Retaining heat

The U.S. ski industry has had its ups and downs in recent years-courtesy of uneven snowfalls, a fluctuating economy, and fewer people taking up the sport. In many regions, these and other factors have tightened markets, increased competition, and forced ski areas to step up their marketing efforts to lure people to the slopes.

For example, in 1986-87 Colorado's Copper Mountain saw a 20 percent decline in business from one of its main market segments, what it calls "front range" day skiers-younger people who come up from the Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs areas to ski for the day. At the same time, Copper Mountain's competitors, which had come on strong with special promotions, did excellent business. Some of the decline was attributable to these promotions, but through its research, Copper Mountain uncovered another culprit: an image problem.

Research conducted after the '86-87 season found that though Copper Mountain was well-respected as a "skier's mountain" because of its challenging variety of runs, skiers felt that it lacked the exciting nightlife and similar elements offered by other resorts.

"Our research showed us that the public, especially the active, single skier with a high disposable income, didn't feel that Copper Mountain was the 'in' place to ski. It didn't have the chutzpah of some of the other areas," says Kelley Davidson, vice president of marketing, Copper Mountain.

Using this information, Copper Mountain and Atlanta-based Austin-Kelley Advertising designed an advertising and marketing campaign around the theme "White Hot" to position the resort as an exciting place to be. Now in its third season, the campaign is still going strong.

Chairlift interviews

Copper Mountain conducts an average of 3000 one-on-one interviews per season, for which an interviewer accompanies a skier on a chairlift ride to solicit his or her impressions of several service areas-from the performance of the parking attendants to the ski conditions and to find out about the respondent's skiing habits and preferences (how often they ski, where they ski and why, etc.).

"If they say they're skiing less, we want to find out why, to learn more about the conflicts and challenges they have to overcome to go skiing. And what we're seeing over the years more and more is that people just do not have the time. Often, the theory is that people don't have the money, but it's basically the time," Davidson says.

The respondents are also asked about their awareness of advertising for Copper Mountain and for other ski areas. "If they do have awareness, we dig a little deeper to get some specifics on where they saw the advertising, etc. And we also make references to competitors' advertising to get recall and to get ratings of their favorite ads," Davidson says.

"People have been extremely responsive to participating in the surveys over the years, not only to the one-on-one surveys but any time we do a mail survey, we get about a 70 % return. The skiing experience is something people enjoy talking about. They like sharing their thoughts, attitudes and perceptions of it.

"We stay very close to our research because we've learned a lot from it. We do a half-dozen to a dozen focus groups a season, enough to give us an authentic baseline. We uncover elements that we can respond to during the season from the focus groups and we also test some of our advertising, our campaign themes, and some new products that we're considering to find out what the market reception is."

Focus groups

To delve deeper into perceptions of Copper Mountain and other ski areas, focus groups were held in 1987 with a number of skiers who had taken the lift survey. They were separated into two age groups, over 35 and under 35. Both groups said they were interested in great skiing, but those over 35 were concerned with things such as the availability of baby-sitting and ski instruction, while those under 35 were more interested in entertainment options at Copper Mountain, says Lisa Durand, manager of research, Austin-Kelley Advertising.

"The under 35 group wanted to know, 'Is it fun? Are there things to do that would make me want to spend some time there? What can you do to entice me to stay overnight instead of doing it as a one day commute?'

"One of the things we asked specifically in the research was, what is it that you like about Copper Mountain versus some of the other areas, like Breckenridge, Vail, or Aspen? It came out that Copper Mountain was a great skier's mountain, but it wasn't an exciting place to go. It wasn't like Vail, for example, where there were neat bars and nightclubs."

Concepts tested

During the focus groups concepts for the White Hot campaign were tested against Copper Mountain's existing campaign, "Share Our Secret," which played off the area's reputation as a skier's mountain. When the two were presented to the respondents as concept statements without any accompanying visuals or graphics, the "Share Our Secret" campaign scored the highest. But when the White Hot concept was paired with an illustration, it elicited a strong positive reaction.

"People looked at the visual and said, 'Oh, look at all that powder! I won't be disappointed if I go to ski there.' The White Hot concept made people excited about the mountain and showed that it was a great place to go skiing," Durand says.

Copper Mountain has used the White Hot campaign each year since its introduction in 1987-88 season, adapting the theme to suit the target audience and medium used. "Our goal was to make sure that everywhere you turned, Copper Mountain was going to be identified with White Hot, from TV and radio, to print spots, lift tickets, off-site brochures, everywhere that there was Copper Mountain, it was White Hot," Durand says.

For example, one print ad bearing the White Hot tagline shows a skier sending up a snowy wake as she hurtles down a powder-covered slope near majestic mountain peaks. A television spot featuring Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway sending up the r 'n' b classic "(I'm a) Soul Man" with "(I'm a) Snow Man," finishes with the "Copper Mountain is White Hot" tagline.

"By taking the White Hot tagline and using it with upbeat, driving music in our TV spots and carrying that theme through our print, it has really positioned Copper Mountain as the place for the person that has the active lifestyle. It's the place to be energized," Davidson says.

To further enhance its image with the younger, cutting edge skier, the resort has also opened its arms to ski boarders, who use a single board rather than two skis to "surf" down the slopes. "All the other resorts were discouraging people from ski boarding," Austin-Kelley's Lisa Durand says, "but research is telling us that the skier population is shrinking, so since we can't increase the size of the pie, let's increase our share of it, so Copper Mountain decided to encourage people to come and ski board."

Three segments

The younger skier is just one of the three main market segments that Copper Mountain serves, Davidson says. The second market is the adults from 25-49 who come to the resort for an extended stay. "They have an active lifestyle, they're the kind of person that wants to get out and experience rather than vegetating on their vacation. They want to be physical and have a sense of accomplishment. That's the kind of person that stays six or seven days with us."

The third market, skiers who have come to ski at neighboring areas such as Keystone or Breckenridge, are targeted with a specific campaign to encourage them to ski Copper Mountain while they're in the area. "We may not get the lodging revenue from them but if we can get them to ski with us, we may get lift ticket and food and beverage revenue," Davidson says.

Joint marketing

That campaign is one part of the joint marketing efforts of the Ski The Summit Association, formed 12 years ago to link the Copper Mountain, Keystone and Breckenridge areas. Through co-op advertising, an inter-changeable lift ticket that gives skiers access to all three areas, and free shuttle buses, the group is able to offer skiers an attractive variety of options.

"Our attitude is that we can I do more collectively than we can individually. Whether skiers are sleeping at Copper or Keystone or Breckenridge, we know that they're going to ski, all three resorts. That gives us a better marketing position against places like Vail, Steamboat, and the Utah and California resorts because right here just a few minutes apart we have four mountains run by three resorts for them to ski, and they can do it with one ticket."

High awareness

The White Hot campaign has been quite a success, Davidson says. Copper Mountain's ongoing research has shown high awareness levels for the White Hot theme, the number of front range day skiers has jumped each year, and the promotional efforts done in conjunction with the ads have generated a high number of inquiries.

"The campaign has proven itself. We saw an increase in all of our revenues, in our skier days, our lodging room nights. And the theme is continuing to carry us right now. We're one of the few ski resorts that is performing very well this season. A lot of the other areas are down 2030 percent. We're even with skier days with last year and we are up in budget and revenues.

"I think we'll fine-tune (the campaign), but we'll continue to use White Hot because the research showed us that the mountain, our actual hard product, is the most important thing to skiers. It's the element we provide for their experience and it's a white hot product."