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Things I want to do right away if I were a golf course owner (3)

One day in February 2015, I completed consulting on a golf course (18 holes) located in Gangwon province and submitted the final report. The previous year's performance was KRW 7.1 billion, and it was being operated under a Worst Scenario structure in which green fees were continuously lowered to increase sales and visitors.

In the final report's three-year goal, the target sales for 2017 was KRW 11 billion, and EBIDTA was targeted at over KRW 5 billion. When achieved, the corporate value of the golf course is expected to increase by approximately 140%. The chairman who received the report at the time asked again and confirmed whether it was a possible goal.

At the time, the best scenario through golf course operation analysis and consulting was KRW 14 billion, but since several systems were needed, it was reported at 11 billion won in the final report. In fact, this golf course provided advice for one year after consulting, and recorded sales exceeding 14 billion won four years later.

Golf course operation analysis is based on approximately 12 major lists.

In addition to golf course hardware and software, we develop operation concepts and models specialized for golf courses, prioritizing operating philosophy and policies. Various aspects are analyzed depending on the golf course, including clubhouse, course layout, and management level, membership fee, terms of use, number of loyal customers, unit price, customer response service, brand awareness, accessibility, marketing, and event frequency.

The most disappointing part of this consulting work was the sustainability of brand expansion, marketing, and revenue management.

How can we raise brand awareness of golf courses that are relatively far from the metropolitan area and local cities? What course is perceived by golfers as most sustainable? Given the characteristics of Korea, which has four distinct seasons, how can we maximize operating rates during the high-demand season, shoulder season, and low-demand season?

A golf course’s green fee table can create hundreds of green fee strategies based on the combination of ‘date × day × time × event × customer × climate’. However, more importantly, we had to come up with a plan to continuously receive support from members and golfers through RM (revenue management) policy that considers ‘brand strategy × course × membership strategy × marketing strategy × operation concept’.

And now, in the DX marketing period after 2023, the most important part is to review the optimal green fee combination depending on the purpose and how to link it with big user platforms with a diverse potential customer base.

In consulting work, these issues were always the same as homework not only at Korean golf courses, but also when working at golf courses in the United States and Japan.

This happened when I was working as the general manager of a golf course in Tochigi-ken, Japan. When the number of visitors was insufficient compared to the target, we made numerous attempts to publicize events, policies, and prices of our golf course without going to nearby golf driving ranges to put up posters and relying on nearby acquaintances or Big Mouth, but in general, we had no hope. It used to bring limited results.

The reason is that individual golf course marketing could not be delivered through multiple channels. This is because we were unable to understand our golf club's differentiated concept and operating model to golfers through the many affiliated channels through which we could sell, and in reality, it was one of the mediocre golf courses among the 200 or so golf courses in Tochigi Prefecture.

The stepping stone to securing golf course sales and guest prices is to expand the number of golf visitors through continuous promotion and various events to potential customers.

And based on this, a virtuous cycle structure should be created with secondary marketing to increase the price per guest. If 'golf' is moved to the perspective of 'travel' and open platforms such as GDS are utilized, marketing innovation can be made possible.

Sources : Golf Industry news (http://www.golfin.co.kr)

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