 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Interesting background - predominantly in customer loyalty and presumably in driving increased revenues per customer. I guess it makes sense but could gives the impression that SCGB are concerned with keeping hold of their existing paying membership rather than changing to make themselves more relevant to a wider customer base.
(pedantic point - mugshot with a prominent logo for AOL in the background is unfortunate as might suggest he's not really got his finger on the pulse of digital)
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| fatbob wrote: |
(pedantic point - mugshot with a prominent logo for AOL in the background is unfortunate as might suggest he's not really got his finger on the pulse of digital) |
now what would have been funnier would have been a snowheads header on the PC in the background 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| fatbob wrote: |
| Interesting background - predominantly in customer loyalty and presumably in driving increased revenues per customer. I guess it makes sense but could gives the impression that SCGB are concerned with keeping hold of their existing paying membership rather than changing to make themselves more relevant to a wider customer base. |
As a SCGB member I think it makes very good sense to retain the existing membership.
At the AGM a few years ago someone asked what the club's membership objective was. The reply from the chief exec was to grow the membership in proportion to the growth in the UK skiing population, or words to that effect.
That growth happened for the next couple of years but the membership declined slightly last year, which probably was a reflection in the decline of the number of skiing holidays taken by Brits in the current economic climate. In my view the skiing industry has got some tough times ahead as this economic mess is going to go on for years. Any organisation in the skiing industry will find it a challenge to maintain it's current position and I believe the greatest skill in management in the years ahead, negative though it may sound at first, may well be in controlling and managing a slow decline.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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richjp, I think that's right in any truly discretionary consumer spend market, unless you're in something high growth or sexy. Certainly for a commercial business surviving for the longer term may be more important than growing. For a member organisation I'm not sure the same rules apply although the SCGB has appeared blurred on this - is it more like say the modern AA than a club? Surely what the members want is the most important thing for a true membership organisation (in contrast to the sometimes benevolent dictatorship of snowheads  ) - if they only benefit from aggregation of scale to e.g. support more reps in more resorts a priority must be to grow membership, if they are turned off in house holidays due to price or rigidity of rules, then the model should be revisited etc.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Without knowing the details I think it'd be hard to determine what's best in such broad terms.
the best membership growth is from acquiring long-term members who are younger than the average in the club at the moment.
Does anyone know what the churn-rate, demographics in terms of age and acorn/consumer class (I include acorn as the geographic component IS relevant) both for the club and for that market sector as a whole. Without knowing all that it's hard to tell if any net changes in membership numbers growth or the churn-rate is being affected by an ageing membership who are either stopping skiing or even just dying off, economic factors where people can't afford the 'luxury' of membership or simply dissatisfaction with the club.
Anything else is sheer speculation.
I'm involved in a company, in different market sector, which generates revenue from a subscription based membership model so I've got some insight into how complex these things can be.
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fatbob,
I don't think the AA is a good comparison as it was demutualised some years ago and I think was then taken over so it is very much a commercial organisation.
To me the SCGB is a club however it has a turnover of over £2m and therefore that needs professional management so in that sense it has to be commercial. The club's governance statement makes it clear that there is such a responsibility. I spent most of my career in sales in the IT industry working for American tech companies then became self employed. I have heard the growth mantra often enough and I whilst agree that you can never stand still in business, there are times when consolidation is more important than growth and to me this is definitely one of them.
A significant growth in membership would present its own problems. The idea of reps/leaders is not supported by some resorts which is well known and the leaders probably still remain in other resorts because of long term relationships. Expanding the leading programme significantly would probably be problematic. There is a similar issue with the club holidays. Yes they are pricey however they usually involve guides and instructors who have been supportive of the ski club for a long time. Expanding that service without diminishing the quality, not to mention the financial risk, would not be easy.
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feef,
The following is a copy of a post I made on much the same subject as your post, on the ski club message board quite recently and I think most of it is relevant to this discussion about member numbers: As follows:
I agree with XXXX on this. I have been a member for 35 years and I would point out that my upbringing was blue collar and not blue blood.
