Kelly Williams, the manager of Greenbrier Golf and Country Club, has been with his club since 1996. Gillian Prokop recently completed her first month as Andover Golf and Country Club’s membership and marketing director. But despite the disparity in experience, each has come to the same conclusion: The old ways of recruiting and retaining private club members have gone the way of knickers and persimmon woods.
The reasons that have prompted clubs to take a second look at how they do business vary: a shaky economy, the development of more private clubs attributed partly to the growth of suburban areas, multiple entertainment options, the incredible emergence of social media. Regardless of the exact reason, Williams and Prokop’s respected institutions, as well as others in the area and across the country, have had to tweak their traditional business models and develop innovative ways to pad membership rosters. This could mean anything from providing discounted rates and other financial incentives for members who help recruit to offering food and beverage specials akin to a neighborhood pub.
Just don’t think country clubs have become the social life’s version of Wal-Mart. Enrollment fees can still range in the thousands, there are monetary food and beverage responsibilities that must be maintained, and it still costs money to play the golf course. The difference now from years past, however, is there are more opportunities to either offset those costs or have them reduced.
“Today’s consumer spends [his or her] dollar differently than the pre-911 consumer — and even the pre-2007 consumer, before the financial crisis,” Williams said. “Today’s consumer is not just content to pay to be a part of something; they’re only content to pay if they’re getting value by being part of something. So we want all groups within the membership engaged with the club at some level and to have opportunities to enjoy it.”
One of the most noticeable trends has been the surge for creating marketing and enrollment programs targeted toward a younger demographic that might otherwise have never been considered a country club prospect. A portion of that could be attributed to the natural attrition clubs traditionally deal with as longtime members age and eventually pass on, while another reason is simply the fact that everyone with consistent income is a potential member, given the current financial climate. That often requires two initiatives by clubs: packages that offer younger members financial latitude and an increased focus on family-friendly activities and functions. All of that is usually bundled together onto 21st century social media marketing platforms, along with traditional advertising.
Consider part of how Greenbrier is attacking the marketplace. The 41-year-old association isn’t touting the $800,000 pool renovation it underwent last summer as much as it is the diversity of social events. It’s the hope of the club’s management that everything from wine tastings to book clubs will not only attract people to join who might associate only golf and tennis with country club life, but also assist in retaining current members with diverse interests that might otherwise start turning their attention elsewhere.
“Bringing them in used to be the hard part,” said Williams, who began working in Greenbrier’s golf shop 17 years ago and has been a part of executive management since 2003. “Keeping them has become the bigger challenge.”
Greenbrier has paired those promotions with new enrollment programs targeted at enlisting full-time members as well as part-time. These programs offer no or discounted initiation fees, as well as reduced monthly dues, and each includes flexible payment options. One such initiative is the generational membership program that launched last fall, in which any parent or adult child of a current member pays $200 a month for full privileges — nearly half the normal amount.
The club now has 400 families enrolled in different categories, with 20 new memberships secured this season (which runs from March until mid-December). Williams credits 15 of these new memberships directly to the special programs, saying, “We didn’t have a way to get these people previously. We just weren’t attracting the under-30 crowd before this.”
Andover, founded in 1989, is taking a similar approach that has likewise produced results.
Less than three years after filing voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the club has seen a significant surge in membership during the past few months. Andover had 455 membership accounts when its 11-month season began on Feb. 1 (the club is closed in January). That’s 10 more than it ended 2010 with and a far cry from the 144 it had on the books in January 2007.
Club leadership attributes part of that surge to the club’s financial stability following the financial restructuring that began in 2009, but also to the club’s retention rate. Prokop said few of those new memberships were to replace expired ones, thus creating a healthy ratio that has allowed the roster to swell to more than three times its size over five years. Echoing Williams, Prokop pointed directly to the necessity of diverse events as a tool to retain existing members and to recruit others. Two-for-one Tuesdays in the dining area, special events held around University of Kentucky sports and regular wine tastings are examples of activities Andover has integrated onto its social calendar.
And as at Greenbrier, Andover has created wallet-friendly packages that reward members for enrolling new members and a corporate plan that gives four families full membership and a shared 72 rounds of golf for $5,000 annually with no monthly dues.
Again, everyone is a prospect.
“We don’t just target the stereotypical country club male, smoking the cigar and drinking brandy,” Prokop said. “We want to invite women and kids and have them all come here, spend time and enjoy our amenities. We want them to bring their kids. We want them to bring families; we want them to make the most of their time here.”