EPISODE 91

Tucker Like you’ve said before, exclusivity is really about a narrowed position. It’s really about figuring out who you are for and building something only for them. And think about exclusivity as not, oh, here’s our audience, and think about it in terms of demographics. It’s not like, oh, well, we’re going after a 47-year-old man who has two kids and works in finance. Well, that might be one way of looking at it, but there are so many people who are like that. We need to build something that emotionally tailors to them, their needs, their desires, and how that all kind of shapes.

Derek We’ve had this conversation several times with clubs that we’ve worked with who are exclusive, who want to be exclusive, and they want to retain the right to choose more of the right type of people who support their culture. But their fear is that they’re going to come across as being perceived as elitist, which they don’t want to do. So we just want to kind of like clarify our definition that exclusivism and elitism are two very different things. An exclusive club can be private or it can be selective. By the nature of a private club as a private organization, you get to be selective to ensure you’re maintaining whatever it is, that member experience, that’s important to you, versus thinking of an organization as elitist, where it looks down on or is intentionally exclusive or excluding people in some sort of unfair way. So I just want to make sure our definition is geared towards choice and positioning, and being on purpose.

Tucker And where we cross that bridge a lot is if there is the right person out there, and they do come in, they should feel warmth. They should feel that welcoming approachability because they feel like they fit in, and not necessarily from a demographic standpoint. You could have a 65-year-old and a 35-year-old come into the same club and feel like, Yes, this is for me. That is our goal, not necessarily to say, Oh, this is only a club for 35-year-olds or only a club for 65-year-olds but understand the psychographics, what makes you tick, what do you really like, are you more of a soda person or a wine person or beer person, or how do you fit into our culture, and then go and find those people and make this really attractive for them. So what this comes down to is we have to start thinking about clubs in terms of, yes, they have a sophistication to them, they have a lifestyle to them. Members want that lifestyle, that sophistication, but lifestyle is all different. We like to think of it less like a private museum and more like a private playground, and some are more like private museums. But that playground for us is to say, what are they looking for? What kind of recreation are they looking for? What kind of enjoyment? Are they looking for more leisure? Are they looking for more of a relaxed vibe? And then we build the brand around that. We don’t necessarily need to always default to something that might feel untouchable or stuffy or so premium that it’s clearly trying to look as expensive as possible just because, and that’s not necessarily going to be the most successful result.

Derek So let’s break that down. Let’s unpack how clubs can be choosy, they can be discreet, they can be exclusive, but they can also be vibrant and, dare I say, fun and playful. It’s up to them. It’s up to you and how you can be both, and how the creative process brings that balance together for that club’s brand.

Tucker Let’s start with the overall direction. For us, exclusivity is a feeling, not a style. So, exclusivity is how we make people feel. It’s not necessarily a default way that we look or sound. So that’s not necessarily just achieved by being minimal or kind of using a balanced color palette that’s all silver and white or something like that. For us, it’s all about intentionality. It’s about cultural awareness and confidence. And so, how we do that is by narrowing our brand really, really intentionally to say, Okay, we are this type of club. This is who we are. And it doesn’t mean that it’s all the same, but it’s easy for you to articulate as a club who you are and who you are not.

Derek Yeah, you have to start there. You have to make that choice. You have to have the confidence in who you are and what you stand for. And, like you said, knowing who you are not so that then you can use branding to express that, to tell that story, to communicate that, to reassure the people that do belong to your organization that they’re in the right place, and to then, by its own nature, I guess you could be discouraging or just not even looking attractive to people who aren’t going to be the right fit without saying to them, You’re not the right fit.

Tucker When we talk about you’re not the right fit, I think a lot of clubs should be comfortable, and they’re not today. I can say that from experience. They are not comfortable with saying this isn’t for everybody. In the way of saying we’re going to try to make an experience that anyone would like, I would push back on that and say, you should make an experience in which someone would say, Oh, that’s not for me. That’s just not going to be my club. And that will create a deeper sense of belonging and a deeper sense of ownership around the people who it does belong to. And the experience that they feel is not going to be for everybody. And being comfortable with that is a really, really ambitious and difficult step for a club to make, considering all of the different offerings that they see. I mean, I can’t count how many times we start a project where someone says, I want to be Augusta National. And I would say, that’s fantastic. But that might not be the membership that you’re trying to attract because that’s a very specific membership. And they have very limited things that they have to offer. And you might want to admit this, but not everyone would want to be a member of Augusta National because they don’t really know what the experience is there. It’s very different than maybe your standard club experience.

