From Gimmicks To Greatness

Author: Malcom Gladwell .
Book: "The Tipping Point"

Every now and then I get caught up in the technology of the times or sometimes the technology of the times catches me up          

For several hours, last night and early this AM, the technology caught up with me, slapped me around and said, "here on top of the other gazillion things you have to do, deal with the fact that when you type the letters in the words, they seem to move to a new line."

I hadn't been under the influence of any known social stimulants nor was I imbibing in alcoholic frivolity. I was as sober as a judge.  Well, maybe the Diet Pepsi got me a little wired, but...

It was hard enough explaining it to me, let alone to some dude in Mumbai who was trying his hardest to help me and I should say, eventually did, some three hours later.  It wasn't that we were speaking different languages or it was difficult to understand each other's dialects, it was just hard to understand what exactly, precisely and specifically each of us as individuals wanted at THAT moment!!

Kind of like what happens with some proprietors and their customers and/or prospects.

For many of us, we want what we want.

"No we don't want short season leagues and we don't want two game formats. And we don't want all these "gimmicks" (as I have heard them called) we have to do to get people into our center."

The customer says, "But I want all those things and more and I want it quick and I don't want to pay allot for it, AND I want it beautiful and modern and clean and I want your staff to treat me like a King or a Queen EVERY TIME I come there, no if ands or buts accepted."

I feel your pain, man.

But in the age of instant communications and people being able to remotely fix my computer at 2:30am from Mumbai India, well, it is far easier for your customer to get what he/she wants somewhere else than not get it at your center.

So if they want, what you may call, "gimmicks, think about this, please.

Its not a gimmick if it satisfies customers wants.
Its not a gimmick if it creates more value
Its not a gimmick if it creates new customers.
Its not a gimmick if it creates more frequent visits.

You know what this is called?

Its called "success." And success comes from being able to capitalize on opportunity.

You could look it up.

Does Your Greatest Strength Stop You?

When I was young, my Russian-Polish- Yiddish speaking Grandmother who escaped from the ovens during WWII used to talk about the war and what happened to her. She would scare the heck out of me with her stories, sometimes resulting in nightmares.

She would always finish her stories with one saying:  "Remember always, Fred, she would whisper, as you go through life, your greatest strength is your greatest weakness."

As the years went by,  these words took on new meanings.

What I realized she was saying was to be careful of being blinded by your weaknesses because you have your strengths. The same drives that could propel me to success were also weaknesses that could bring me down. In my younger days, my great belief in my abilities and strength of knowing what to do often times blinded me to accept other opinions, especially if they were different from mine.Thank goodness I figured that out early in my career!!

More than ever as I look at our business I realize how true her words were.

I visited a client recently who demonstrated this. This large center was very operationally and "numbers" oriented.  So much so that good marketing programs that THEY thought of were often killed because they couldn't make the program fit their operational model.  Thus,  their business went slowly south, but their operational controls were to be envied!!

Their greatest strength was their greatest weakness.

So today I am giving you a homework assignment.  You don't have to formally do it, of course; but maybe think about it as you drive, listen to music or are just sitting around.

What are your business' greatest strengths?  Are they also its greatest weaknesses?  And more importantly what will you do to make your strengths less of a weakness?

Let me know what you find out.  Thank you.

Stress Happens!

A British psychologist, Pamela Briggs, a member of the British Psychological Society has indicated that:
"Stress is often made worse by the anticipation of an unpleasant event and actually dissipated once you tackle the problem directly."

Which leads me to league bowling and the stress we have faced for over 34 years in watching ABC,WIBC and now USBC numbers continue to go down.

Where once (1977)  there were almost 10 million sanctioned league bowlers out of an adult population of 150 million adults (6.7% penetration), we now have just 1.95 million league bowlers (2011) out of 220 million adults (1% penetration) there is good reason to feel stressed and for the stress to get worse.

