SURVEY RESULTS

Private Club Communication and Identity 

Why some private clubs don’t use the “B” and the “M” words… and why they should

Paradowski Creative, a creative services company with 30 years of providing communication solutions for companies and institutions ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies, recently began to develop communication and marketing solutions for private clubs.

Part of the reason for this direction was the addition of Tom Finan, former publisher of Club Management magazine, to the firm as director of business development. “As publisher and editor of Club Management I came to understand early on that the very best club managers are typically exceptional personal communicators. But even at some of the top clubs, print and electronic materials used to communicate with both internal and external audiences can be inconsistent in terms of design and quality,” Tom said.

“Effectively conveying the club’s total package of culture, services, and values is a key piece of managing the club’s culture and yet it seems to present a significant challenge for even the most talented managers.”

A report recently released by Chadwick Communications said that strong brands command a 7% premium on price and make sales efforts 40% more effective. The same report stated that over 50% of building a brand has more to do with what is communicated than with the product or service itself.

Paradowski Creative decided to undertake a survey on private club “branding” and “marketing” in order to better understand the current benchmark of industry practice. When we sought input for the questions to be included in the survey, the manager of one nationally-prominent club told us, “We don’t brand and we don’t market.”

That situation is changing. The first-ever session on branding was presented at this summer’s invitation-only city/athletic club conference. Frank DiLapo, general manager of the Athletic Club of Columbus, said that branding has changed that club from an operations-driven organization to one that is market driven. “We were taking a passive approach, waiting for people to come to us and for our members to introduce us to potential new members,” he said. Now we’re looking at the club as a product and trying to determine how to best position it in the marketplace.”

Who we asked, and who answered, our survey

The Private Club Communication and Identity Survey was mailed to just under 5,000 e-mail addresses, compiled from our own sources and from a list supplied by the National Club Association. Of those, 4,623 were valid addresses. A total of 293 persons started the survey, with 282, or 6% of the delivered total, completing it. Our research consultant Sandra Christie, PhD of Christie Consulting, tells us that the results are accurate plus/minus 3.5 % at a 95 % level of certainty.

The respondents skewed heavily toward the top end of club leadership with “Executive Management” (CEO/COO/President/GM) constituting 73.6 % and “Manager/Assistant Manager/Membership Director” constituting 17.8%.

The respondents provided a representative spread of club types and membership sizes. Country Clubs and Golf Clubs constituted 86.3 % of responses. City and Athletic Clubs were at 9.3 %. About a third of the respondent’s clubs (31.7%) had 301-500 members, exactly a third (33.3%) had 501-1,000 members, and 20.7 percent had over 1,000 members

How clubs deliver their message

• Of the clubs responding, almost 90% had a newsletter. Fifty-seven percent had an e-newsletter. Of those sending e-newsletters, 92.7% also had newsletters. The most common club communication vehicles were newsletters (89.6%); Event e-mail (78.6%) and external web sites (77.4%).18.4% of responding clubs had an employee newsletter and 6.4% had an employee web site.

• Newsletters (89.3%), external web sites (77.8%) and event e-mail (78.6%) were the three most common forms of club communications. Of the clubs that had e-newsletters (56%), 92% also mailed paper versions of the newsletter. About 20% produced newsletters for club special interests (golf, women’s activities, kids).

• Of the clubs that had newsletters, 53.6% produced them internally and 38.4% produced them with a combination of internal and external resources. The GM was the individual most commonly involved in the club newsletter (83.4%), with a member of the club’s office staff coming in second (56.1%) and the membership/marketing director (51.4%) coming in at third most commonly involved.

• 56.4% of responding clubs produce web sites and/or e-newsletters internally. Only 3.2% assign writing to outside vendors, but almost half (49.6%) hire designers. Web hosting is outsourced at a little over half (51.8%) of responding clubs.

How clubs strategize their marketing and communication

Formalized marketing and communication planning is not practiced at the majority of responding clubs.

• 72.8% did not have a marketing or communication committee.

• Of those clubs that did have such a committee(s), oversight of new member marketing (73.8%) was the most commonly performed function, followed by providing strategic direction on all internal and external communication (50.8%), and directing public relations and crisis management (24.6%).

• 70.7% did not have written plans or guidelines in regard to marketing and communication. Of those that had such plans, 54.7 % had written a plan or reviewed the plan within the last year; 17.7 percent in the last 1-2 years; and 25% last reviewed their communication/marketing plan two or more years ago.

• The most commonly addressed areas of club communication plans are membership marketing (86.4%) and event promotion (75.8%). Over half (57.6%) address the use of the club’s logo in print and merchandise and an identical number address club publications. Exactly half have rules for signage around the club. Only 21.2% of communication plans address employee materials. 36.6% address external outreach to the community and 28.8% address crisis management.

The challenges of club communication and marketing

• Respondents listed “consistent message” (41.5%) as the biggest challenge in communicating/marketing at their club, followed by consistent visual appearance of materials (29.8%), and logistical/production management (28.7%)

• While not statistically relevant, the following comments offered by respondents offer insight on the state of club communication and marketing.  

• “Any ideas on making the Club newsletter a ‘must read’ would be most appreciated.”

• “One of the biggest challenges, I personally feel clubs have, is knowing what they want to be as a club and who they want to serve as members. They produce glossy brochures that they mail to thousands of people without knowing who those people are.”

• “We have just established the new position of Membership Marketing and Communications Director for the club, responsible for website administration and internal marketing. We are in the midst of upgrading our website and all communications media.”

• “We have very recently enlisted the help of the marketing department of the local college to update our look for both the newsletter and membership directory.”

• “We just don't have the staff or resources to produce professional level quality.”

• “We utilize e-mail marketing as the main source of membership notification (constant contact). We will decide whether to continue with the print version of our newsletter as the majority of our members prefer the electronic version.”

• “I believe that many clubs got trapped into thinking we can save a boatload of money by doing this ourselves and winding up with what they paid for. Our club is moving toward more complete use of outside, professional designers to ensure a consistent, coherent look and feel to our print materials. Our next step is to combine the design aesthetic for both web and print under the same rubric”

• “Most Clubs do not have the luxury of a Marketing & Communications staff person and instead relies upon a joint effort. Our strategic direction is to create a Marketing & Communications staff person to promote & brand our club in the community, & as a community outreach liaison.”

• “Not always easy to keep online materials and printed material in sync because of differing format. Takes constant vigilance, but doable.”   
  

• “Proper communication with patrons is of the utmost importance. How can one grow their business without informing customers on benefits of using their facilities?”   
  

• “Use all of your materials to tell the same story. Utilize this to brand who you are and do not waiver.”   
  

For more information on the survey or on club branding and marketing

Click here to download a PDF of the complete survey results. If you would like the survey results customized to your club profile or would like more information on improving your club’s branding and marketing message and delivery, contact Tom Finan, tom@paradowski.com
p. 314.584.4717 (direct), c. 314.517.2466