Golf Inc - April 2008 - (Page 36)

|John Johnson| J 2 G o l f M a r k e t i n g, Seattle Johnson’s golf marketing company grew out of a photography business. In fact, his original interest in sports was wrestling. After wrestling on his college’s team in eastern Washington, he taught photography at the college and high school level. Much of his spare time, though, was spent coaching wrestling teams and owning and operating wrestling camps. But he had also started playing golf. He loved it and began taking photographs of courses. A friend invited him to join a company group that was having a corporate retreat at Pebble Beach Golf Club and Johnson took his camera along. The director of golf reluctantly allowed him to take some professional-quality photos of the course. “From that morning shoot in the early 1990s, I got some images that Pebble Beach decided to use in an advertising campaign,” he said. “It’s one of those things that happens that can change your life. What do you do when that one opportunity comes along?” For Johnson, it led to a career change. His photos ran in prestigious golf publications and suddenly he was in demand with other courses. Now he has a company that does golf course photography, designs Web sites, brochures, rack cards and other graphic materials for courses, as well as running public relations campaigns. |Anita Welch| Club Impressions, Roswell, Ga. Anita Welch has been in golf club marketing since 1975, primarily helping private clubs sell memberships. She started out with ClubCorp in Houston as a receptionist and worked her way into membership sales, an experience that was a great help later. “Until ClubCorp came along, there was no such thing as membership marketing,” she said. “They pioneered in making private clubs into a business where before they were always owned by members.” In 1985 she started her own business, Club Marketing. In 2003, she sold that company but recently launched another firm — Club Impressions. Over the years, she has handled more than 400 clients. One of her specialties has been creating membership offerings with real estate and emotional value attached to them. “The marriage of real estate to membership means that when someone |Jeff Fleishmann|G o l f B u s i n e s s A d v i s o r s , W i l l i a m s b u r g , Va . After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Fleishman spent 17 years at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., in jobs that included promotions manager, director of sports, director of marketing and resort manager. In 1992, he started Golf Business Advisors. He and his staff handle about 10 to 15 clients a year in developing marketing plans and doing membership sales. He has worked for private clubs, municipal clubs, golf resorts and daily fee courses. Other clients have been homebuilders, foundations and state and regional golf associations. “Once we develop a plan, we work to make sure that everything happens in that plan,” he said. “We coach them through the strategies to accomplish it. We want everyone to understand what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen and who’s going to work on it. In most cases there’s success when a club has a good plan and works to implement it.” He said that the firm’s variety of experiences over the years offers a benefit to customers. “When I started out, I had really only worked for one club,” he said. “Now I have had experiences with all kinds of organizations and what they have done. For example, if someone asks if it’s good to run ads in a newspaper for membership sales, I know there is no one set answer; it all depends on the price of the membership and the kind of club it is,” he said. 36 Golf Inc. April 2008 moves into a community, they expect to buy a piece of property with the club membership attached,” she said. “They won’t choose a house without a membership attached to it because then they won’t be part of all the activity and fun of the community.” A graduate of Kansas State University, she has degrees in human ecology and business.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Golf Inc - April 2008

Golf Inc - April 2008 Contents Editors Column Birney Takes NGCOA Helm Construction Costs on the Rise KemperSports Adds 14 Courses Americas: Fazio Designs St. Kitts Layout Europe/Africa: Seaside Resort Planned in Egypt Asia/Australis: Faldo Opens New Chinese Course High-Tech Tools: New Technologies that can Help Operators There's No Economic Slump at Still-Popular Reynolds Plantation Tim Moraghan Wants to Make Golf Fun Again Why a $1.5 Billion Resort has Made Environmental Protection a Top Priority Most Admired Operators Marketing Experts Make Their Pitch for Golf Courses From Korea, with Cash Last Word

Golf Inc - April 2008

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