Marketing & Sales
Our target market primarily consists of heads of household between the ages of 35 to 54 years old that have high household incomes (averaging $107,000+/yr.). Their trips average about three to six nights, and 72 percent of the time they go on these trips with their children. Secondary markets include the broader, younger enthusiast.
The average market breakdown originates from the following geographical areas:
- 45 percent from North America
- 40 percent from Europe
- 4 percent from Asia
- 3 percent from Victoria
- 8 percent from other countries
The Company's marketing plan will comprise a mix of FAM tours, direct mailings, Internet, print ads plus free film and print publicity.
FAM tours are complimentary packages for industry professionals. We plan to offer these tours to writers from the nation's largest sports and travel publications including Ski Magazine, Mountain Living, Snowboarder, Couloir, Outside, Hekler, Islands, Conde Nast, Adventure and Powder. So far, three of the magazines have committed to articles. Publicity generated from such articles has contributed to many bookings for similar resorts in the area.
The direct mailings will be geared for the travel agent market, magazine subscription lists and clubs across the world. The mailings will include a number of brochures and FAM tour invitations for the industry professionals. The travel agent will be our front line for sales, therefore we will offer better than average commissions (15 percent) during our first two seasons of operation. Mailings will include package deals with group discounts.
The direct mailings will be sent worldwide and our brochure will be translated into Italian, German, French, Japanese, and Spanish and sent directly to potential contacts or to distributors. We are working with sporting goods distributors around the world who would be able to provide the starting platform for an international marketing campaign.
The web site will also generate a number of sales. The key to Internet sales is an impressive look with a product targeted to the people surfing the web. Adventure vacation packages are one of the products that generate a lot of interest on the web.
"Seventy percent of downhillers say they have access to the Internet and one–third of those who have that access had visited the homepage of the resort where they were skiing. The majority were between the ages of 25 and 54 with higher than average incomes."
Our Web site will be the most cost–effective form of our advertising campaign. We will build a custom Web site with up–to–the–minute weather conditions, live web cameras, booking availability, and trip details. To pull the potential customer to the site, we will have a unique Web cam for each property. The Web cam takes a picture every 60 seconds and is instantly available for viewing at the site. Our cams will show the view from each resort.
Print ads will be placed in various sports/travel publications. Our target market reads these magazines. These magazines, in most cases, act as a travel organizer for the guest (from accommodations to gear).
Currently, we have had numerous commitments from film and photo professionals to include footage from our resorts in their next projects. Rachel Luevano, one of the most respected sports photographers in the world, will be shooting the Mighty Moose Snowboarding team at our Victoria location in March 2000. Also, Stonecold Films, a ski/snowboard filmmaking company, is filming part of their next feature at our Snowfall Lodge.
