Last weekend was my birthday and over 200 people sent me emails, text and Facebook posts wishing me a happy birthday. Lots of you who read this blog, and have read it for the last 5 or 6 years, wished me happy birthday as well.
So I want to give back something that I think will help your business this summer.
Here it is:
When it comes to summer open play marketing, most of us gravitate to discounting our product. Examples of these programs are
- Quartermania (entry fee + 25 cent games
- Dollar mania, (entry fee plus $1.00 games)
- Double Quarter Mania, (entry fee plus 50 cent games)
- $2 Tuesdays. Bowling, shoes, etc.)
- 99 cent games (certain time periods or all the time?)
- All you can bowl fror$10 (or less)
- Monday madness (discount)
- Wacky Wednesdays (discount)
- Thirsty Thursday (discount… including a beverage)
- Sunday Fun Day family specials (usually includes pizza and a beverage)
- Saturday night Cosmic (special prices or added values or theme nights or win prizes or a combination thereof
While these are only some of the programs I have implemented with clients, I stopped and began thinking about this
But what if you could offer FREE bowling and still make money. Here’s the idea behind the idea
- We offer two hour packages, but most people leave after 90 minutes or so and if you talk to them after they feel like they wasted “some” money because they didn’t want to bowl that much. So, in fact, we sold a product that most customers didn’t consumer in its entirety.
- Second, most of them bought a package of food like “Pizza Pins N Pepsi” for anywhere from $39 to $79 per lane depending on your market. Some thought it was a good deal and some didn’t. But overall, I’d give that program a B+. The really aggressive proprietors add various choices in food. We’ll get to that in a minute
- Third, these bowling and food packages usually appeal to three or more people per lane so we need to figure out how to get at least 4. It’s easy. You make it a requirement. The following program is only valid for four or more people bowling on one lane
- The program is called “Bowl FREE Customer Appreciation Time.” You can call it anything you want, but the word FREE is magic. I don’t know about you but getting a FREE SAAB, sounds better to me than getting a $52,000 car for $10,000. Do you think that’s just too GOOD a deal? Yeah, me too!
- Select three or four different food and beverage packages that cost you no more than $2.50. Food like:
- Slice(s) of pizza and a Pepsi,
- Mozzarella sticks and a Pepsi;
- Chicken Tenders and a Pepsi or any other food items
- Other food packages you can think of
- The customer selects the food and beverage package he wants.
- NOTE: the food package must equal the retail price you would normally charge including shoe rentals
- Here’s an example. You rent shoes for $4. You sell 2 slices of pizza for $4; you sell a Pepsi for $2. The total value of this is $10. One slice of pizza is an $8 value
- Select three or four different food and beverage packages that cost you no more than $2.50. Food like:
- Your hard cost for this food package is about $1.00 for 2 slices and 50 cents for a 16 oz. Pepsi.
- YOU CHARGE $8.95 FOR THIS FOOD PACKAGE AND 90 MINUTES OF FREE BOWLING
- With four people on the lanes, you will net $7.45 per person x 4 people gives you $29.80 for 90 minutes
- If four people bowl 6 games in 90 minutes, your average price per game is $4.97. if they bowl 7 games, your average price per game is $4.25
- I think if you promote this well on your website, emails, and Facebook page you will get business.
- It’s also a great way to interest company parties and fund raisers and start selling holiday parties too
Happy birthday and thank you for your kind wishes. It meant a lot to me coming from the greatest people I know
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