Bowlers Journal July 2001 The Schumacker Report The Evolution of The Bowling Business Where It's Been Where It's Now Where It's Going A Historic Convergence

Schumacker Report

Maximizing the Opportunity

The opening of the Age of Casual Dominant Bowling does not mean that bowling centers around the country need only to open their doors in order to generate strong casual play. Maximizing the opportunity for development of casual bowling activity will require intense effort and the investment of a considerable amount of money. The earlier the process is begun, the quicker the proprietor will be able to reach more of the potential for casual play.

Maximizing casual play requires the contemporary bowling proprietor to become an expert in marketing. The era of marketing-driven bowling requires skills not required of earlier bowling operators. The center marketing staff must be able to continually analyze their business. Identifying the best bowling use for individual time slots during the week is the firs step into the marketing-driven era. During the Golden Age of league bowling, a preference was typically given to league play. Today's aggressive proprietor carves out premium “dayparts”, such as second-shift Friday evening and all of Saturday evening, as being casual reserved dayparts.

Saturday afternoon is another “daypart” which may require repositioning. Lights and music-supported birthday parties are very popular and premium-priced products, which create a large profit margin. They are also introductory products. The participants in birthday parties are generally infrequent visitors to the bowling center. As kids significantly influence the buying behaviors of families, filling Saturday afternoon with kids having fun while participating in a high-margin product with downstream marketing opportunities is a much better use of the lanes than heavily discounting lineage for a tournament group or local association.

A strong marketing program will address advertising, promotion, sales, retention, pricing, database marketing.

Advertising – typically the most expensive part of the marketing program. The goal of advertising campaigns is to reach new or infrequent customers, giving them reason to visit the center. Such campaigns can target general bowling awareness or specific bowling products. Effective advertising can feature full-price bowling products or discounted products. Advertising premium bowling products, such as a lights, music and video package, drives additional traffic toward a premium price. Advertising deeply discounted products may drive traffic, but those responding to such offers may be seriously resistant to paying full price on subsequent visits. Advertising must be directed toward products created to introduce bowling to new or infrequent customers.

Promotion – a marketing effort which occurs inside the building. Promotion of specific bowling products can be accomplished by signs, banners and personal contact. The use of customer take-away items, such as tee shirts, hats and coffee cups are particularly effective means of promoting bowling products. The give-away items can be awarded to the league or casual bowlers in recognition of achievements such as split conversion, multiple strikes or a game score. Promotional items can be awarded by a staff member working the concourse using a hand-held microphone. Caution: It would be expected that Gen 2 league bowlers would have difficulty accepting this type of promotion.

Sales – traditionally, a weak component. The strongest aspect of bowling sales has been in-center sales of short-season leagues. Yet selling outside of the center has been very weak. In order to meet the demands of the marketing-driven era, sales skills will need to be improved both inside and outside of the center. The successful center in the future will approach selling with the same discipline and sense of importance now placed on controlling a center's payroll.

Pricing - there must be logic and discipline to pricing decisions. In the age of casual dominant bowling, a center's benchmark price should be the peak casual price. All other prices can be driven off the benchmark. Premium products such as lights and music programs are priced higher than the benchmark. League bowling, tournament bowling and off-peak bowling value products are priced lower than the benchmark.

Retention Formats – every time a bowler returns to bowl an additional season, a sale has been made. The marketing effort behind this sale is often under-valued. The use of retention formats is an effective means of assuring that annual attrition is frequently minimized. Retention formats provide the marketing staff with a step-by-step process for flooring a new season. Although retention formats have traditionally been used against Gen 2 leagues, modifications can be made to have an effective tool for use with Gen 3 leagues.

