Reviving an Industry
TARGET
Free-Bowlers | 18-26
AMF and the bowling industry have experienced a steady loss of revenue over the course of the last decade - industry volume has contracted by nearly a quarter in the last 10 years, representing close to a billion dollars in revenue loss.
• Social dependents - participate in social circles, both online and offline, and use these social interactions to validate themselves.
Coupled with the emptiness of bowling facilities during daytime hours, it’s obvious that interest in bowling is waning. As such, AMF Bowling approached us with the following challenge:
• Highly Impressionable - this group has a great potential to convert new customers through social interactions and competitive challenges.
Create a membership organization for people who enjoy bowling that will increase affinity for the sport.
•This group is old enough that they won’t grow out of bowling, yet young enough to not yet be set in their ways.
It was immediately apparent that the problems causing the decline of bowling would likely be subdued through the development of a membership organization, but not necessarily solved. With that asumption in mind, we set out to identify the core issues leading to bowling’s decline. OPPORTUNITY
PROBLEM
Leverage the reasons people do go bowling while mitigating the factors that keep them from bowling to create a new model for AMF’s business and an example for the industry.
Bowling is losing its place in the typical consideration set.
•Why people DON’T bowl.
INSIGHTS
•Why people DO bowl.
Expectation of Fun
Skill
Above all, people go bowling with the expectation of having fun; the activity fulfilling their needs for recreation and entertainment.
One of our focus group participants put it best,
“I don’t bowl because I suck, and I suck because I don’t bowl.”
Competition
The Vicious ‘Bowl Less’ Cycle
Add to that external factors like time, cost, and distance to travel, all factors that consumers indicated effect their participation in bowling, and it’s not surprising that the sport is in decline.
Within the fun, bowlers are driven primarily by two behaviors: competition and socialization. Whether league, free, or first-time bowlers, they fall somewhere within this diagram, many times with overlap of competition and social.
Frequency
Skill in the sport of bowling is a natural development of frequency playing....as is lack of skill. And lack of skill prevents people from going more frequently, which in turn effects their skill level, in an endless cycle.
Socialization
STRATEGY
Build people’s confidence by increasing their competence. • Social Integration (short-term) Our approach involves two strategic phases | • Hub and Spoke Expansion (long-term)
Social Integration (Phase One) Phase One of our solution involves integrating social media with existing digital assests (i.e. computers at every lane). With bowling’s core drivers of competition and socialization, social media represents a natural marriage. Combining the two will result in a data interchange network linking all AMF lanes. Login will be simplified through the use of Facebook Connect, and because player accounts live within social media, users can access their player data whenever and from wherever they desire. Through social integration and a set of minor software updates, the new AMF platform will allow users to:
• Pick from a collection of bowling games other than traditional 10-pin bowling. (These games are already available at AMF lanes, but difficult to find)
• Take advantage of game and technique tutorials in order to build skills set.
• Earn badges for milestones and accomplishments.
• Create and join groups, and track the overall and player stats of each digital league.
• Establish rivalries and issue challenges to both individuals and groups.
• Enable real-time tips based on context of the game (i.e. picking up a split).
• View player rankings based on alley, city, region, and nationally.
• Access game history and track performance and progress over any timeframe.
The integration of AMF with social connectivity will allow the conversation and participation around bowling to spread beyond the walls of the alley. The competitive and social components of every game of bowling will continue to live even after the physical portion of the game is over.
Hub and Spoke Expansion (Phase Two)
150’
50’
Phase Two of our solution involves opening new, smaller bowling locations using a hub and spoke model. Existing large bowling alleys will serve as ‘hubs’ for a series of smaller ‘spokes’ (built in urban areas with denser population than traditional locations).
• Hubs will remain in operation, catering primarily to the large volume demands of recurring league play. • Spokes will cater more to casual and social free-bowlers in smaller and more accessable locations. Parking
$310,000/location*
• AMF will also implement a matinee pricing structure for daytime games. $4 per game. • Prices will revert to the standard hourly model after 5 PM.
The hub and spoke model allows AMF to increase both access and visibility.
FINANCIAL JUSTIFICATION Richmond, Virginia was used as a test market to determine the feasability of spoke expansion.
The combination of an hourly pricing model and spoke expansion address the external barriers to people bowling | distance, time, and cost.
Assumptions
• Spoke alleys have a service radius of 3 miles • Richmond, VA population density equals 3225/sq. mile ** • 85% of the US population bowls at least once a year *** • $4 Games
Calculation
$310,028 If people continue to go bowling at least once a year, each alley will essentially pay for itself.
X X X
Total service area = πr² Population density Participation % Price per game
=
Expected yearly return on alley
Any increased frequency of bowling will contribute to incremental sales growth.
* Calculated from AMF/Qubica brochures and industry data
** Per the US Activity Council
*** Per the US Census
43’
• Hubs and spokes will both be fully equipped with the new software platform and social intgration.