The ski club in my view has an obligation to promote responsible skiing. First of all it has a large number of family members and for that reason alone it should project a responsible image. Despite the club's name, which I believe it should retain for both historical and practical purposes, it has no official status as an authority for the British skiing public, although because of its name a lot of people probably believe that it does have that authority and that is another reason to promote a responsible image.
There are benefits to the club's image. When for example disasters occur in the mountains or there are abnormal weather situations, the media will often to turn to the ski club for comment because they see the club as a responsible and authoritative organisation. The benefit to the club is that it raises the club's profile in the media.
I also feel that another benefit of the club's image is that it strengthens our relationships with the resorts where we maintain leaders and those realationships are vital for the leading programme. No doubt the club's image is also an asset when it comes to gaining sponsorship.
The downside of that somewhat conservative image is that to an outsider the club can seem a bit staid.The reality for me anyway is very different. As an ex leader and frequent user of Freshtracks holidays I have enjoyed skiing that is challenging and exhilarating. Socially I have met a lot of great people and enjoyed more than a few beers with them.
Someone who went on to become a council member once said to me that the difficulty in attracting young members is what that young people, mainly male, in their twenties want is cheap skiing, to get drunk and to get laid. Actually that kind of holiday still appeals to me now! Seriously however the club cannot project the type of image that some tour operators do.
We should of course be open to young members joining but there is only so much the club can spend on marketing programmes. I have never been on the ski club council, however I think I am correct in saying that numerous initiatives have been tried over the years to attract young members. You can lead a horse to water as the old saying goes.
So I am also in favour of the club building on its existing strengths rather than trying to be all things to all people.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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As an outsider I have never looked at scgb membership until tonight. Interestingly I couldn't really spot any real incentives for joining the club on the home page. Compared to the homepage of scuk( http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/ ) where I was signed up within about 10 minutes! Even on the 'why join as a member?' it was just a list of benefits with no real emphasis on any in particular. They arent selling themselves particularly well. Compare scgb to the benefits listed on scuk ( http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/pack ). Plus £58 /year for an adult is a lot especially when compared to scuk which is £15/year and offers a lot of the discounts I am interested in. In fact they should give the whole site a tidy up and makeover.
Rationally I can only justify spending £58/year on the membership if I was definitely going to get much much more than that back in discounts. However I don't spend enough on gear to cover the annual cost of membership in discounts and in any case if you shop around a bit on google you can usually get a much better price than the shop offering the ~10% discount. You can pick up the occasional snowheads discount as it is.
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Very little about Frank McCusker on the web - hope he addresses the forum which is as quiet as a graveyard!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| skilegs wrote: |
| Very little about Frank McCusker on the web - hope he addresses the forum which is as quiet as a graveyard! |
...I don't know if that's a good thing or something that should raise concern.. Someone who's supposed to be an expert in online marketing and you can't find him online? Either he's crap (worry) or exceptionally good at controlling what content is indexed in the search engines (good)
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| skilegs wrote: |
| Very little about Frank McCusker on the web - hope he addresses the forum which is as quiet as a graveyard! |
If he wants to attract new and former members adressing this forum may help a lot...
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Listed on LinkedIn, but he's out of my network, so limited profile view.
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You know it makes sense.
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Chasseur,
He's in my extended network, but not much of interest:
Experience
Director
NetResponse WorldWide Limited
January 2008 – Present (4 years 5 months)
Director Client Management EMEA
Satmetrix Systems
Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry
January 2009 – March 2011 (2 years 3 months)
Global General Manager
ICLP Loyalty Marketing
Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry
September 2006 – January 2008 (1 year 5 months)
VP EMEA
Carlson Marketing Group
Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry
February 1999 – September 2006 (7 years 8 months)
Education
The University of Glasgow
BSc, Agricultural Economics
1979 – 1984
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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He is a member of "100K+ Jobs Only" though, so that's where your membership money disappears!
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Poster: A snowHead
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What was that statististic ?
101% of CV's on Linked In are exagerated
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| boredsurfin wrote: |
What was that statististic ?
101% of CV's on Linked In are exagerated |
Isn't that true of pretty much all CVs, including LinkedIn, at least to some extent?
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FAQ
