Last week, at the Eastern
States Bowling Convention, I had the privilege of facilitating a session at
lunch, entitled “The Next New Thing” in which all luncheon guests were asked to
participate in determining what new venues they could put into a 24 lane box.
While there were many ideas,
the various groups that were tasked with developing this “24 lane space” chose
traditional and expected venues such as laser tag, arcades, tap room, expanded
restaurant, sports type bar and other similar items.
Very few proprietors went
outside the box to come up with newer ideas even though we “seeded the list”
with such items as: laser tag, laser maze, short lanes for kids, arcade, full
service restaurant, sports bar, balladium, go kart track,
miniature golf, batting cages, golf machines, hair cutting franchise (sports
clips), Laundromat, day care center, build a bear franchise and a tap room
selling craft beers.
So does this mean that we as
entrepreneurs have become more conservative?
Yes I think it does and I
think it contributes more to our invisibility and being less bold. And being
less bold means we don't stand out and therefore we are lost
in the mediocrity of all the other vanilla entertainment options.
How else can we explain that,
according to Bruce Davis who also conducted a seminar at the ECC, “… 5 years ago, 50% of our customers visited
our centers 1 to 3 times? Today, 75% of our customers visit us 1 to 3
times".
All that means is fewer people are NOW coming back less often.
Have we become routine,
banal, unsurprising, mundane and alas less visible. And adding to our “old
fashioned image,” we have almost universally rationalized our way to NOT
advertise in any media, except digital and maybe, maybe direct mail.
Because if it costs money and
we can’t scrutinize it for IMMEDIATE results, we just won't do it.
And I almost understand that mindset.
But then I ask, “why is AMF
Bowlmor going to spend $34 million dollars next year on advertising and
promotion. Thats about $9,000 per center next year.
What do you spend?
Maybe they know something you
don’t. Or maybe they choose to be bolder than the average bear?
