EPISODE 99

Tucker I also want to articulate why clubs should do this type of work and why they should work on their brand. And then I finally want to talk about shaping the club’s brand and why it matters for members and leadership so that they can move forward, not necessarily always be looking backward.

Derek It’s an awesome topic. It’s an awesome discussion. Today’s conversation wraps up a hundred conversations we’ve had with clubs – clubs looking to understand what it is that a brand really means. And what your brand really is in one word is your logo, right? No, of course not. Sorry, inside joke, inside joke. We talk about this all the time. I actually think I’m going to propose that we rename this podcast from Brands Made Meaningful to Your Brand Is Not Your Logo. Your brand and why this matters is because your brand is your reputation. It’s how people know of you, it’s how they think of you, it’s how they remember you, it’s how they talk about you, it’s how they describe you. And if you’re not intentional about defining, crafting and expressing that brand and that reputation in the way that you think is important for you, not only for prospective members, but for all these members and these past presidents that you just spoke about, who are basically saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, or well, this is the way that it’s always been. So why would we need to change anything? It’s because this is about deciding what kind of reputation you want going forward so that you’re attracting what we call right fit members, the right kind of members, so that then in the branding with the ING, the active part of branding is then altering, communicating and ensuring that all the touch points and the ways and places with and within the club align and reinforce that reputation.

Tucker That comes to life in millions of different things. When we talk about signage with clubs, we talk about how staff members talk to each other, how the bartender serves the people at the bar. We’ve had some amazing conversations with not only leaders at clubs, but also people who help clubs establish those amenities. And I think of Drew Rogers as a part of that conversation around how do we take the identity of a club and build it into how their golf course is formed and identified and moving forward. So when we talk about branding, yeah, it’s way more than a logo. It’s way more than all of those things, but it really is about understanding where we’re going as a club, articulating that reputation for the future, and then building the tools that help us craft or influence that direction moving forward. And so why clubs undertake this is – there are a lot of different reasons. And we have a lot of those conversations on this podcast when you talk about whether they might be renovating or they’re coming up on an anniversary, and those are trigger points. But generally, clubs haven’t historically felt like they needed to do anything about their brand. They haven’t really thought in this way of, let’s craft the reputation that we want. And I think that’s because being a center of recreation and socialization used to be really easy. Think about the clubs established in the 20s and the 30s and the 40s. Those just needed to have a facility. And the clubs were the only option in their area for a really long time. But as we know, working with clubs across the country, that landscape has drastically changed. And it wasn’t overnight. That’s something that’s happened over the last decade, or multiple decades, probably since the 80s, the 70s, where they’ve really had so many more options in private clubs, whether you want to consider it just private clubs in your own market, or things like different social recreation and fitness options that potential members had. That’s so much more competitive and nuanced than it ever has been.

Derek Yeah, not just clubs, not just other memberships you might have, but all the other ways now and places that are vying for people’s time and attention and money. If a club is truly going to be this lifestyle hub for a family, which differentiates it from a golf club or a golf course or a fitness center or the movies, I mean, whatever, the litany of options that people have with a limited amount of time, the amount of leisure time that people tended to have back in the twenties and thirties, like you said, a hundred years ago, or the way society worked back then, when dad literally went to the golf club and played golf all week long, that’s changed now. Now you’re spending your weekend watching your kids’ baseball tournaments and supporting other family activities, and so your time is limited. So I would make the case that your reputation and the reason why, when it comes to a club and its value proposition, it’s more important than ever.

Tucker And when you look at all of those components, our goal with a club is really focusing not only on articulating it, defining it like we’ve said, but really understanding what it looks like consistently. What does professionalism look like at this club? A lot of the clubs we work with are top 10% in the country clubs. They are platinum-level clubs, distinguished clubs. For us to say, it’s great that your facilities might be platinum, it’s great that your service might be distinguished, but why isn’t your brand at that same level? And challenging them to think of their brand as this great asset that they’re going to grow over time. And many, many leaders, as we work with them, are afraid that we’re going to come in and change everything, and we’re gonna have them lose their sense of tradition and identity. But it’s actually the opposite. Proper branding makes sure that your identity and the sense of belonging that you’re trying to create are as strong as your amenities. A golf course is a golf course, but how do we make it your golf course? And how do we make it something that no one could ever experience somewhere else? That happens with the experience that you create by knowing who you are and who you want to be moving forward.

