"Everyman"

“Everyman” can bowl, but "Everyman" no longer does.

Fortunately, some men and women still bowl. Approximately 1% of the 200 million adults are in sanctioned leagues and another 70+ million people open play bowl about 2.5 times a year…at least that’s what the surveys say.

But, if you speak to proprietors around the country, as I do, you’ll find that there has been a significant fall off in open play in the last 90 days.

How come? Some will say its gas prices.  Others will say it’s the sunny weekend weather.  Others will blame the “general” economy.”

But if you speak to people who haven’t bowled recently, they will simply tell you, “Gee, I didn’t even think about bowling as an option. Movies, dinner, visiting friends, that's about it."

And that’s the problem; "Everyman" doesn’t hear about us, see us or think about us.

Sure we communicate to our data base, to OUR customers and send them great offers and great promotions.  We even may call  them or send postcards to them. And that’s as far as we go.

But what about “Everyman?”  To him, we are, at best, a faint distant whisper in his head.  We don’t get on radio or cable and hardly anyone believes in placing newspaper anymore.

Yet in my work with car dealers, I notice how dependent they are on local cable even though their manufacturers also advertise. Yes, they use their data base and send out emails and have Facebook pages.  But time and time again, when they mount a campaign and use their resources across all different forms of media, not just digital media, they get their best results. 

And when as a group of local dealers get together, they go right to TV as their #1 medium of choice…and they’re selling $25,000+ products, financing, terms and a million variations to closing ONE sale. We’re selling a relatively easy product…one game of bowling and those cool shoe rentals.

Are we that much different from them?  Aren’t they selling to “Everyman” as well?  Aren’t movies, amusement parks, theme parks, restaurants, sports teams, mini golf courses, FEC’s, party places and clubs also selling to “Everyman?”  You see them on cable TV, right?  But hardly do you ever see bowling!!”

So I ask the question, “Why are we, apparently, the only entertainment option not using ‘the new TV’ and the multi faceted radio?”

Why are proprietors, in too many markets, no longer getting together to promote their business? 

When will "Everyman" hear about "GO BOWLING" again?