In short, we’re in an ongoing battle to keep the customers we already have and to attract new ones.  Our opponents are savvy, space age, net wise, well heeled adversaries with many big advantages over the billiard industry.  Live TV, coverage in the mass media and a prominent place in consumers minds all are working to divert consumer spending away from pool.

We must counterattack with an ongoing effort to promote the sport at the grassroots level in every conceivable way that can be squeezed into our marketing budget.  This effort is fully justified if you believe, as I do, that:

• Every customer has the potential of becoming a lifelong enthusiast.
• Every customer has the potential of spending tens of thousands of dollars on pool over the life of their career.
• Every customer has the potential of turning into a missionary for pool who brings others into the sport.

While pool lacks the resources of other sports, what its got going for it is the game itself.

Pool wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has or have such a big base of loyal players if it wasn’t a great game. People who get really hooked on pool tend to stay hooked.  This makes pool unique compared to most other sports where the aging process puts a  limit on a participant’s career.

Pool is the ultimate blend of the physical and mental side of a sportsman. The sport requires precise hand/eye coordination, but your body topmargin="0" marginheight="0" doesn’t give out on you.  And a true enthusiast never loses interest in the game because there is always something new to learn.

Pool also provides your customers the ultimate escape from the daily grind – if offers up a great game in pleasant surroundings that encourages satisfying social interaction with like minded individuals.  As a bonus, you can throw in food, beverages, music and much more.  On top of this is one the pool’s biggest weapons:  The convenience factor – you can play for 10 minutes or 10 hours – whatever your schedule allows.  If you look at the sport objectively, what’s not to like about pool?  As the players would say, the game is “The Nuts”!

Creating Customers One at a Time
Yes, pool is a great sport and that’s why it stays alive and prospers despite the lack of highly visible superstars and live TV.  It makes you wonder what the sport would be like if we had a Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of pool to excite the masses of potential players.  But we don’t, so until that day, we must continue to market pool with full force at the grassroots level, one customer at a time.  It’s war competing for the consumer’s dollar in today’s highly diverse entertainment economy.

Complacency and lack of a solid marketing plan are the twin killers of any business or industry.  With the glut of entertainment options available today, every person who makes their living from pool needs to do what they can to advance the sport.  Just because business is good today is no guarantee of the future.  Next year, next month, maybe even tomorrow the sport could start to slide, losing precious market share of 1%, then 2%, then 5% or more to other more aggressive and well financed competitors and to other emerging forms of entertainment.  Do you want to take that chance?  Are you doing all you can to promote the sport?  Can you, in the long run, afford not to?

Competition for the Billiard Dollar is Fierce:

• Bowling
• Darts
• Miniature Golf
• Tennis
• Softball
• Golf
• Night Clubbing
• Inline Skating
• Entertainment  Complexes
• Cable TV
• Pro Sporting Events
• Gambling Casinos
• Soccer
• Surfing the Net
• Shopping
• Movies
• Etc., etc., etc.

Key Quotes from The Entertainment Economy 
                       by Michael J. Wolf

“Plain and simply, there is a glut out there.  There is too much choice in entertainment. There is more product competing for the consumer’s attention than ever before”.

                    And then he goes on to say:

“…what hasn’t changed much is the amount of time each of us, as
a consumer, can devote to pure entertainment products”.
 

NEXT TIME: Don’t miss this one!!

Capelle talks about J’amy Owens, the diva of retailing.  This is well worth your time. Don’t miss it!!