Endless Supply

Clubs are discovering that one of the best ways to get grandparents to use the club is to get grandkids to pull them in.

by Joe Barks (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
April 2008
 

You people are too damn good. We did our best to get as many of the great ideas that you’ve been putting into play at your properties into this special issue as possible—but now all the pages are done and we’re about to go to press, and I still have a stack of files on my desk filled with A-list concepts we couldn’t find room for. 

We will of course plan to keep feeding as many more great ideas to you as we can through future issues, as well as through our e-newsletters and Web site—but I have a feeling we’re never going to catch up, and in fact will probably just keep falling further and further behind.

It’s clear that “idea fever” is sweeping the industry, from the most established private clubs to the trendiest new properties. The rapid expansion of club and resort offers beyond traditional areas (golf) and traditional demographics (older men) is the biggest driver of this—when you get into new areas (and add new staff from other disciplines), and then start marketing to new people, it’s only natural that a lot of new ideas will start to flow.

In fact, probably the most fertile area for great ideas that we found when researching this issue is how clubs and resorts are redirecting their approaches to reach everyone—including the oldest of men, who only want to play golf—through the youngest people in club families and resort guest groups. We could fill an entire issue just with some of the clever ways that clubs and resorts are now not only forming, but using “Kidz Klubz” (by any spelling), to not only provide more family-oriented services, but also forge a harder-to-resist and harder-to-ignore connection with all member or guest segments. As several examples in this issue show, clubs are discovering that one of the best ways to get grandparents to come to the club is to get their grandkids to pull them in, either to go with them to an event, or to see something they made that’s on display.

Which leads me to one more great idea to squeeze in: Isleworth Country Club’s “Just Kiddin’ ” newsletter, which uses the same thinking to more effectively communicate with all members. “Our experience revealed that traditional flyers were often disposed of,” notes Cindy Wright, Isleworth’s Director of Youth Services. “But we found that if we included information in a newsletter full of children’s pictures, readers were more apt to keep the publication.”

Like I said, damn good. Sneaky, but good.