Derek Yeah, and I get that people are averse to change. Change is hard. Change is scary. People don’t know what the other side of a branding initiative might look like. But to your point, working on your brand, regardless of what you call it, a refresh, a modernization, an update, or just revisiting for some refinements, we would never advocate change just for the sake of change when something is working well, but rather to take all those things that are working well where you do have equity, and instead of changing them, complement them, enhance them, grow them, support them, strengthen them so that your club is communicating at its best, that it’s standing out the way that it should be, so that it is authentic, relevant, and surprising and meets all of the objectives that we work to help each and every club establish within ultimately how people think of you and how they experience how you’ve expressed who you are.

Tucker So I’m having this conversation with a group of past presidents, right? And they’re saying, okay, so what leads us to this answer? What leads us to this answer of who we want to be? And how did you come back? And how did the committee and the board and everyone really understand this? And it’s broken into two groups. One, internal factors. These are things like what makes our members feel like they belong here. What are really, really key emotional drivers from an internal standpoint of people that are already here, that already want to be a part of this moving forward? What kind of clearly defined brand gives us that, plus consistency, across our experiences? If we have a certain type of experience at a racket facility and we have a completely different type of experience at a golf facility, that’s okay because they’re different things. But if they totally feel like they’re in a different club from each other, that can be a problem. To feel like this doesn’t really represent our type of member. This really doesn’t represent our type of experience. And that lack of consistency can be a really big challenge that triggers a red flag for leadership to say, maybe we need to do a better job of defining this because our head of rackets believes that we’re this as a club, and our head of golf feels like we’re this as a club. And that doesn’t really help us move forward together. The other side of that coin is external factors. The market is crowded. We’ve talked about this. There are lots of options for people. And like Derek said, it’s not just the people that are looking at other clubs, but they’re looking at other opportunities to use their funds, use their time. A lot of the members that we deal with don’t have that need to go, well, I’m price shopping for this. They’re spending more time shopping to say, I need a place where I’m going to spend my retirement. I need a place where I’m going to spend a ton of time. What is right for me isn’t always the cheapest option. It’s always the amount of time that you’re going to spend there that really comes into play. But competing clubs are investing heavily. So if you think about some of the really hot spot areas, we think of the Coachella Valley as a huge area for clubs. You think of the Palm Beach area in Florida. There are lots of these places around the country where there are dozens and dozens of clubs vying for the same type of person. And so what we do is say that is an external factor. We need to stand out in that marketplace. And then if we don’t define who we are, the market will define us for ourselves.

Derek Yeah, I think the key thing that you mentioned, or the thing that really resonates with me in these conversations that we’re having with clubs, the through line between internal and external, between the amenities that you offer and the price of entry, that through line is that pride of belonging. It’s an emotional lifestyle decision, and to help people with that rational decision is to give them these intentional reasons and understanding, whatever that might be. But if we can align with their internal needs and their emotional needs when it comes to defining who we are, and we get them to see themselves as belonging in our specific organization, that’s the gold star for what branding is all about.

Tucker Right. And strong branding is really going to respect that heritage, too. So if we do all of those things, then we say, what is the history that we have the opportunity to tell? What is the position that we have the opportunity to really win at here? And the reason why is because we’ve always done that. So, going back to that club for the last one hundred years, well, there’s something in their past that has driven them to success. And our job is to figure out what the through line is between not only who we were, but who we are today, and how can we not necessarily have a hundred percent tradition, but also not a hundred percent reinvention. It’s a thoughtful blend of the things that make us unique are who we have been, but also something new has to happen, or else we’ll lose ourselves by just keeping looking backward.