Yes, I know centers closed for real estate reasons and I know centers were merged into bigger chains and yes I also know that many centers lagged behind in modernization and didn't have a 'happy" product to sell. And many bowlers left because of these reasons.  Point being, they still left!


But nevertheless... 6.7% penetration to 1% penetration. YIKES!!

The real question is what are you going to do about it?

Quite obviously for the vast majority or proprietors what has been done in the past 34 years has not helped to stem the tide of the eroding league base.

Many new leagues and formats have been tried with various success rates. premium leagues, short season leagues, shorter season leagues, once a month leagues, every other week leagues and trio leagues to name just a few.

But here's what really happened.

1. Once we could sell an existing bowler on joining a new league.  He or she probably welcomed the idea of another night out, especially the "good bowlers", who bowled for money.  Back then league bowlers were in 1.7 leagues.  Today that number is 1.1 So because of the economy, more women in the work force, pressures of time and other competitive activities, existing bowlers left their second or third league.  Either they could not afford it, didn't have the time or developed other interests

2. Because we had fewer league bowlers coming into the center, we had fewer people to talk to about our programs, thus fewer new bowlers

3. Because open play bowlers were initially locked out of most weekend (early) nights, they gravitated toward weekends and late night weekday bowling which attracted  "a party crowd" who were not very interested in 36 week leagues with rules, obligations and commitments. so we had fewer bowlers to speak  to who had any interest in bowling in a long season.

4. We never really got out of the center. Oh, we made a few shots at it to sell; even hired a "promotional" person"  who tried to sell our "existing products" to a market that didn't want it.  When we eventually saw the light and started marketing shorter season leagues, we had some success...inside of the center and thus, we "didn't have to go outside." And we didn't.  At least not on any continuous and disciplined basis!

5. Other venues from golf to amusement parks to movies were busy marketing their stuff in many mediums. We pulled back, cut costs, became invisible and sent emails and Facebook messages to OUR EXISTING customers. The 250 million people who didn't bowl didn't even think about us. (70 million people went bowling at least once last year)

6.  We got rid of the house pro; you know the guy or gal that used to help people improve their game, give them tips and show them how to improve their game.  And then we slowed way down on our bowling instruction.  LTB was a great league bowler generator, but somehow after the NBC went out of business in the late 80's, that program was slowed to a trickle.  So if new bowlers were not going to learn how to get better, what's the fun in bowling and why would they return?  They didn't.  And 20%+ dropped out every year and we replaced 15% to 17%; thus a short fall of 3% to 5% annually

Left to its own devices, league bowling, of the sanctioned kind, will continue to atrophy.  But there  are ways to ameliorate this process and get it going in the right direction.

First, people need to try the product again. All these people that "ustabowl" haven't been in your place for years and they have no idea what's going on.  You need to incentivize people to come into the center over the summer, preferably in August, to try bowling for free and then offer them short season programs like 4 to 8 week sessions..  And let them bowl in small groups, They are NOT interested in big leagues. 16 to 24 people would be fine.

Second, you need to communicate your free party August program not just in emails and Facebook, but explore other mediums as well. Yeah its costly, but so is going out of business.

Third, you need to go door to door to retailers, banks, corner markets, manufacturers, clubs, restaurants and bars... from one end of your market to the other and invite them in to these parties as well.

Fourth, sell what people want. Find out how many weeks they want to bowl or how frequently.  The sooner you stop selling what you and your staff want and start selling what THEY want, the more success you will have.

Hope I haven't been to hard on you today...but its time for massive action and no one will do it for us. Not another industry integer, not a great sponsor and not even our rich uncle...if we had one.

So go out there and sell, sell, sell..

Better

Since we were able to understand what words meant, we have been told by parents, teachers, relatives and friends that "we can  do better," that "we can always do more."

All the way from grade school thru high school we heard the mantra: "always do your best."

We were taught that "more is better."

If we did better, we would "get more of IT".

And then Paul Simon wrote a song about "Kodachrome" and in it he said, "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, its a wonder I can think at all."

We were confused and began to question what we learned.

So was "more" really "better?"