Database Management – a critical skill needed by a contemporary bowling center staff. Employing technology, such as card readers and touch-screen monitors, will help the proprietor capture a wealth of data concerning customers flowing through the center. Frequency awards and targeted promotions will be of significant value to the center. The understanding gained by professional analysis of the database will allow for improved effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Maximizing Casual Play

The facility and the quality of center operations have a large impact on efforts to maximize casual play, because casual bowlers have a number of recreational alternatives. A visit to the bowling center must provide an enjoyment return for their investment. There are five major questions related to a bowling center visit which will determine the “return” of casual customers:

• Is the facility of comparable quality to other entertainment? Completing a WOW renovation of the bowling center sets the stage for an extended period of improved casual play, typically at a higher average price per game. If the customer is not moved to exclaim “WOW!” when entering a newly-renovated center, then not enough was done during the renovation. The installation of a high quality lights, and a music and video equipment package is a key to creating a WOW effect. “Cosmic” has gone mainstream. Lights and music can be worked into products such as birthday parties, school events, and company parties. In all cases, a premium price can be obtained by enhancing these basic products. The traditional weekend lights and music product also does very well when the equipment package is enhanced. Far from being dead, “cosmic” when done right, is just hitting its stride.
• Is the bowling experience fun ? A center can use lights and music systems, bumpers, promotional item give-aways, and contests to make the experience more fun.
• Is bowling a “no hassle” experience ? The typical center was built to service league play. The primary service point in most bowling centers is the counter, where customers are required to go to receive service. During periods of peak activity, lines develop that spill over into the concourse area. Wait lists must be managed. Statistics on the length of a wait list and attrition from a wait list can easily be tracked. Care must be taken to assure the quality of house shoes does not become a dissatisfier to the casual customer. The center should be laid out so the casual customer goes to one area to select or be fitted for a house ball. The center should be critiqued to determine where bottlenecks occur in the process.
• Is the price paid for bowling in line with other forms of entertainment ? Typically, a center which successfully addresses the items above will be able to command a strong price.

The Challenges Ahead

Bowling is faced with a number of challenges that must be faced in the next few years:

• Management of the decline in Gen 2 league bowlers
• Maximizing casual bowling activity
• Developing the framework for Gen 3 leagues

The impact of the changes in bowling will be felt by all with a current stake in the game. As bowling moves through the tail of the influence of Gen 2 bowlers, all “industry groups” will either go through a radical transformation, or will simply disappear. The determining factor will be the relevance a group has to the current bowling business, not the group's history.

The current sanctioning bodies appear to have the greatest challenge in becoming relevant in bowling's new era. The Congresses are challenged by having an aged and increasingly ineffective local and state organizational structure. The current effort to consolidate those groups will not in itself fix the problems facing them.

In today's bowling environment, it appears that the remaining power of the ABC and WIBC resides in their bank accounts, not in their organizational structure. A greatly diminished sanctioning group will continue to exist through the early years of the Casual Age. A new organization(s) must be developed to provide for membership needs of Gen3 bowlers.

Other industry organizations also will be challenged to justify their continued existence as casual dominance takes control of the business. BPAA will need to take a fresh look at its members' needs. Development of database marketing structures and systems are vital for BPAA in the coming years. It also must develop new training programs to help proprietors change the nature of their business. The BPAA can help reposition itself for the future by developing new ways for member centers to lower operating costs. An updated and meaningful purchasing program will provide tangible evidence of membership value and a revenue stream to the association.

Strike Ten has been re-positioned for the future. The failure of the initial organization had much more to do with its need to create additional members for sanctioning groups than the personalities and capabilities of those selected to run the organization. The new Strike Ten is a lean, aggressive organization, which has the ability to develop programs and relationships meaningful to today's bowling business.

Companies manufacturing products for bowling are entering a trying period. It will be difficult to create products in anticipation of the needs of a new generation of customers. It is much easier to create improved products for a known customer base.

One does not have to buy into all of this treatise to acknowledge that bowling is different today than it was 40 years ago. The amount and rate of change will continue to accelerate. Those who believe that the Golden Age of league bowling is on the verge of a renaissance do not understand the magnitude of the changes. Although precisely predicting the future is difficult and error-prone, future trends can be projected with a degree of certainty.

As the age of casual dominant bowling dawns, so do some questions: Did the turn of the new century bring the end of bowling, or just the end of bowling as we have known it for the last 40 years, along with a new set of opportunities? Is competitive bowling dead, or is a meaningful skill-based rebound just a half-decade away?

There is little doubt that bowling's direction will be guided by economic, demographic and societal trends. But the business is still small enough that it can and will be molded by individuals with vision. The lone caveat: Bowling cannot succeed if the only changes embraced are efforts to perfect the past.

Joe Schumacker is the President of Schumacker & Co., a bowling management company dedicated to growing premier bowling centers.