Background
In the 1980’s, the Laurentian Resorts Association was
a loosely-knit collection of sixteen resorts, lodges
and upscale hotel/resorts. While no marketing experience
resided within the group, it was recognized there was
a need to build membership – primarily to help blunt
the strong-arm attitude shown by the owners of nearby
Mont Tremblant, a major ski operator that tightly controlled
ski ticket prices for most of the hotels in the area
that relied on the mountain as part of their sales offering,
to tourists from Ontario and the US. Mont Tremblant
was not a member of the Association. The association’s
executive director also felt that a more coordinated
marketing effort was required, and that each of the
properties could maximize the impact of their communication
dollars, through a well orchestrated and integrated
Marketing program.
The Challenge
Bring together a group of diverse properties and personalities
with varied marketing niches and present a final concept
to a mixed, and often-warring association membership
audience. Take very limited dollars for the task, and
build on-going funding so that upfront time and effort
was not wasted.
The Solution
We began with research utilizing consumer focus groups
in four segments as defined by LRA as being critical
to its success. Additional research was undertaken with
employees of the membership. The intent was to not only
elicit employee input, but as well to gather intelligence
on observations from contact with guests. An intriguing
comment from two American visitors became the inspiration
for an entire campaign.
The LRA was positioned as “Mountains of Fun, Any Time”.
The theme allowed the agency to design and build a successful
communication program that covered all resorts and all
seasons. It provided for natural tie-ins property by
property, and for all LRA directed communication. It
was pivotal in all sales activities including tour and
meetings proposals, and it enabled members to get behind
a common theme for the common good. This impacted on
the individual members dealing with Mont Tremblant and
resolved many issues. Separate campaigns were then developed
for the individual members.
Not only did membership grow for three consecutive
years following its introduction, the campaign created
sufficient cohesion within the group to allow it to
initiate the first group submission for government funding.
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