Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Open, but potentially closed
According to various reports, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (hosts of this year's British Open), are offering to pay for some people to travel to the championship because tickets sales, especially in corporate hospitality, are down significantly on recent years. Is this a desperate measure for desperate times, or a creative approach to sustaining business during a harsh economic downturn? Perhaps it is an after-thought, evidence of an organisation that failed to manage customer retention during the good times? That said, surely retaining customers for an event that runs only once a year is a huge challenge, especially during tough times? Does this mean the travel offer is therefore one of few tools the R&A has in its box? Is it creative, or is it actually a poor attempt to deal with much more fundamental problems facing the organisation?
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I think the issue here is more about customer relationship marketing for the long-term. Sports organizations are notorious for being arrogant during the good times and short-sighted during the bad times. These organizations turn too quickly to quick promotions and discounting that do nothing to build long-term customer loyalty and hurt the brand. Sports organizations need to stop going big for the "hole-in-one"/"home run" and need to focus on the fundamentals. These fundamentals must be grounded in building a relationship with all their customers including those who want to come to the event but are unable to come whether they can't come because of the price, time or ticket sold out. Royal Ancient Golf Club should have been capturing these customers into their CRM\database and tracking their interests. Again capturing the contact information for non-buyers who tried or want to purchase is crucial for the long-term. Also, sport organizations need to develop strategies that maintain a relationship with these customers before, during and after the event. Deeper relationships will help the sports organization meet their sales objectives during the lean times (e.g. poor economy, poor teams, bad weather) in a more profitable manner. These same relationships can also be used to better maximize profits during the good years.
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