Monterey Peninsula Country Club (MPCC) doesn’t require the hard sell. Its location—nestled against the craggy mid-Californian coast and cypress forests of Monterey, California—combined with its legendary golf, its spectacular facilities and its customized service, all work seamlessly to secure the club’s place among the elite private clubs in the nation.
So it would seem that Rachel Carter s job that of director of member services at MPCC—is not one requiring the services of, say, a turnaround expert. The saying if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” comes to mind. Save daring marketing plans or rebranding proposals for another club. After all, how much salesmanship could be required for a club that has a waiting list for its waiting list?
However, even those clubs fortunate enough to own the “recession-proof” label are not without problems and challenges, nor are they without new and exciting opportunities to push the boundary of excellence further. Maybe nothing succeeds quite like success, but success can also plant the seed of complacency. Inaction is rarely a recipe for anything good; and the sharpest business leaders will tell you that the next big thing is ideally conceived of when you are gripped by great success rather than when you are in the tightening vise of crisis.
STEPPING IN AND STEPPING UP
Rachel Carter joined MPCC at the height of the Great Recession. Charged with the responsibilities of member acquisition and retention—as well as for the club’s marketing, branding, and communications Carter s new job put her to the test, but perhaps not in the way she had anticipated.
The first task of her new position became obvious: understanding the culture of the club and assuring membership that her role in building the club and projecting its image to the outside world would be consistent with the club culture and identity.
Carter champions a nuanced and integrated view of marketing. This is not marketing as selling, but marketing as the expert matching of demand with supply—aligning a club’s sophisticated value proposition with the expectations of a prospective member who is predisposed to embrace that value and even amplify it.
Many club members were naturally suspicious of marketing. Some of these misconceptions conjured up the worst stereotypes of slick salesmanship: “So many of the members were hesitant to hire a member services director,” says Carter. “Their thought was, What is she going to do Stand outside twirling a sandwich board?”
She did not. Rather, in the first few months, Carter chose instead to immerse herself among the membership in order to better define her role and, just as importantly, build relationships with the main players who could help turn the wheels on membership referral.
BRANDING THE EXPERIENCE
No successful cookie cutter approach exists for fostering a healthy membership. Certainly at MPCC, a club firm in its identity, financially strong and abundant in resources, the right approach was needed to strike a balance between change and preservation. “We needed to refine the member experience, the brand, and how we tell our story, because in turn our members are going to be delighted, they’re going to be engaged, and then they’re going to start spreading the word.” This, of course, is the cycle of membership marketing.
Part of that refinement included the adaptation and advancement of what have come to now be recognized as the go-to communications staples of the private club industry: newsletters, targeted e mails, a seasonal magazine and a website—all with a coherent look, design and feel. MPCC harmonizes these communications to avoid overexposure and to maximize interest.
Tournament results get posted to the website; a write up and picture spread of the most recent calendar event spills across the glossy pages of a newsletter; and the Autumn issue of its lifestyle focused magazine will feature a local wine maker who will be visiting the club soon.
These communications vehicles are always conceived and then executed with the audience in mind. And this means that messages are frequently targeted to particular groups or lifestyle segments within the club—meaning the right information goes out to the right people. Good marketing requires attention to the nuts and bolts of reach and frequency—repeat exposures, reminders and follow-ups. But Carter is always on the lookout for approaches with emotional resonance, those that reach the desires and aspirations of members and potential members alike.
Before prospective members tour Monterey Peninsula CC, Carter always begins with a conversation to find some common ground. Carter determines what fuels their passions and customizes the preview so that prospects will come face-to-face with their own interests and the ideal backdrop for them. A gastronome, perhaps They might spend a few minutes chatting with MPCC’s head chef or surveying some fresh produce. A fitness buff They ll be certain to soak in MPCC’s state-of-the-art facility and chat with a personal trainer or masseuse. And as for golf, well, they will be positioned on the first tee to let their imagination take flight, along with their anticipated drive.
