COVER STORY
By Robert Sax
T
he bowling business is very much a family affair, with family-operated centers and suppliers wellrepresented throughout the industry. One reason for this is that family owners instinctively understand how to serve a clientele that includes many families. Another reason is the potential for a family to pull together and get the job done in a business that’s demanding on an owner’s time, resources and sense of humor. Bruce and Stephanie Davis can be considered one of the first families of bowling, and they know a lot about pulling together to get the job done. They describe their method as refusing to lose, and it has gotten them through the most difficult of times in business and family life. Industry insiders know Bruce and Stephanie as innovative marketers who have been active with individual bowling centers, national chains, manufacturers and distributors as well as industry associations and committees. Their Focus on Results group may be the most comprehensive marketing and management club in the industry.
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One of the industry’s most sought-after speakers, Bruce has been inducted into the Toledo and Ohio bowling halls of fame and is a recipient of the BPAA’s President’s Medal and the V.A. Wapensky Award for significant contributions to the marketing of bowling. That’s not bad for a man whose career began in the toothpaste and soap business. Bruce’s mother and father owned and operated a bowling center in Toledo, Ohio. When Bruce finished college, he went to work for Colgate-Palmolive for a year and then served in the army. He had planned to go to graduate school following the army and then return to Colgate-Palmolive. But his parents had expanded their first center to 30 lanes and had also purchased a second 32-lane center in Toledo. Bruce’s father asked him to help out by running one center’s restaurant and night club for a short time. That temporary assignment turned into full-time management with increasing responsibility for both centers as his parents eased into retirement. At the time, there were 22 bowling centers in the Greater Toledo market and they formed a joint marketing group. Since Bruce was educated in marketing, he took the lead in
COVER STORY developing promotions that succeeded in building business for all were in Alaska twice in one year. I've done the member centers. But there wasn’t much demand for marketing seminars in literally every state in the union services elsewhere, so when Bruce eventually opened his own multiple times for all the different bowling marketing agency, Davis Productions, he diversified to serve other games, ten pin, five pin, candle pin, duck pin businesses including the marine industry and chambers of commerce and probably in three or four foreign around the country. countries,” says Bruce. Over time, as the The bowling business underwent much change in the late 1970s, bowling industry’s need for marketing which drove more and more clients to Bruce. “We ran a lot of programs grew, Bruce’s business increased to things for the industry, whether it was ABC, WIBC, YABA, BPAA, 80% bowling clients. Strike 10 or whatever. We were involved in the alphabet soups for Along the way Bruce and Stephanie’s sure,” recalls Bruce. By this time, Bruce had met several other savvy working relationship grew into a personal bowling marketers, including Fred Kaplowitz, Lee Zavakos and Bill as well as professional partnership. They Kuczinski, with whom he teamed up as Bowling Business Builders married and started a family with the arrival International with “the intent of doing something singularly big for of daughters Natalie and Olivia. They grew the industry.” their family again when they adopted son However, BBBI’s first big venture was a league product called Win Ever from Guatemala. and Roll in Las Vegas, but despite its encouraging name, it was a bust. Unfortunately their daughters’ health But Bruce and his partners were determined to create something problems were to become the biggest big. “We had to tighten our belts and decide if we were going to challenges that Bruce and Stephanie ever invest again,” says Bruce, “and we did. We invested in the product faced. At age four, Natalie was diagnosed we call Kids Bowl Free." It was based on a program Bruce had run with a congenital heart defect that required in Toledo decades earlier, updated for the digital era. three surgeries. Later, Olivia, the child they Ten years later, Kids Bowl Free is one of the largest bowling had always considered the healthy one, promotions ever, a branded phenomenon that Bruce says has more inexplicably began having dozens of brain centers and more kids in it each year. “It's a good marketing lesson seizures a day. that lots of times an old idea with new tools can be very successful,” It took several years of testing and says Bruce. treatments before doctors were finally able It was another marketing venture that led to the most important to diagnose Olivia as having Rasmussen partnership of Bruce’s life, his marriage to Stephanie. She was a sales encephalitis, a rare, progressive brain disease. executive for a Toledo radio station, and her sales manager told her It causes inflammation of the brain and can to make Bruce’s agency a top priority. “Bruce [was] a very difficult person to get lead to epilepsy, paralysis and cognitive in and see, but he was a high target because he represented a lot of businesses,” problems. In Olivia’s case, doctors says Stephanie. “I got in to see Bruce