Derek There’s also the difference between exclusive and luxury. I think that exclusive is a really interesting descriptor. And I love the different ways that it can be defined. Some people miscommunicate, or think about it as a luxury brand, and they say, Well, for us to be exclusive, we need to be like Augusta, or we need to be like the Ritz-Carlton. Or they’ll describe luxury brands, luxury products, luxury hotels, thinking that that’s what exclusive means. But then they end up with a look and a feel and a palette and language and colors, et cetera, that might feel appropriate for a Michelin restaurant, but not for a club in southwest Florida where people go for their favorite four months of the winter to vacation. Those aren’t the same thing. So, to define what exclusivity to you is, and maybe that is luxury in your case, back to what you said, knowing who you are is where it starts. And then we can help create those materials that members truly will be proud of to say, yes, this brand represents where I belong and where I love to be part of.

Tucker Right. It’s an extension of themselves in theory. And so when we look at getting into the technical side of creativity and that expression of it, so like fonts and color palettes and the way that you write your voice and the naming of your restaurants or different nines on your golf course, they can all signal things. But if they’re all just leaning to the default golf longevity and prestige, that can sometimes feel generic. It can also feel very irrelevant to the people that you’re trying to make feel like they belong somewhere. So think about these subtle cues. And we’ve talked about this before, but it’s like what we do is a very custom luxury suit. It doesn’t have to only be black jacket, black tie, black pants, black shoes. It can have a sense of sophistication while still having character to it and really having a sense of personality to it that makes them feel, yes, OK, this is for me. And a great brand does that. If you’re exclusive, if you’re truly exclusive, would your members be really proud to wear a hat from your pro shop or impress a guest with just the email that comes through email and says, oh yeah, this is just our general email, would that represent the type of personality and vibe that that person wants someone to really see of them and say, oh, yeah, this represents me. I go back to your example of a club down in the Palm Springs area, where you said it’s the most exclusive club that you’ve been to in a really long time, but there is no formality when you go there.

Derek Yeah, shirts untucked, hats on backwards, gym shorts on the golf course, because they’ve chosen that that’s the vibe and the energy that they want, where they go to play, to relax, to socialize. It kind of caught me off guard. Every time you have the pleasure, the benefit, and the opportunity to visit a different club somewhere, you kind of go in on your best behavior. And there’s, I think, some certain default etiquette standards that you just assume. And then when you experience a place where they say, No, the energy here is this, it’s a little shocking, and it’s incredibly refreshing. It’s incredibly refreshing to see a club say, This is what we are. We’re not for everybody. But for the people that we are for, this is a place for you.

Tucker It’s this sense that this is not for everybody, and that means x. And so that energy must match the experience, but at the end of all of this, clubs are a place of leisure and connection and joy and recreation, and that’s where people go to kind of get away from it. And it shouldn’t feel like work being at your club. It should feel like a place where you have a sense of personality and yourself. And so that brand expression must reflect that. And without it, you really risk feeling cold, irrelevant to a certain group. If you’re starting just to blend into the standard club norms, then you risk this idea of being seen as just another club. You’re just another country club. We know what you are. We can guess your experience from a mile away. And sometimes that’s actually totally fine. But most of the time, that makes them struggle to get the next generation.

Derek Yeah, being exclusive does not mean being expensive. That is not a one-to-one correlation. We’ve talked with clubs that, compared to initiation fees of average clubs, either in their area or across the country, are very, what I would call, either affordable or not expensive or outpriced. But they have a very limited number of members that they bring in. By choice. So again, exclusivity does not mean elitism. And I don’t think exclusivity means expensive. I think it means, like you said, defining that personality, embracing that personality, and not just saying, well, because we’re exclusive, our brand needs to be cold, or look exactly like somebody else’s. When a brand is that exclusive, and it’s made that choice, there’s something super special and super custom, and purposeful about them. And the opportunity they have to tell that story in a way that helps them, that’s unique, that differentiates them, it’s ripe. It’s right there for the taking.

Tucker If people are listening to this and say, All right, Derek, I get it. Stop talking. I understand. Just because we’re exclusive doesn’t necessarily mean we have to be stuffy. I understand that. I get it. I would then look at what I can do. How do I understand that this is an opportunity for me? Or I’m done listening to this. I get out of my car, I walk into the club, and I go, All right, what are we doing right or wrong? How do I test this?