Derek Every club has history. Every club has some sort of heritage. We worked with a club that was 30 years old. And when we first talked to them, when we talked about their history, they’re like, We don’t have any history. We’ve only been around 30 years. We don’t have the legacy of the club across the street that’s a hundred or a hundred and ten years old. The hundred-and-ten-year history, in my opinion, isn’t more valuable than your twenty-five or thirty-year history to your membership. And there are absolutely components within that heritage that we can lean into when helping you tell the story that is about your future.

Tucker Right. And I would say we don’t history shame in our office. There aren’t a lot of times where we say, you know, you’re not old enough to be talking about some of these things. But when we look at a club and history and all of those great components of it, it comes back to what kind of reputation do we want to have and who are we trying to attract. And it’s about who we were, who we are, and who we want to be. And that helps us really craft a story moving forward. And that’s the core of what brand is. I think, with most people, we try to connect that your brand could be your story, but it’s not just a paragraph that says why this club was established. But it’s really about your story moving forward, and how does that keep inventing new experiences and growing upon that history that you have.

Derek So we touched on what a brand is and why you should be thinking about your brand. So let’s jump into why shaping your brand matters, not only for the members who we’ve been talking about quite a bit, but just as much for the leadership, the leadership teams who are in charge of operating, running, and making decisions on behalf of this organization.

Tucker When a brand is clearly defined, members feel it. They’re proud to wear it, they’re proud to share it, they’re proud to invite their friends to it and into that world. Leaders can feel it too. When we say a brand is strong, it becomes a filter for decision-making. You have an example that’s a great example of a club that you belong to, that says, We are going to invest. Are we going to invest in a new casual dining outlet? Are we going to invest in a Himalayan putting green, or are we going to invest in the racket facility? And that question shouldn’t be answered by the amount of votes at the table for personal preference. The question should be answered by who we want to be and what’s going to facilitate that direction moving forward. So it helps the committees, it helps the boards, it helps the management really align on where we put our resources, whether that’s human capital or financial capital. Where do we put our time and effort and our money when we look at who we want to be and who we’re trying to attract moving forward is a really big question.

Derek And this is every bit as important for the team, the staff, and the leadership as it is for members. We work with general managers who are every bit as proud to wear that logo that symbolizes that brand as the members, as the board members, as the committees are. When we work through these projects and we talk to staff and how they express their brand within their respective departments, how they talk, how they communicate, the services they provide, and in which they provide them, they have an incredible sense of pride in this place that they belong to. They belong to it as employees. We’re designing business cards right now for a club where not only are we putting the established state of the club, but we’re basically saying this person’s been with this club since, and we’re doing that both for members and for staff. So that pride in wearing it, sharing it, inviting –  there’s no better recruiter. Sorry to Tom Wallace and our friends at KK&W, but there is no better recruiter to an organization than a happy employee or team member who’s telling his colleagues and her colleagues about this wonderful place, how they’re treated, and what this place is all about. So don’t forget that this isn’t just for the members buying merch. It’s for the team, too.

Tucker Here’s the challenge. When a club waits too long to do this type of work, if they go, this really isn’t that important. You would be surprised how many decisions every year happen about a club that lead to a future that might be different than the one you want it to be. If you keep holding back on defining who you want to be, where you’re going, what makes us unique, what makes us special, and what will make us special moving forward, every year you wait to do that, it becomes harder to regain that momentum. We’ve seen clubs, we’ve worked with clubs, that come to us and we talk about this and say, What happened? 20 years ago, you guys had this going on, and where you’re at now. What happened? And they said, you know, we really stopped paying attention to where we wanted to go and what we were trying to do here. We kind of got lost in who we used to be, and we got lost in just resting on the laurels of today. And that became more difficult for them to overcome because they had gotten a whole generation of new members in that didn’t really understand who they were, and they were there for different reasons, and they had really eroded that sense of prestige, and they had the stagnation within their membership. And they were just trying to kind of overcome the confusion in the marketplace.

