GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Putting Your Club’s Brand to Work

Your brand is in everything you do…and fail to do. Top-performing clubs are mindful that the club is a brand and board members share the duty of brand management.

Most private club board members are ill-equipped for this task, except for a small few private club board members who are experienced with brand management. Here are three guidelines that help board members to be more effective managers of their clubs’ brands.

UNDERSTAND WHAT A BRAND IS AND DOES

First, board members must embrace the duty to manage the club’s brand. In so doing, it is essential to understand, as Seth Godin, the author of This Is Marketing, explains, “Every interaction, in any form, is branding.”

Every member-guest event, every email sent to members, every member-to-staff interaction, every invoice paid or unpaid by the club, and every member is an enactment of the club’s brand.

To manage the club’s brand effectively and consistently, board members must align vision, mission, and brand. A club cannot profess to provide excellence in member services and satisfaction while reducing the quality of the components of members’ enjoyment of the club. A club cannot claim to provide a “world-class golf experience” and seek means to reduce the quality of the care and upkeep of the golf course. Recognize that the brand of your club – as told through countless moments – tells stories and truths about your club.

RECOGNIZE HOW YOUR CLUB SHOULD MANAGE ITS BRAND

The value of your club’s brand can be reduced to a pretty simple formula, although brand management is not a simple proposition:

Value = Performance + Emotion / Experience

Price

In private clubs, the brand value proposition is tied directly to the emotion of the experience. Members have an emotional relationship with their clubs and not a transactional relationship. Thus, members are angry when their clubs disappoint them…it is personal.

Don Draper once described brand on Mad Men: “You, feeling something, that’s what sells.”

Brand experts and authors Al and Laura Reis emphasize in their book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding that the objective is singularity. In the competitive marketplace, most clubs struggle to create and maintain true market differentiation because so many other clubs claim to provide the same services…better or cheaper. The challenge for private club board members is to set the club apart from others on a favorable and consistent basis.

Five easy-to-remember keys guide brand building for private clubs: 1. Begin with the club’s vision. The vision expressed within the club strategic plan is the key here. 2. Know your audience. Few clubs adequately study their markets to understand the internal and external forces shaping the club’s audience. 3. Know your competition. Calling other clubs to learn how much they intend to increase monthly dues and joining fees is NOT market research. It is especially off the mark when one is engaged in branding an emotional relationship. Knowing what club members in your market expect, fear, and will pay extra for is the market knowledge that is needed. 4. Provide reasons for them to choose your club. How does your club provide value with the emotional experience being provided? How does your club bring families together, provide for shared well-being, and foster a sense of unforgettable memories? 5. Find your voice…and use it. Messaging from your club must resonate with your target audience segments. The club’s messaging must be relevant, reiterative, and reliant on multiple media (beyond the monthly email blast).

MONITOR AND PROTECT YOUR BRAND

The primary responsibilities of board members are strategy, finance, governance, and leadership dedicated to protecting the club or business entity. Nowadays, brand management is an additional duty for boards. To nurture and increase the impactful influence of your club’s brand: 1. Evaluate the club’s brand value in the context of market reach and penetration metrics. 2. Confirm the relevance of your club’s value proposition using the simple formula above. 3. Understand your club’s place in terms of industry trends and best practices. 4. Refresh the club’s points of market differentiation. 5. Monitor and study your web analytics to know keywords, search and usage preferences, and communications effectiveness.

Branding is the glue that holds together your club’s mission, vision, and achievements. BR