You Compete for Business Every Day

You start fighting for business early. Turf shows up earlier than the rest but the operational excellence you plan to deliver is taking shape across your property while most are still sleeping.

Every day.

Is it a contract with the 250 that will show up? Well, sure. You want them to have fun but you want them come back again. Marketing via operational excellence.

Keep 'em happy and they'll return. It sounds right. Well, at least familiar.

So today we'll take a walk across a few industries. If I was starting a joke it'd go, "a Cruise ship, a Caribbean beach, a Ball Game and a Golf Course walk into a bar"

Let's begin.

Travel. The travel industry. This industry is pretty similar to our efforts. Recreation - leisure - relaxation - outdoors - time with friends & family. It's all there, but this isn't our comparison, it's the example of where more deliberate competitors are working hard for their respective dollars. The cruise ship industry is travel and the all-inclusive Caribbean Beach resort is travel. If you're selling cruises you've likely talked up your strengths against a week on a beach. If you're a DR All-Inclusive Resort you've probably talked up your strengths VS the realities of a cruise at sea.

For our deliberate competitor I'll choose a Jays game. Around the same amount of time and money required for each. Seasonal, same as us. Finite inventory same as us. And if you're a committed fan, you'll likely see as many Jays games as an average golfer tees it up.

Travelers are passionate. Jays fans are passionate. But this is where we must apply that fun old song from our Sesame Street nostalgia - "One of these things is not like the other"

Every other business is battling hard in-market to deliver customers their way. They each provide a brilliant leisure experience and could easily choose the "if they like us they'll come back again" model. But they don't.

Cruisers love cruising, they'll be back.

Sun-worshippers love the beach, they'll be back.

A Jays fan is a fan for life, they'll be back.

Nope. These are some of the hardest working advertisers and market engagers because they know that leisure and pleasure is transferable and that trusting your customer to love you, and only you, is a risky proposition.

It is time to change because change is always coming. But we seem to be best at referencing change in the past tense. "Wow, things changed fast" We all heard that a lot in 2010's as Toxic Mortgage bundling shenanigans exited a lot of high margin customers from golf.

The change this time isn't that mysterious. People have other stuff to do. They didn't during the pandemic. Household finances are stressed. The population structure of Canada is changing as immigration rates set record growth highs and natural growth replacement rates set record lows.

Not hitting the market hard for customer attention is familiar to us and historical to us. If you believe that your social postings are going to move any needle significantly, look again at the sophisticated efforts of those industries above.

You fight for business every day, but it's time to know you'll have to do more soon.

I've done it. I've been in that arena more than anyone else and I'll do it for you once you're ready for a chat.

Here's a link to an old Sesame Street video to enjoy. https://youtu.be/6b0ftfKFEJg?si=4v-a3qjXNwXNkDGj