Even the Beatles told us that "IT's getting better all the time" and in the background the voices said "Can't get no worse."

So we went out there to get "more" of "IT."

Which of course would "make IT better all the time."

Whatever the hell IT was.

And then Mies van der Rohe, the German American architect wowed us with his architectural design  and proclaimed that "Less is more."

Again we were confused. More? Less? Better? It?

What did all this mean?

Now I think that maybe better is just better.

Are we all doing better work now?

How do we know?

Because we made more money.

Really?

Bowling on Fox and Friends

Our Kids Bowl Free Team was on Fox and Friends news this morning as well as on line after the show.

One of our people, Darin Spindler fielded questions from Gretchen, Steve and Brian and then engaged them in a little tournament.  It was fun for all of us and we hope it was especially fun for the 4 million + households across the country that viewed it.

Here is the link and I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-friends/index.html#/v/1676049198001/after-the-show-show-bowling/?playlist_id=163195

While this opportunity didn't come easy, it no doubt resulted from all of the exposure we have been receiving from other mediums such as local TV, Radio, In flight magazines, Digital media initiatives, Direct mail and a host of other outlets.

Special thanks to Albert Blough and his amazing crew from Berks Lanes in PA for installing two perfect lanes in the middle of Manhattan in less than 4 hours.  Whew!.

Send this link to your customers, friends and family members... and lets get this to go "viral."

A Very Special Announcement

While we haven't been able to raise the money or the interest for a national bowling marketing campaign YET, our Kids Bowl Free team has been hard at work getting NATIONAL exposure for KBF and bowling.

So very early this morning, Bruce and I, Jeff, Darin and Andy as well as our great proprietor friend Al Blough from Pennsylvania, who helped supervise the project, will be working with our service team to install  two regulation bowling lanes in front of the FOX TV studio on 47th street and 7th avenue in New York City.  There will also be a full side wall and a masking unit to give it that real bowling center look!

And tomorrow morning, June 6th on Fox and Friends on the Fox news Channel - between 6am and 9am- Eastern Time, you will see Bowling and Kids Bowl Free on national TV. 

We're all pretty pumped up over this exciting event which will be viewed from coast to coast by millions of households and hope you get a chance to see it.

Save the date for Fox and Friends: tomorrow  (June 6th between 6am and 9am EDST).

Please tune into the show tomorrow...

P.S. If you haven't already joined the Kids Bowl Free movement, its not too late to get on board.
For more information about Kids Bowl Free, please call our KBF office at  239 389 9583

Everyman Reactions

Some reactions to my "Everyman" post below I thought you would be interested in reading.  Thank you for your comments. Always appreciated

Fred,
I have wondered for years why we don't have a national advertising program (generic) to promote our industry product. I have an annual advertising budget of about $20,000. for TV/radio and use it all up.
It would also be helpful if BPAA, USBC would do some advertising to also promote the sport/recreation to the "Everyman." 

We always see ads for PBA leading up to the show, usually on ESPN only but that is geared to the avid bowler. Do not get me wrong i am a fan of the Tour, but it would aleast be nice if they would end the show by expressing "Hey take someone to bowl with you." or "Go bowling." 

We also need this in front of the public for the "Everyman", as you stated, from BPAA and USBC. Any idea why this hasn't happened?

Mike 
Michael Widmar General Manager Heritage Lanes Bowling Center Oklahoma City, OK.   http://www.heritagelanesokc.com/                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             email:  email: heritagelanes@sbcglobal.net

Fred,                                                                                                                                    Great piece. I particularly resonated to your comment that local proprietors as a group seldom advertise/promote any more. 

I can remember a time when every city and most state BPA groups ran many ads, joint promotions, etc and generally made a lot of noise about bowling. We have to bring that back.
Your point that bowling generally is invisible is right on.Sandy HansellSandy Hansell and Associates, Inc.Email: sandyhansell@aol.com 

What do you think?. Please let me know. As always I thank you for reading this. :)

fred