So after looking at these two positions, I would continue to want to find out the "why" of the situation and continue getting to know the unknowns more and more...

If you are not doing this, why not try it?

Dig deeper. Listen harder.  And ask better questions.  Your customers will notice and that’s a good thing.  “Customer service,  Shmustomer service”. If you take no action It’s just words.  

Showing your customers you care - that’s the enchilada.