A persisting problem every club faces is finding a way to avoid the downwards spiral of discounting prices, decreasing profit margins. The solution: adding value to membership because it has the potential to increase membership, revenue generation, and customer loyalty. Taking this into consideration, there is no guarantee of success but with a highly competitive market, clubs must take the risk to avoid discounting.
There are many ways to add value to membership at a club, but one practical, inexpensive way that not only adds value to membership, but rewards existing members for their loyalty whilst attracting new members is…
A persisting problem every club faces is finding a way to avoid the downwards spiral of discounting prices, decreasing profit margins. The solution: adding value to membership because it has the potential to increase membership, revenue generation, and customer loyalty. In light of this, there is no guarantee of success but with a highly competitive market, clubs must take the risk to avoid discounting.
There are many ways to add value to membership at a club, but one practical, inexpensive way that not only adds value to membership, but rewards existing members for their loyalty whilst attracting new members is the creation of a partnership between clubs.
One club that has recently partnered with another club to add value to membership is Golf Club Milano, Italy, where the General Manager, Arnaldo Cocuzza CCM looks forward to a prosperous 2013 and beyond.
Process of setting up the partnership;
In the latter part of 2012, the prestigious Italian Golf Club carried out an audit on the local competitors, threats the golf club faces, and the strengths and weaknesses of the club. The results showed that the majority of the clubs in the local area, including the competitors were discounting their membership and services, in some cases, eliminating the joining fees with newly created membership categories, designed to increase membership sales.
Both the board and general manager at Golf Club Milano strongly agreed that the club should not look into discounting membership but rather, add value to membership as a way of retaining members through thanking them for their loyalty and increasing the desire to join the club with non-members. The audit showed a similar local club, Villa d’Esta that were not discounting their membership or eliminating their joining fee. This observation generated the idea of forming a partnership between the two clubs.
After much talk between the two boards and general managers, a partnership was formed for the benefit of both clubs.
Product;
The outcome of this partnership is a new membership that grants members access to two clubs, 364 days of the year at the same cost of normal membership at one club. The two clubs equally share the revenue generated through membership sales, which is expected to generate more income than if the membership did not exist due to the publicity and desire to join generated from the uniqueness of the membership in the country.
Uniqueness;
In the Italian golf club industry, the majority of clubs close for one day a week to save money, which includes Golf Club Milano and Villa d’Esta. This could have been a problem had the two clubs closed on the same day but because the two partnered golf clubs close on different days of the week, members can play golf and engage with the club 365 days of the year.
This creates a unique selling point for both of the clubs to market to current and potential members, rewarding existing members for their loyalty with the increased opportunity to play golf and be a part of two clubs for the price of one membership which in-turn, increases the desire from a non-member to join.
Success so far;
The new membership has just been launched in 2013 where the existing members are responding positively, underpinning this membership has added value to membership, rewarding existing members.
Here at the CMAE, we are very excited to see how successful this partnership is in 2013 and wish both Golf Club Milano and Villa d’Esta the best of luck!
Setting a partnership at your club
If you are a club manager or owner, you should be asking yourself, could we partner with another club either locally, in another area of the country that is near an area of attraction i.e. city center, beach, mountains, or in another country. If you want to make preliminary inquiries about a possible partnership with a club, please visit the Online Networking webpages on our website. Equally, you can connect to club managers via our social media sites.