Derek I think there are two ways. One is by asking ourselves, testing as to whether or not our brand, our club, feels exclusive to us. Is there a feeling and a sense of exclusivity with regard to our brand, to our members? So it’s asking ourselves. I know clubs do surveys, member surveys, and member satisfaction surveys on an annual basis, but I wonder if they’ve ever actually asked this question. We are working to be a very exclusive club. Ask your members if they’re feeling it. I think that’s the first step.

Tucker Exclusive, meaning you can’t go down the street and get the same experience for the same price. Sometimes it’s even across the street to the club, quite honestly, across the street. And say, do they have the same experience? Are they doing the same thing as us? Exclusive means belonging here means something different.

Derek I think the second one is that as we look out and determine whether or not our brand and that personality and the reputation that we have, if it is inviting and at the same time, detracting the right type of people. So as you’re getting interested, prospective members, are the majority of them the type of people that you think would be the right fit, would grow your culture, and would enjoy that lifestyle and that experience? I think if you’re attracting the right type of people, then you’re probably doing it well.

Tucker My favorite part when we start work with a club in a certain area is when we always ask them, So tell us about the clubs in the area. What do you think about them? And there’s almost always one club that someone says, Oh, I hate those guys. I hate them. They do this and they do x, y, and z, and they’re about this and they offer this. And oh my god, I just don’t like them at all. I don’t say this to them right away, but then I would say, They have a great brand then. Because they’re detracting from some people. They’re saying, No, you’re not for us. And I hope that we establish that here now. And they’re doing a good job because they have a sense of who they are, and they just own it, and they go with it, and they have no struggles with that at all. And then the clubs that are generally upset about that is because that club is not adhering to what they believe a club should be, or they believe that, and that’s okay. That’s like the best part about clubs, in my opinion. You’re for a community of 300, 500, or 1000 people, however big your membership is, and you would say, This is the community that we really care about. Let’s make this feel special. This should feel like our own place, not like I can go somewhere else and have this exact same experience. And so that’s a good thing, in my opinion.

Derek Yeah, this isn’t a consumer brand where you’re trying to attract anybody and everybody because everybody can drink your product or, you know, wear your socks. It’s the opposite. And I think that sometimes clubs are afraid that not everybody will love them or look up to them or respect them when you’re really only talking about, I don’t know, 200 members. Of the entire – whatever – world, if 200 people are all you’re really trying to provide a unique experience to, then let’s not worry about what everybody else thinks. Let’s worry about what they think.

Tucker Right. And I think that it goes the other way as well. Most of the time, when we talk to people, the default is, what do the next generation of people want? What do the younger people want? How does this work? How are we shifting for them? But I would also say, leave a little room for those people. Don’t just default to, What do younger people want? Let’s build that for them. But there’s a specific type of next generation for you. So when we work with a club that’s always had a black tie event to open their year, and they’ve always done that, and now they’re going, Maybe we should do a black-tie event. Maybe that’s just not who we are anymore. Maybe if that’s not who your culture is at large, you’d say, this just doesn’t represent us anymore. But if your culture is that you will attract younger people who are interested in that, if it’s for a reason. If the reason is just tradition in its own right, that doesn’t necessarily mean enough. Then to say, we do this because of y. And this is how we represent our culture. And this is a good chance for us to really do something new or something different. So think about it in terms of how do we not only appeal to the legacy members, but how do we make those legacy members proud and say, yes, this is our club. This is who we are. This is all about us. Then also signal that there is relevance and there is something for the next generation. To your point, if we’re a membership of 300 people, you don’t need to attract every person who’s 35, 45 years old. You need to attract 200 – not even. You need to attract maybe 50 or 100 of that next generation. You’re not trying to rebuild your club today. You’re trying to make sure that it feels relevant and that it feels really special for the next 50 years, rather than trying to change everything today because you’re scared of losing them.

Derek I spoke with a club just this last week who is in this exact same scenario. They’ve built a very small club. They’re going to max out at 200 members, and they have maybe 50 members to go. They know who they are. They know their story. And his question to me, and I’m going to kind of cue this up for you because I think it’s an interesting answer, was, But how do we activate that story? How do we tell that story so that we’re attracting those next 50 members? And he jumps straight to tactics. He said, Should we be on social media? Should we be advertising? Like, how do we activate who we are and what is unique and special about us so that we are attracting the right amount of people? How much of that should be done through referrals, and how much of that is outward? It was a really good question.