AND EXPERIENCING THE BRAND
As the values of consumers shift, so must the club offerings. Membership categories are a prime example of the “product” a private club offers and positions just so. Monterey Peninsula Country Club challenged Carter to develop a membership category that would be especially suitable (and attainable) for young members—a challenge because MPCC is first and foremost a golf club, with less emphasis on the other amenities that would typically attract young families. The club does not feature a swimming pool or a teen room or even tennis courts. Nevertheless Carter set out to develop a new and compelling Junior Associate membership program that catered to those under the age of 50.
MPCC did not try to be something it was not. By adjusting its pricing structuring and membership privileges, the club was able to reach a select group of young professionals from across the country using a tailored set of messages to describe a compelling value proposition in line with the club’s core values.
The marketing program quickly gained traction. An initial target of 25 was reached in a 24-month period and the MPCC board has recently approved the addition of another 10 spots in the new Junior Associate membership category.
This approach delivers a number of benefits to the club. Junior members are on a reliable path to regular membership status. With effective incentives to get these Junior Associates fully vested, Carter fully expects virtually all to convert to full membership as they qualify. At the same time, their monthly spend and utilization is strong, and they are avid ambassadors for new referrals.
MPCC has demonstrated a keen ability to understand the market and to use that insight to make the membership “product” itself a variable and adjust it to meet latent demand. All of which reinforces that time-tested wisdom that good marketing is not built on the idea that you take a product and sell it but rather that you find a need and fill it. “We knew the average age of our new member was 56 years. Anyone we could acquire under age 50 was part of a new market we had not yet found a way to penetrate, says Carter. The program has been extremely successful and has welcomed the future leaders of our club.”
TALK OF THE TOWN
Private clubs pride themselves on their tradition and its continuation. But as ever in the private club market, innovation and fresh thinking stand to shake things up. Do these goals—by turns honoring club legacy and seizing the potential of emerging trends—conflict?
They don t have to. On one hand, clubs will always have their calendar events, but on the other, innovations on the social scene can easily conjure up fresh possibilities that can quickly travel through the club network, adding spice to that all important word-of-mouth.
Surveying MPCC’s event offerings at the very beginning of her tenure, Carter sensed that the club could do more to grab the attention of their core referral group to drive new member referrals. At the same time, she also identified weak offerings to the core segment of senior females and sensed that they would need to be re-purposed or else run a real retention risk. Only by understanding what each of these membership segments truly values was Carter able to work, for example, with the food and beverage department to bolster club events and bring a new vibrancy and freshness to the activities and programs at the club.
Targeting those members likely to be a reliable source of referral, the membership team shifted dinners featuring exceptional wines from mid-week to more prime-time slots on Friday and Saturday evenings. This move was complemented by a new offering for that important “retention” segment for which they created a luncheon series, largely targeted at women, with authors, experts and other prominent guest speakers. Among the programs: an expert from the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium who discussed ocean health and preservation and a doctor who extolled the virtues of increased olive oil consumption (providing sample olive oils from a local boutique rounded out the affair.)
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
But as a membership services director strives to meet the expansive demands of members in the here and now, she must also not lose sight of the next big thing coming around the corner. Carter delivers timely market information and member insights to the various standing committees (especially the Long Range Planning) as well as the board of directors. Everything from dining facilities to golf course improvements need to be undertaken with a finger on the membership’s pulse and a nose for shifting tastes and new trends. Carter serves as a clearinghouse for industry trends (and beyond) that might affect MPCC. The club keeps a close eye on membership satisfaction, but also needs to understand what the membership at Monterey will look like in the future and what their patterns of club utilization are likely to be. In that vein, she recently worked with a member to build a predictive model to forecast the composition of club membership five years into the future. This tool will enable the club to both manage its membership profile while simultaneously adjusting programs and activities.
SUMMING UP
The larger point we find revealed in MPCC’s remarkable success is that the club’s culture, its story and its brand, are collectively the engine that drives the attraction and retention of members. Concerned about new members? The secret largely lies in the value and service that existing members currently perceive. But no matter how powerful the story is, it must be refreshed and projected in a professional and effective manner. This requires careful planning, the application of measured resources and tailored communications. Monterey Peninsula Country Club provides a valuable case study in which membership services connect the value delivered to the club’s existing members to its remarkable capacity to attract new members that similarly appreciate the unique benefits of club membership. It’s a special relationship.