Derek I had that at my club. So this gentleman came to check out and visit my club because of all of the great rumblings and murmurings that he’d been hearing through the private club community in the Twin Cities – Minneapolis and St. Paul. And even though he was already a member at a club, he was incredibly interested in the buzz that he was hearing about this club. So he and I played golf that day, and then I didn’t see him again. This was last fall, and then I didn’t see him again until this spring, and remembered that that was the gentleman that I played with. Well, it turns out, in sitting down and talking with him, that he ended up joining. He ended up quitting his other club. And not only did he join this club, he also didn’t join three other clubs of similar, say, initiation fees and amenity offerings. And when I asked him why, it wasn’t because of location. He’s driving all the way across the city and driving by 12 other clubs to get to this one. It’s specifically because of the branding effort, the energy and the vibe, and the way that this club is now expressing itself. He’s like, How could you not want to be part of this? It was a great example of reducing confusion, expressing the opposite of stagnation, and not eroding but evolving. And by the way, I’m pretty sure he paid more than I paid to join because after the rebrand before he joined, this club raised its initiation fees.

Tucker When you get into brand identity, all these great things, it reminds me of spending time with a person you would want to spend time with or those who you do not. Would you rather spend time with someone who knows who they are, knows what they like, and is confident in that, and says, No, I don’t need to go do that thing over there because I’m not into that. And that’s okay, versus someone who’s like, well, some other people like it, so I must have to go do that. And they do that for every single thing in their life. They don’t have an identity. They don’t really know who they are. And there are two different people in that conversation, and I can envision them. I have two friends who are the exact same person, by the way. And those people are very different in how people think about them. When I say, if you know who you are, know what you love, know what you like to spend your time doing, know how you’re going to spend your money and where you’re going and kind of what your future looks like, you set off a very different vibe than the person who doesn’t know who they are, doesn’t know where they’re going, flocks to every new opportunity that’s out there because it’s just something that the general population likes. Clubs are the exact same way. And we see it all the time where they start chasing. They see someone else invest in a new set of simulators that do this at their club, and they go, Well, okay, so we’re gonna have to do that to get the next member. That’s not the case. It’s about understanding who you are and investing in the things that keep pushing that farther and farther down the road, in which your club looks nothing like that club. And you don’t differentiate yourself by having the newest amenity, you differentiate yourself by having the most unique offering of experience, culture, and vibrancy that makes your club right for one specific type of person, rather than just anyone who’s looking for a simulator.

Derek I think that’s a great way of thinking of it. If I were going to rephrase it, I’d say it’s about being comfortable in your own skin because you know who you are and you know what’s important to you. And branding, while we talk about attracting, branding isn’t about marketing. Branding is not about advertising. It’s about authentically expressing who you are, who you want to be, who you believe to be, who you aspire to be, but not who you’re pretending to be. Not who you’re pretending to be to persuade somebody to come and join and be part of this. Like any relationship, in any irrational relationship, that’s not something that’s a sustainable model. It’s really about putting up that authentic flag. And I think your point is spot on.

Tucker So if you’re a board member listening to this, if you’re a president or maybe a past president who says, you know, we gotta do something about this, a general manager maybe, someone in leadership, someone who is leading their club forward, that wants to make an impact and wants to do this, three really great questions to ask. And whether you’re asking them to yourself, you’re asking them to your peers, however you want to do that. One, has our club truly defined its brand, or have we simply relied on our reputation, our past reputation? Two, does our brand reflect who we are today and who we want to be for the next generation? And three, are we intentional about how people perceive us, or are we leaving it to chance?

Derek Yeah, it’s not complicated. It really is those three questions. It starts with a conversation. It starts by asking these questions and creating space for the club to join in in an appropriate way in evaluating what this place is all about, so that they can align around the shared vision, the reputation of where this club is going.

Tucker Go have confidence. Go go start these conversations. Go, as Derek would say, go bother some people about it and figure out what is right for your club. And it’s about being comfortable in your own skin, and it’s about having confidence in that comfort. But thanks for listening, and we hope to catch you next time on Brands Made Meaningful.

Derek Thanks for listening. 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