Tucker There are two things I always lean into. As a club, you’re never going to advertise. If you are an elite club or you aspire to be an elite club, you are never going to advertise. That is off the table. I would say that is a non-starter for me. You’re never going to do that. What we always focus on are two main things – expression and experience. And we go, expression, meaning how do we look? When someone lands on our website, how does that look? When someone goes into our pro shop, how does that look? When a member walks through the airport and they’re wearing a shirt of ours, what does that look like? And how do we express our culture uniquely so that the right person wants to stop and say, Hey, what is that? Like that’s really cool. I’m really interested in that. That’s expression, and how we talk about it, and all those great things. Experience, which I think is a huge part of this as well, is what is your dress code? What is the way that guests get acted upon? What are the key events there, and how are those functioning? When you talk about 150 members trying to get to 200 members and figuring out the 50 that really make this place shine, your best case is by turning guests into members by impressing them through expression and experience. And if we can do that right, I tell almost every one of our clients, your member/guest is the advertising that you do for the next generation of members. Your member/guest, the biggest event in most clubs’ calendar, represents a demo day. It is a trial run for almost every aspiring member of your club. And so that is your opportunity to pull out the stops, and that is your opportunity to impress them with not only service but also apparel and impress them with the food and impress with the experience and the vibe, and then I would point back to your last point and go, the vibe that you set there represents how they feel about the club and if they feel like they belong there or not, or if they should belong there. And that goes a long way to doing a lot of goodwill, good work towards growing your membership over years and years of building that perception.

Derek I think you could make the case, maybe this is the name of this episode, but I think that expression and experience is how we define exclusivity.

Tucker And balance is key, right? So, too much polish, too much elitism in that mindset makes it feel unapproachable, makes it feel to the point where it’s like, well, I don’t belong here. Too much energy, too much down the other route, makes it feel like, wow, this is not as nice as I wish it was. And so balance is key. And understanding what your balance is is the key to this problem. And saying, our expression, our experience needs to be flexible, needs to have things in which we say, Hey, maybe the rules we have on the golf course are really polished and really kind of stingy on how we do things. But our dress code is not at all. And to balance those things and say, Here’s what we believe here. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe you dress really well, but it’s really casual on the golf course, and people can play music, and people have theirs. So there’s this level of every experience shouldn’t feel like a typical country club experience. That is what I would say is a failing model for a club that wants to feel elite, or it wants to feel premium, or it wants to really kind of rise above the rest of the market. If you were just defaulting to what you could find in a stereotypical movie about country clubs, then that probably won’t be a success in building something that stands out. You do want to bother the people down the street. You do want to make them feel like, oh, this isn’t for you. And that makes you special. And that’s what makes you really stand out in the marketplace.

Derek Finding that balance is part of the solution to maybe one of the most common questions that we get asked by clubs and GMs, which is, how do we balance attracting and engaging younger and newer members in the future generation, while also respecting, honoring, and continuing to engage our legacy members, our longtime members, our older members, and to not be all for just one or the other, but to find that right blend? I think part of this exclusivity then pivots to inclusivity. So once you have these members, by fostering that experience to be one that is inclusive once they are a member, and continues to rejuvenate their excitement and energy and passion and emotion for belonging, that’s the ultimate task.

Tucker So as we close here, I think the big takeaway for me, and we talked about experience, we talked about expression, we talked about all those things, but to me it’s that luxury isn’t static. It evolves over time. What was considered premium, high-end, luxury, exclusive 50 years ago, isn’t what is going to be that today. And that means that discretion doesn’t mean you’re silent. It means that you’re confident in what you believe. And it’s not that fun is a bad thing. It’s why members join. And it’s, what is our source of fun? There have been plenty of clubs where we go to where they say, We’re really fun. And I would go, yeah, you’re fun for you, but you wouldn’t be fun in my definition. But fun is their own personal definition. And so being exclusive and being elitist is not the same thing. And being really thoughtful around who you are and getting it right and expressing that uniqueness is the ultimate goal.

Derek I think when you can get to asking if our brand here at our club feels as good and evokes the right amount of emotion as the experiences that we are working to deliver, then you’re doing it right. And if not, then it’s time to take a step back, maybe have an honest audit of what you are doing and what your opportunity is so that you can close that gap.

Tucker Yeah, clubs that are going to be the next best club in their marketplace or even in their region or the nation are the ones that express exclusivity through relevance, not rigidity. And it’s all about coming back to who our members are. What type of person do we want to attract here? And what kind of experiences do we want to have? And then how do we express that so that those people are attracted and we get their attention and we allow them to come through our gates and really feel like this place is for me.

Derek Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We will see you next time here on Brands Made Meaningful. Thanks again. Sussner is a branding firm dedicated to helping make a meaningful mark, guiding member organizations into the next chapter of their story. Learn more at sussner.com.