Marketing Tips

The Visual Experience of a Brand
by Mark Schmitz
Are you neglecting your most important marketing tool?

The most neglected part of many golf courses has nothing to do with the conditions of greens or fairways, but is just as important to long-term success.

It's your brand identity.

The Cypress Tree at Pebble, The Lighthouse at Harbourtown, The Wind God at Whistling Straights are well known images and lasting visual reminders of these world famous courses. These images enhance their customers' experiences at these premier courses.

The authenticity, history and tradition of your facility differentiate you from all other courses. It is important to create it, preserve it and build on it with all your marketing tools. The equity you have in your investment is embodied in your logo/brand image. And it's important to brand yourself effectively to tap into the revenue stream that is a major contributor to the profitability of your course.

Like all entertainment destinations, golf courses experience more and more competition when it comes to your customers' discretionary time and money. Successful facilities know that offering a comprehensive visual experience is critical. They also know that their brand has to be applied to areas throughout the course, clubhouse, print collateral materials and advertisements to reinforce the authenticity of the experience.

Your logo and visual identity system are the thumbprint your customers take away from your facility. Every time your players wear a hat or shirt bearing your logo, the memories of their experience emerge. Golfers are loyal people. Wearing a logo on an item from your course is a big deal, very good for business, and a compliment to your facility.

A professional branding firm can design a logo that captures your unique sense of place. The firm can also develop careful quality controls and standards for the use of that identity, which is essential for the protection of your brand. If and when you sell your golf course, the future buyer will be greatly interested in preserving and owning your visual identity and logo rights.

A branding firm can also design ways to carry this identity throughout your facility all the way from your parking lot to the bag drops to your clubhouse to the tee markers. The integration of your brand into all pieces of the experience is what helps build repetition and, in a direct way, brand equity-and from equity comes the profits.

When you define your brand, you are defining your golf course. What is authentic about the experience at your course that no one else can offer? When you can visually represent the things that are yours alone, you will have discovered a revenue stream that will help form a solid base for the present and future profitability of your course, country club and pro shop. Your visual brand identity is the foundation on which you build all present and future marketing efforts.

Look at your visual identity as a means of defining your facility just as much as your course layout defines your golf course. Both should be developed with care.
 

Mark Schmitz is the owner/ creative director of ZD Studios, a visual branding firm specializing in facility design for destination resorts, golf courses and stadiums. For more information, visit www.zebradog.com or call (608) 257-8400.