and he told me, ‘Well, your radio station isn't really the demographics I usually buy, but I have a way that maybe we can utilize your station, but I don't have time to talk to you today. Come back tomorrow.’" As Stephanie learned later, Bruce had no plan at all; it was an excuse to see her again. “I had to be creative and very quick. Within 24 hours, I had to come up with something,” Bruce recalls. When Stephanie returned the next day, Bruce presented her with an idea for a league promotion for radio stations called Radio Have a Ball. “We unrolled it in Toledo that year, and it was wildly successful,” says Stephanie. “We ended up taking that promotion all over the country for about ten years in major markets.” Bruce hired her to help him run the program along with other projects he had going on. “We went to Australia and did seminars. We Toledo Sports Center rendering 1938 owned and built by Bruce’s parents. IBI
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COVER STORY recommended the surgical removal of one of the two hemispheres of the brain. It was risky but the surgery is often very effective in reducing seizures, so the Davises decided to take the risk. As Stephanie relates in her memoir and self-improvement book “Refusing to Lose,” she reached a turning point where she “refused to let Olivia be a victim. I refused to buy into the idea that my bright, energetic child wouldn’t have the life she deserved.” Olivia ultimately required several brain surgeries, followed by extensive recovery and rehabilitation. It was a very difficult and stressful period for everyone in the Davis
family, demanding great courage and many hours spent in hospitals. Fortunately, Bruce and Stephanie had the coping skills they developed in business and the flexibility to work from any location. “There’s always many ways to get to the end goal,” says Stephanie. “There were many times that Bruce would record an interview he was doing for our Focus on Results marketing club from Olivia's hospital room,” says Stephanie. “I would be writing marketing material from her hospital room or a surgery waiting room.” Along the way, Stephanie developed special skills in navigating the many
Left to right: Bruce Davis, Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, and Darin Spindler showing off the Kids Bowl Free Program.
challenges of helping a child and a family survive a serious health problem. As a result she became an ad hoc resource for other families trying to cope with a serious illness. “I was just a parent that the doctors knew and the nurses knew and they would [ask] ‘Would you talk to this family or that family? They're considering brain surgery.’" says Stephanie. “I enjoyed doing it so much that I became a certified coach and started working with parents of special needs children, especially those who are faced with neurological disorders.” After the ordeal of Olivia’s illness, Stephanie wanted to share her hardwon wisdom and experience with other families with seriously ill children. She 26
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COVER STORY absolutely had to focus on our children and providing them with the most normal childhood that they could have in light of all of the challenges we had,” says Stephanie. “90% of our time was focused on our kids and each other and 10% was focused on business for a long time.” In her book, Stephanie discusses the importance of finding the right balance in life. “We believe in balance. We've taught our children to be very balanced and so it's not just what's right for you right now and what you want, but it's your overall well-being,” says Stephanie. “The happiest people that I've ever met
Part of the BBBI cofounder team with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. From left to right: Bill Kuczcinski, Darin Spindler, Bruce Davis and Lee Zavakos.
wrote and published “Refusing to Lose” and became a speaker and health care advocate. She also continued her coaching activities. In 2017 Stephanie and a partner, Alysia Peddy, will launch Family Support Village, a website and online community offering support, education, resources, and connections for parents of children facing medical, behavioral, and learning challenges. “It's directed mostly for parents of kids with extra needs,” says Stephanie. “We're very focused on how you can manage medically what's happening in your child's life, how you handle the other children in the household, your relationship
1984 Peterson Champions “come back” tournament.
in my life, especially through coaching, are people who have solid coping skills.” These days Bruce and Stephanie are happy just to be the busy parents of three regular kids with the typical demands of school, sports and community activities. It helps that they know how to work together as a team. “He is good in some things, I am good in others. And we really learned to respect and be very proud of what the other person does,” says Stephanie. “It has been a true partnership at work and at home.” ❖ Frank DeSocio (left) and Tom Martino (right) present Bruce Davis with BPAA’s Media Award.
with your spouse, how you handle the stress of everything.” Stephanie says many people ask her and Bruce about the key to their success. She says there isn't really one key but their ability to focus on their family problems to the exclusion of all else was essential. “We 28
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Robert Sax is a writer and PR consultant in Los Angeles. He grew up in Toronto, Canada, the home of five-pin bowling.