Posts tagged marketing
Interesting News About the News Industry
010 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Since both PR and advertising are rather key elements to marketing a ski resort, I would highly recommend that anyone interested in ski resort marketing take a good look at the new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism titled, “The State of the News Media 2011“. Some highlights include:
- Newspaper newsrooms are 30% smaller than in 2000
- In the digital realm the news industry is no longer in control of its own future
- In 2010 every news platform saw audiences either stall or decline — except for the web (see chart below)
- Nearly half of all Americans (47%) now get some form of local news on a mobile device
- Online ad revenue in 2010 is projected to surpass print newspaper ad revenue for the first time
I highly recommend the report for some great insights in terms of where journalism, but also online advertising and public relations are going.
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It’s all About the Story, Even with Sake
012 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
I admit that I’m not a true connoisseur of Sake, although I have sampled more than a few varieties, I do actually really like the chilled sparkling option. But, a recent story in the New York Times about Sake really connected to me. The story is about how top Japanese restaurants in Las Vegas have turned to the backstory behind their top shelf Sakes to sell multi-thousand dollar bottles of the stuff to their top-shelf clientele. Now, I’m sure there probably aren’t a lot of ski resorts that are going to be in the market to sell pricey bottles of Sake, I think that many of the same lessons could apply to how they sell their product. Here’s the heart of the article to me:
When restaurants in Las Vegas and elsewhere tell Henry Sidel, president of the Joto Sake distribution company in Manhattan, that they need something more expensive to impress their upscale clientele, he finds that a crucial selling point is a good yarn about how the sake was made.
“There are no brands if there aren’t stories,” Mr. Sidel said the other day in his office on Morton Street in Greenwich Village. “With our portfolio, I’ve focused on brands that have stories.”
Isn’t that what people are looking for in what they buy? This is certainly what Chrysler was shooting for in their recent “Imported from Detroit” Superbowl ad…what are other good examples of using story in marketing?
Winter Sports and Heart Health
01 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
According to a recent post in eTurboNews, “Skiers and other winter sports tourists who visit the Alps are at increased risk for heart attack due to low temperatures, high altitude and inadequate conditioning for intense physical exertion…”. The article further clarifies that, “The risk is greatest during the first two days of vacation…”, and that “People planning winter sports holidays in the mountains need to prepare themselves with regular exercise beforehand, the study authors suggested. Once at the resort, they should increase their level of physical activity gradually…”.
This is interesting news to me personally in that my wife used to be a cardiac rehab therapist in an earlier career and I know that she has plenty of tips that would range from the exercise regimen mentioned in the article to eating a heart healthy diet. The data cited in this study is European only, but I would suspect that it should translate to the American winter sports traveller as well, perhaps even more so as most Americans that ski or ride live at or near sea level and the average base level of Western ski resorts is far above (around 7-8,000 feet in CO and UT) the average mean altitude of where heart attacks in the study occurred – 4,429 feet.
Without correlating US data, it’s hard to know for sure if there’s similar trending of heart attacks with winter sports tourists, but it would certainly be easy for ski resorts to offer some basic safety information on heart health in terms of pre-trip exercise as well as acclimating and starting physical exertion at altitude at a moderate pace – perhaps a program along the lines of Go Sun Smart would be a helpful first step?
Additional Note : I wrote this post on the morning of September 6 (I try to schedule a few posts ahead of time to make the writing a bit easier by doing it in batches), our family attended Park City’s annual Miner’s Day parade later that morning and wound up steps away from a person who suffered a heart attack while waiting for the parade to start. I hope the best for that person but the freak timing gave me more thought that perhaps there are some things that tourism locales at altitude could do to help educate their guests on the effects of altitude.
Photo credit: Flick user katz2110
How to Get a Job Working for a Ski Resort
01 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Every so often I’m asked, “How can I get a job working for a ski resort?”
“It’s easy,” I answer “just look at the online application as it seems like there are always jobs posted.”
“No, no, I’d like to find a year round job doing something that doesn’t involve lifts, food and beverage or maintenance.” Btw, please don’t tell anyone I know who does this vital jobs i wrote this sentence! 
“Well, if you’re looking at marketing, sales or most management opportunities at a ski resort, you probably need to get in line…”
Actually, I don’t think it’s quite that bad and if you know what you’re looking for, have the right skills and network, I think it’s quite possible to find your dream job at a ski resort. It will most likely take some persistance though. Here are my recommendations:
- Network, network, network. Some of the best jobs might never make it to the job listings, so make sure you know the people who do the hiring at the resort you think you’d like to work for.
- Following up with more networking, look for resort networks on LinkedIn and follow ski resort peeps on Twitter.
- Setup Google alerts to let you know when a job in your preferred area comes available, and follow the job boards at the Ski Area Management job board or at larger search sites like Coolworks and ResortJobs.com.
- Start small, if you’re still in college, find a way to help with your local ski or snowboard club. Another great place to start is with internships, I know several people who have moved from an internship directly into a year round opportunity.
- Be realistic, ski resorts, like do not have huge numbers of year round people. You may need to work seasonally until you find your niche.
If your dream ski resort job doesn’t work out, remember that there are lots of other jobs in resort destination areas, and most resort areas have good digital connections that might even allow you to work via telecommuting!
Photo credit: Me – of a co-worker ‘working hard’ on a typical day at the office.
Who decided that this is SPAM?
22 years ago
I had a good chuckle this morning when I got this note from my Hotmail account’s “Junk email protection team”
Definitely a “Whoops!” when a domain from your own company gets caught up in your automated SPAM filter, guess it’s nice to know that even the big guys can mess up with email marketing now and then…
Just Add Snow
02 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
It’s strange, but I’ve had a sneaking suspicion the past five seasons that I could sit back, wait for Mother Nature to grace us with some snow, and whatever I did before and after wouldn’t matter. I still worked my tail off, putting together emails, webpages and all our ‘traditional’ marketing tactics to try to get skiers and riders to the resort, but it really didn’t feel like I was necessarily making much of a difference.
This season is different, the ‘real’ snow didn’t come until later in December, the economy is cutting back on a lot of people’s vacation plans and many people are not going to take a ski or snowboard vacation whether there’s a foot of snow or ten times that. And while we can still generate some new business with a good strong snow message, it’s certainly not like it was in past years.
So, is it time to panic? I don’t think so. In fact, I think it’s an ideal time for ski resorts to try new ideas and ways to generate new revenues. It’s also great for interactive marketers like myself, as it’s an open door to implement social media strategies that we might not have had the opportunity to try just a year, or even a few months ago…exciting times, but I know that we must continue to press our efforts because now, just because it snows, doesn’t mean that they will come.
