MARKETING: How to measure success.
By Sherrie Burns
Golf Range Times, Nov/Dec 2002
There is an unspoken universal language used to identify products, services and ideas-the Nike swoosh, the golden arches, the red cross, the Marlboro Man. In the global marketplace many products and services are represented by a symbol that transcends language and cultural barriers. Marketing doesn't have a recognizable symbol, but according to some range owner, if it did, it would likely be question marks and dollar signs.
For decades, the four P's- product, price, place, and promotion-have served as the frame-work for effective marketing management, says Michelle Poskaitis, CEO of Originations Marketing in Falls Church, Va., and author of Smart Marketing for Associations; Marketing Plans That Work. "Still, many confuse 'marketing'with specific promotional tactics, such as advertising, direct mail, telemarketing or public relations. Promotions is only one aspect of marketing." It's the blending of the four varibles that forms the basis of an organization's marketing initiatives.
Successful promotions, however, are a good indicator that the business's overall marketing efforts are working together to capture and maintain market share.
"The key is to constantly test marketing strategies and tactics, succeed and fail, learn from the experience and adjust going forward," says Pokaitis. "Promotions should be the end result of research, analysis and decision making regarding your internal and external environments. audiences, products/services and positioning."
To accurately measure return on investment, a range owner first needs to determine how much of the marketing budget to allocate to promotions. Jay Conrad Levinsion. Author of the best-selling Guerilla Marketing series, suggests laying out on a budget, expressed as a percentage of projected gross revenues, in the company's marketing plan. "Without projections, you won't have a measuring stick," he says.
Owners of ranges located in competitive markets may find they need to allocate 75 percent of their marketing budget to advertising and special events. Others may need to spend less.
"How much you spend on marketing depends on a number of variables including marketplace, competition, your offering and capacity to deliver, financial health and the nature of your business," Poskaitis says. "Just because a golf range in Iowa spends 10 percent of their budget on direct mail and successfully draw customers doesn't mean the same budget percentage or tactic will work in California.
"You've got to spend money to make money," she says. "But it's important not to waste money. That's where background research and analysis is so very useful." The first place to start is with customers.
Getting To Know You
"Marketing begins with knowing customers and knowing why they visit the range," says Steve Hines. As president of Marketing Resource Management in Northern Virginia, Hines works with a variety of corporate and nonprofit organizations around the world. One of his specialties is golf tournament management, promoting charity events and corporate outings for nonprofit associations and large businesses such as Microsoft, Xerox and American Express. One of his hobbies is playing golf and he can often be found on Friday nights practicing at a local driving range with his wife, also a golfer. "We go to four or five ranges that are close by, but there is nothing that makes us pick any one over another, "he says. "No driving range I visit ever asks me as a customer for my name, address or e-mail address. They do nothing to try to build me into their relationship. They've never asked me for anything but my money."
Hines believes developing a client database may be the most overlooked marketing tool.
"Part of defining your marketing success is identifying your customer base," he says. "Every day when you open the doors of the driving range you can do it in one of two ways. The first is potluck - hoping enough
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people show up so you can make the payroll and the mortgage. The second is knowing what you need to make that day and determining how to stimulate that much business and more. That's where developing a relationship with prospects comes in. The nice thing about a driving range is that people walk in and you have the opportunity to get information from them to make the customers."
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Obtaining customer information is relatively simple, although Hines acknowledges that range owners may be met with some resistance. "I believe 99 percent of golfers are gregarious. We like to talk and don't mind sharing information." However, he says some may prefer a more passive approach such as having a prize drawing for customers who throw their business cards into a pot. "You've given them an option opportunity to be marketed to and they're giving you information that can be used for mailings or e-mails, " Hines says.
Poskaitis agrees. "You need to understand-in a good bit of detail-who your best customers are, what they really care about, why they chose your golf range ver another, how they prefer to be related to of communicated with, and adjust your business to serve their wants and needs," she says. "The best way to spend wisely is to understand your current customer profile first, then identify prospects with a similar profile, understand how the prefer to receive information about your business and deliver you communications accordingly."
Putting Theory Into Practice
Michael Romano's marketing plan for his facility was organized and written well before he opened The Practice Tee in Tucson, Ariz., seven years ago. In fact, the range's location, between a Home Depot and a Costco, was part of the strategy. Even armed with a through plan, Romano admits measuring the success of his marketing efforts has been largely trail and error. "I've done a lot of research and read marketing books and we've tried and experimented with different things," he says. "I don't have a scientific of mathematical method of keeping track of things that work, but I do pay very close attention to customers and their responses. I believe that the first principle of marketing is to take great care of the customer and we center on that here," He estimates that 70 percent of his marketing energy is spent on creating a great facility with friendly employees who believe in the importance of keeping the customer happy.
