SAM's Best and Worst Ski Area Marketing

Ski Area Management's annual article:

http://www.saminfo.com/issues/article.php?tid=4066

Seems to focus on the West more than the East. From the East:

Best use of Twitter for Snow Reports: Sugarloaf

Worst Branding: Killington

And there was this:

Best use of Twitter: Sunshine Village

While it is refreshing that an industry group would publicly shoot down mis-fires of the organizations it is supposed to be promoting, it is not refreshing to see their take on marketing. Mood setting emotional imagery is in and stats and anything resembling transparent and accurate product description is out. We all have seen where marketing is going, not just for skiing but for all products: marketing wants you emotionally involved. But it is still sad seeing how this SAM article addresses the issue.

I'll agree with them that Facebook and Twitter are now standards and ski areas not using social media (and using it well) as part of their marketing campaign are fools. But it is sad seeing that reality isn't valued in marketing and having it spelled out the way it is in that article: that fluffy emotional imagery should be praised (a ski company that shows pictures absent of its product is being highlighted, wow). It just shows you how dumb marketing types think people are. And if it works (I guess it does), it just shows you how dumb people are.

riverc0il wrote

 Mood setting emotional imagery is in and stats and anything resembling transparent and accurate product description is out. We all have seen where marketing is going, not just for skiing but for all products: marketing wants you emotionally involved. (...) It just shows you how dumb marketing types think people are. And if it works (I guess it does), it just shows you how dumb people are.

+1
A favorite of mine is when EC ski areas use cropped stock photos of western mountains.

Ahem, that Killington thing........

" “The Beast wrestles in the same weight class as the universe”?"


Lord, that makes me cringe. What does it mean, anyway? Somebody please fire the person who insists on marketing that "Beast" thing.

IMHO this "new" twist on  ski marketing is YET another example of the dumbing down of America that appears in several of the other  forms of media presentation .


To wit : observe the  sheer numbers  of crushingly numb reality shows that exist and seem to capture the fancy of the dull and listless.  In addition People now take their "news" analysis  in 30 second sound bites from cosmetically enhanced bubble heads who can read teleprompters and grip n' grin but who' have rather shallow depth.

Its actually laughable , but  at the same time sad to see just how "manipulated "the average couch donkey is when they fall for this drivel.

Fluffy photos and grooming in the powder king regions of the sport is perhaps acknowledgement that the PEAK has past and the skiing demographic is getting OLDER and is not in a growth mode thereby offering up cosmetics and groomers and and the food and drink scene as as an enticement for the one week a yr crowd  !

I may be nutz about this or overly cynical but that's what i see -- HAVE at IT ??