Ski 70% and Snowboard 30%? Why isn’t it 50-50?
After reading Marc Werthmoeller’s blog “Post #1: All I Can” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/marcw/) last week about the skiing industry I knew that I had to write about the Snowboarding industry on my next blog. I have to agree with Marc that I also get stoked when the first snow hits the ground every winter…
The ski and snowboard industry had grown enormously within the past 6 years not only thanks to the great contribution of “pushing the limits” by the athletes, but also by big sponsors (Red Bull, Monster, Telus, Burton, among others) who bring these athletes together into amazing events every season. Winter X-Games in Aspen, CO; any of the Burton Open competitions hosted around the world; Grenade Games and Orage Masters hosted in Whistler; and even the Winter Olympics, integrate both sports into bigger and bigger audiences.
Ski resorts, like WhistlerBlackcomb (WB) for example, benefit big time out of these sports growth with their Snow Sports Schools throughout “effective” marketing techniques. Learning the sport, for the first time or refining skills, get people involved with what they see from an event, magazine or home.
Now what I do not understand is why there are still so many ski lessons compare to snowboard lessons? Why isn’t WB investing more time into developing a better marketing strategy in snowboard where there is so much revenue potential? Yes, there are more skiers in the whole world than snowboarders and skiing it has been out for longer, but why not bring skiers that would take a lesson, or not take a lesson because they are “good enough”, to a new sport?
As a snowboard coach, and ski also, I see a huge loss of potential business every time I go to work. WB Ski School could do so much better by implementing some kind of promotion, or highlight an old one, and focus it towards snowboarding. Funny thing is that every time I go up the mountain I run into one of the many WB surveyors on the gondola and I never hear them asking to any skier if they would take a snowboard lesson (even if they are offered an incentive). Instead of coming up with their usual “Discover Whistlerblackcomb Days” (30% off of selected lessons), why not get a more snowboard focused promo to channel more business into the company?