Early season marketing ideas

[Greg]

Would some good lines of seeded bumps attract an early season visit from you? Would you be more inclined to visit a ski area in November that offered a small string of decent moguls, or one that had significantly more (groomed) terrain open? Lately a lot of mountains have been striving to include some terrain elements, or even small parks as part of their early season offerings. So how about some bumps?

 

[hammer]

Would some good lines of seeded bumps attract an early season visit from you? Would you be more inclined to visit a ski area in November that offered a small string of decent moguls, or one that had significantly more (groomed) terrain open? Lately a lot of mountains have been striving to include some terrain elements, or even small parks as part of their early season offerings. So how about some bumps?

Quantity of trails/ways down would do it for me...I've done the single WROD before and it's not as pleasant. Of course, I'm not a bump skier (yet?) so seeded bumps wouldn't be much good to me anyway...

 

[kingdom-tele]

pay the dollar amount for the number of trails open

 

[Greg]

pay the dollar amount for the number of trails open

Talk about Upper, Upper-Middle, Middle, Lower-Middle, and Lower trail designations...

 

[2knees]

Talk about Upper, Upper-Middle, Middle, Lower-Middle, and Lower trail designations...

sorta like killington, cascade headwall, upper cascade, middle cascade, lower cascade, cascade runout.

huh?

 

[Greg]

sorta like killington, cascade headwall, upper cascade, middle cascade, lower cascade, cascade runout.

huh?

Yes. I forgot about "headwall" and "runout"... :lol:

 

[koreshot]

The short answer would be yes for me - 300+ vertical feet of steep moguls would be a big attraction for to go skiing earlier. Although, I would need a groomer too, in particular the first few hours as I get my ski muslce memory back.

Greg, how are the bumps in mid December on an average year at Hunter?

 

[Greg]

Greg, how are the bumps in mid December on an average year at Hunter?

JimG. or D could probably answer better than I could, but I'd imagine at a minimum there will be bumps on Ike and on the Hellgate and Minya turns. If they get lucky and it's cold, maybe Upper Crossover and Racer's?

 

[cbcbd]

Greg, how are the bumps in mid December on an average year at Hunter?

Don't know about the average year, but I thought they were pretty good last year although I was inept at them then.


As for marketing ideas... I will ski anything that has snow early as long as the price is right. Have early season specials and draw people that way.

 

[Greg]

Don't know about the average year, but I thought they were pretty good last year although I was inept at them then.

Spring bumps in mid-December. Bittersweet indeed.

 

[koreshot]

One idea might be recognizing that early season skiing is a complete disaster - most resorts have a couple of runs that are completely overworked. This leaves very little room for the advanced and expert skiers to get good skiing done unless they are willing to use the slower skier traffic as moving GS slalom gates - which is rather irresponsible.

So I think a smaller resort, that has the ability to get early snow making done could cater to advanced and expert skiers only. This could be done by:

a) Opening only the steepest and most challenging terrain
b) Limiting the number tickets sold per day in early season
c) Limiting the uphill capacity of the lift(s) serving the terrain
d) Traffic control at the top of the lift only letting individual skiers or groups of skiers on the slopes when there is some room for them to safely build up speed
e) Reservation type of tickets. X number of tickets available between 9am and noon, X number from noon to 3. Many skiers are happy getting 2 or 3 hours of skiing in on their first day out. This one might be pretty tough to execute.

I think a lot of these measures are not practical for most ski areas as they focus on reducing skier traffic, hence reducing ticket sales, but on the other hand it can be an opportunity for a ski area to appeal to the advanced/expert skiers that are more demanding. Alta has done this for years, a smaller resort that focuses on small nitches instead of competing with the big volume.

By focusing on the advanced/expert "die-hard" type of skier, the resort could save money by having no shops, no food courts, no day care, no ski buses and no instructors. So even if they do lose some money from limiting ticket sales or turning away intermediate skiers and occasional skiers, they save the money on all the services related aspects.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Would some good lines of seeded bumps attract an early season visit from you? Would you be more inclined to visit a ski area in November that offered a small string of decent moguls, or one that had significantly more (groomed) terrain open? Lately a lot of mountains have been striving to include some terrain elements, or even small parks as part of their early season offerings. So how about some bumps?

Wouldn't seeded bumps require a decent base??? I'd enjoy an early season bump run but it wouldn't make me choose one place over another..Early season there's so much traffic that anything over intermediate pitch becomes a bump run by mid-day..

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Spring bumps in mid-December. Bittersweet indeed.

With global warming there's spring bumps every month of the winter..

 

[Greg]

Wouldn't seeded bumps require a decent base??? I'd enjoy an early season bump run but it wouldn't make me choose one place over another..Early season there's so much traffic that anything over intermediate pitch becomes a bump run by mid-day..

Yup. You would need a decent base. Which would make it that much more impressive if a place could actually pull it off. And yeah, you get push piles when the trails are crowded, but I wouldn't call them good bumps.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Yup. You would need a decent base. Which would make it that much more impressive if a place could actually pull it off. And yeah, you get push piles when the trails are crowded, but I wouldn't call them good bumps.

I like the push piles because you have to be really agile due to the inconsistency of it and they're great for getting air with a smooth landing as opposed to getting air off a mogul and having to land on the backside of a mogul..

Me personally..my first few days out..I'm not interested in skiing moguls..due to two factors..the early season snow seems to be especially icy and I'm not a huge fan of ice bumps although I'll ski them...and I like to ease into the season..

 

[hammer]

Yup. You would need a decent base. Which would make it that much more impressive if a place could actually pull it off. And yeah, you get push piles when the trails are crowded, but I wouldn't call them good bumps.

Nope, those are gaper killers...

 

[drjeff]

Personally I liked Mount Snow's marketing approach early last year with their photos of your backyard/our back yard photos where they had actual customer's e-mailing in pictures of their own backyards side by side with a picture of a man-made covered trail at Mount Snow.

Bottom line, early season, "addicts" like those of us here all they need to do to market to us is say "we're open" and we go. To get the return on the snowmaking investment to the masses which will lead return visits and increased seasonal prfits which will lead the new off season capital investments that we love to say, that's where they need to adjust their marketing strategy so instead of going x-mas shopping on a weekend day in Nov/Dec those less than 10 times a year skiers/riders will goto the hill.

Plus, this year, the former ASC resorts have the marketing advantage of "under new ownership" and people like to try out new, plus once it's open, Loon will have a HUGE marketing advantage in that they can say "come ski/ride the only entirely new mountain area in the east this year."

So often the best marketing in this industry is the word "new"

 

[JimG.]

JimG. or D could probably answer better than I could, but I'd imagine at a minimum there will be bumps on Ike and on the Hellgate and Minya turns. If they get lucky and it's cold, maybe Upper Crossover and Racer's?

Add Claire's during a good cold December and there you have it. Maybe Purna or 44 too.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

This leaves very little room for the advanced and expert skiers to get good skiing done unless they are willing to use the slower skier traffic as moving GS slalom gates - which is rather irresponsible.
.

Then call me irresponsible..I'm not skiing 10mph to make the gapers feel good about their suckiness..lol

 

[tcharron]

The best marketing idea is to build a community around your product. This means keeping in close contact with your customers. Part of that is NOT waiting untill early Novermber to change your Ski Report page from LAST APRIL. (I digress)

But seriously, sponser sites like K Zone, AlpineZone, etc. Make me feel like 'part of the family'. Talk open and honestly, in response to customer requests and/or demands.