One event the generates tremendous consumer response is a annual demo day. Factory representatives from 30 to 40 golf club companies set up at The Practice Tee, allowing customers to demonstrate their products. And the pro shop clubs. Romano promotes the event, which generally draws from 3,000 to 5,000 people, with radio and newspaper ads and direct mailings to the 15,000 customers in his database.
"We've found that you have to do something in a big way or not at all. When you dabble in things you can't determine if they're working or not, "he says. "You can't tell if a newspaper ad is working if you run it just one month." Through trail and error Romano is learning what works and what doesn't . He once sent out 10,000 coupons for a free bucket of balls to a demographically matched audience. "Less than 100 people took advantage of the deal and many of those were existing customers. It was a good way to track effectiveness, but it didn't work," he says. What has worked is advertising in the Yellow Pages. "A significantly noticeable number of people call here all the time and mention the ad," he says." A lot of existing
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customers and new customers mention the ads. We run three ads in three different sections-golf shops, golf lessons and golf ranges. It's expensive, but definitely worth it."
Across the country, Bob Reiver, owner of Dulles Golf Center and Sports Park in Dulles, Va., has found that discount coupons not only bring customers in, but also are his most useful tool in tracking the effectiveness of his marketing expenditures.
"We've found the most successful marketing strategy is a mix-aggressive coupons in the right publications, "he says. "Having a customer bring in a coupon is the best way we've found to track success." Like Romano, River had found that well-promoted events are drawing in potential customers. The Dulles Golf Center had facilities for corporate outings and picnics and uses a reciprocal marketing technique with local caterers and restaurants to promote special event business. "Our core business is the golf range and academy, but when we bring in 200 to 300 people for a company outing, we're exposing our facility to people who can see the range, the academy and the pro shop, "he says. "Company outings generate quite a bit money for us plus new customers.
Tracking ROI Long Term
Calculating the return on a marketing investment in theory is as easy as dividing the revenue by the cost of the campaign. However, in today's media explosion. Once-concentrated audiences are now fragmented, causing marketers to spread their budgets over a variety of venues.
"The bottom line is you have to do 100 different things to be effective," says Romano of The Practice Tee. 'There are no home runs; only singles. You have to constantly experiment, listen to customers and pay close attention."
Guerilla marketing guru Levinson suggests creating a calendar to track marketing ventures. The calendar should have 52 rows (for each week of the year) and five columns. The first column lists the week; the second is called "Thrust" and lists that weeks special offering; the third, "Media," lists the media used ; the forth column is "Cost," where a projected spending amount is listed; and the fifth column is labeled "Results,' where a letter grade (A,B,C,D or F) can be assigned. After one year, Levinson suggests comparing the calendar to sales and eliminating all attempts that did not receive an A or B. "It takes about three years to a calendar loaded with slam dunks," he says.. "A marketing calendar will help make all the elements in your program mesh. Clients who operate from one report that their marketing calendar is their most precious business asset."
Though tracking ROI is not an exact science, there are some general industry standards. For example, direct mail typically generates a 1 to 3 percent response rate , usually within 15 to 45 days. Telemarketing generates a slightly higher response rate, but runs the risk of being offensive. There are few standard marketing controls that any business can use for measuring or monitoring success, says Poskaitis. "The purpose of a control is to monitor the effectiveness and profitability of all marketing strategies continuously so you can implement corrective action if results fall short of objectives," she says. Typical measures to monitor include sales results, market share, customer satisfaction, profitability and effectiveness of communication channels. For range owners who use coupons in a variety of media such as direct mail, newspapers or magazines, a source code registry, (a code, letter of number printed on the coupon) can help track where the coupon originated. For range owners who prefer a less scientific approach asking customers how they heard about the effectiveness of advertising and promotions; it also encourages customer feedback and interaction.
The goal is to continually identify, anticipate and satisfy customer needs profitably. "Marketing is everything you do to promote your business, from the moment you conceive of it to the point at which customers buy your product or service and begin to patronize your business on a regular basis," explains Levinson. "You should look at marketing as a circle that begins with your idea for generating revenue and is complete when you have the blessed patronage of repeat and referral business."
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