Clubs with falling revenue
‘Falling pokies revenue hits RSL clubs hard,’ by Graeme Hammond in the Sunday Herald Sun, May 29, 2011, details the issues facing RSL club revenue: financial pressures, an ageing membership base & poor management. This was leading to closures, mergers or loans from Anzac House to assist redevelopment.

One suburban sub-branch treasurer suggested that the problem was often ‘the sheer incompetence of the local elected committees… and that unless they get people with business acumen on committees, many clubs would go to the wall.’

Another point made in the article by the RSL State President, Maj-General David McLachlan was that gaming was not the primary focus of  clubs but that it: ‘…provides us with the resources to carry out our primary role of welfare, commemoration and comradeship.’

What to do about falling revenue in the RSL clubs and other clubs?
Attracting committee members with business acumen to help improve club revenue is a good idea. But what sort of business experience would help? How long will this process take? Especially if things are in bad shape? Possibly far too long!

A couple of suggestions for clubs with falling revenue:

Do nothing
The worst thing would be to do nothing and hope that things improve. They won’t. The bluntest suggestion I can make is to close now and pay out staff entitlements while you can, or

Do something
A better alternative might be to take a good hard look at what you can do right now, aiming to halt the revenue loss, start to regain it, plan and implement growth strategies for the future, reinvigorate membership and gain greater support from the local community.

Club managers or board members are welcome to call me on 0418 541 025 or email if I can be of assistance. Another alternative is to sign up for our upcoming webinar showing what a very saavy club competitor is doing to improve their revenue. Have a look at our confidential online webinar

cheers
Nigel Rawlins
13th Beach Marketing

We’ve identified several highly significant issues clubs needed to tackle head on

So where are the excellent clubs? Or is it just too hard?

The Year 2011 brings many challenges to club managers. The big one is revenue and what it takes to grow your business. While EGM’s bring in considerable revenue for clubs other revenue sources need to work harder. Food & Beverages being the main one.

So, where do you get the best bang for your buck?
What skill set helps keep you on target?
What are some of the better ways to think about managing a club ( or pub ) that leads to growth and attracting new customers?

During 2011 we will be sponsoring a number of seminars to be held in Melbourne to answer these questions and more. Subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll keep you informed.

cheers
Nigel Rawlins
13th Beach Marketing

What sort of club do you want?
Do you want to be an entertainment venue? Food Mecca? Attract 1000 or 5000 more members? Do you want to serve 10 000 + meals a month? Do you want to fill your shows? Do you want to do all of the above? Or do something completely different? Like really becoming a community focus point and help make the local community a better place ( in light of the fact that most clubs are not-for-profits).

Victorian Clubs in 2012
Victorian clubs change from the start of 2012. Marketing support offered by Tabaret & Tatts Pokies, if not already finished, stops. Clubs will need to come up with their own marketing and business strategy and allocate real money to spend on marketing. Advertising forms part of that.

The difference between marketing & advertising
Marketing is not advertising – it’s about making decisions prior to any spending on media such as newspaper advertising, local postcard distribution ( junk mail), direct mail, banners and posters. Pubs and clubs are already competing for the same customers. Offering much the same fare. Same food, same beer, just about same everything including prices. Except you must sign into a club. In this case the weekly ad in the paper, radio or TV advertising won’t be as effective.

Marketing focuses on the business including revenue
What turnover could you be doing in food, entertainment, bar or more? What can’t you see? What could your club do to earn an extra 100%, 200% 1000% in revenue? Does that answer the question? How much do you think you should spend? Leave your comments below.

cheers
Nigel Rawlins

Happy crowds
One Friday I went to catch up with her at her local club, the place was packed with people having a great old time. They were happy and a noisy crowd. There must of been a couple of hundred of them. It took me awhile to find her in the crowd, then ages to say hello to all her friends.

What’s the offer?
Another club I visited was as dead as a door-nail. I was hungry and nearby, so went in for lunch. I chatted to the manager and he told me that night there’d be a couple of hundred diners because they were having a specials night. Their members respond to the club offers -so where was the lunch time offer for their members or visitors?

Why are club members everything?
Because they like your club. They like the people, the food, the venue, the staff, the friendly atmosphere. They’re prepared to give the club a go, will forgive the odd stuff-up and more. They visit your club regularly and spend money. They respond to direct mail sent to them by the club.

Victorian clubs in 2012
Come 2012 Clubs in Victoria will change – venues with EGM’s won’t be able to advertise this fact so how do people find out where they are? No more Tabaret or Tattspokies signage to tell them. It’s now pretty obvious what you will have to do and you need to get working on this now – if you want a busy venue, grow your membership base and send them offers they want to use. Think food.

What’s it mean for pubs?
For the pubs this means getting a database up and running and spending the money to contact them. Especially if they are regulars. Members or regulars will respond to offers, so keep them coming back and build up their loyalty to your venue.

Tell me what you think in the comments section below.

cheers
Nigel Rawlins

A pleasant surprise

More pleasant surprises
That night the friendly service continued. The food delicious and with a good wine I had a fabulous night. On telling the wait staff how fantastic I thought everything was, thinking that maybe they were co-owners, I was surprised to hear that no, they were casuals, and were rarely praised for their efforts. I made a point of going back the next day to tell the owners how much I enjoyed dinner.

Recipes for success
Friendly service, delicious food, a good wine list -to me that sounds like a pretty good recipe for success. Was I the total focus for this venue? Maybe? But I felt good, the coffee was right, the food interesting enough to order and I was prepared to go out of my way to get there.

Smile!

Club/Pub Marketing
In the blog-post ‘what is marketing?’ I wrote that marketing is all about the customer and their needs. Looking after those needs is everyone’s business from cleaner to manager in every venue.

1. Marketing is everyone’s business in a pub or club, 24/7

2. The customer is the total focus for the venue

3. Club members, unless you stuff things up, are your best customers

4. Give members & customers lots or reasons to visit

5. Get a serious marketing budget tied to performance

6. There are many ways to attract and retain customers

7.

Planning a Marketing Strategy for a Club or Pub
All of the following points need to be considered in planning a marketing strategy:

• Strategic thinking
• Competitors
• Opportunities & ideas
• Pricing your offers
• Target revenue, budgets & profitability
• Determining customer needs and wants
• Making a promise to deliver to your customers
• Positioning your venue
• Segmenting customers
• Targeting & attracting customers
• Retention & loyalty building
• Making it happen

Then you’ve got to keep making it happen, over and over again.

What do you think?

cheers
Nigel Rawlins