Premium Perception Disconnect, Part Two: Wrestling with Squirrels

First published in in the May/June 2010 issue of Management and Operations, this article is the second of two focusing on incentivized marketing and the perceptual distinction between the value of the premium as advertised by the marketer...and the worth of that premium as demonstrated by the prospect.  Think, sizzle and fizzle.

In our concluding piece, we illustrate the credibility index, put the giddy-up back in membership resort marketing, and evolve Premium Perception Disconnect to Premium Perception Arbitrage by transforming this: 

p(S-C)(1-p)($0-C) > $0,

to this:

(ci)(S-C) [1-(ci)]($0-C) > $0.

By matching premium spend to stipulated show-rate, we show how to bring those ever-precious risk neutrals back to the Sales Center.  Yes, we know, we know: it can't be done.  On the other hand, Sparky, the earth used to be flat.

The link below takes you to the full article.

 http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=643

The Key Drivers of Experiential Satisfaction in Recreation and Leisure

The attempt here is to model recreation and leisure participant experiential satisfaction in the membership resort or timeshare space  by way of  two sets of influences, one “internal” and the other, “external,” while accounting for the impact of the high-urgency sales process common to the industry. 

Internal influences are part of an “Activity > Experience > Innate Need” dynamic in which the desire to achieve an experience in satisfaction of a psychological need serves to compel recreation and leisure participant decisions and selections. These internal influences may be captured by Likert-type scales measuring both the importance of and satisfaction with a comprehensive set of experiences shown through research to associate with leisure and recreation.  However, although "internals" tell an important part of the story, they do not tell the entire story: external influences also play a significant role in participant satisfaction.

External influences are perceptions of and reactions to the specific participative environment which includes the resort-proper, its aesthetic qualities, entertainment, upkeep of its physical plant, its grounds, infrastructure, and rooms; facility modernity, comfort, and amenities; dining services including quality of food, variety, convenience, cleanliness, the service and wait-staff; maintenance fees and other cost-of-use issues;  and a broader set of externals which includes climate desirability, efficiency of affiliate programs, and in some instances, a negative predisposition characterized as buyer’s remorse brought on by the imposition of “high urgency” marketing and sales methods.

Scrolling toward the bottom of the page, the reader will find the GUI output for a "work-in-progress" structural equation model portraying experiential satisfaction.  The bar beneath the model provides “goodness of fit” measures.  All variable identities have been withheld.

Dorothy Leaves Kansas: A New Approach to Marketing in the Membership Resort Space

The title of this article is suitable in that what is overviewed in its few paragraphs—Impulse Propensity Marketing™—is as much a departure from the industry’s more prosaic marketing practices as was Dorothy’s trip to Oz. The similarity ends there: Baum’s narrative was fiction and fantasy, presumably, while this one, rest assured, is not.

Impulse Propensity Marketing™ or “IPM” is a field-tested, permission-based, demand-generation methodology premised on the theory that pleasure-related consumer behavior begins primarily on an emotional level...and is rationalized secondarily. As consumers, people are feeling creatures that happen to think. When attitude and behavior psychographics are incorporated into a predictive model via first-and-second-generation statistical methodologies, the "hit rate" jumps nearly 30 points beyond the state of nature. No offense intended to our friends in the flatlands, but "Kansas" it ain't.

Scroll to the second graphic on this page for the CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) display of the two factors characterizing impulse propensity.

First published in the March/April 2010 issue of Management and Operations.  (Link below leads to the full article.)

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=612

Premium Perception Disconnect—Cheer Up, Sparky, There’s a Pill for That

In this first of a two-article series, we introduce the concept of "Premium Perception Disconnect," along with an analytical method for right-sizing marketing premiums to deliver a stipulated show rate. Heads-up, premium vendors—your new best friend is about to ask some of your customers to raise the ante. First published in the January/February issue of Management and Operations.

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=591

We'll conclude in Part Deux with a detailed illustration of Premium Perception Disconnect—and a step-by-step look at the analytical “pill” that just might cure it.

I don't know--It just needed said...

In an infinite universe, the probability of an impossible event increases without end along a double helix.  Maybe.

Hiking with Einstein: Key Driver Analysis of Personal Growth Experiences in Outdoor Recreation

The title pretty much says it all. First published in Management and Operations and askMandO, this article overviews a project undertaken for an east coast resort developer whose activity revenue had begun to slide. After developing a recreation motivation survey incorporating psychographics, demographics, and “user-graphics.” we then conducted Key Driver Analysis and Key Segment Gap Analysis which directly led to activity programming initiatives, off-the-chart facility utilization, and an 11% implementation-year revenue gain of more than $200,000. And yes, Einstein was a hiker.

http://askmando.com/authors/will_ken/hiking_einstein.html

Counting On Our Toes--Part Three

Counting On Our Toes--Part Three, originally published in Management and Operations, concludes the series with a look at Central Tendency, standard deviation, correlation, and regression analysis, along with an example of how the latter two techniques might be used in a real-world application. Sufficiently explicit so that anyone with a good calculator, a decent propensity for math, and a couple hours to kill could work through simple problems by hand.

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=553

ZipMatch™

ZipMatch™ is the inexpensive analytical alternative to syndicated geo-demographic profiling. For-Profits, Non-Profits, Call Centers and Direct Mail organizations—all benefit from ZipMatch™ as it innovatively identifies and emphasizes what works…and right-sizes what doesn’t. Part of the Impulse Propensity Marketing™ suite of methodologies, ZipMatch™ answers the “Who-Where” question in customer targeting by matching your campaign with high-probability threshold prospects.

ZipMatch™…all you’ve got to lose is inefficiency.

Counting On Our Toes--Part Two

Originally published in Management and Operations (link below) Counting On Our Toes...Part Two continues a review of the pros and cons of do-it-yourself-customer research as it examines the KISS principle of questionnaire design, and broadly overviews statistical fundamentals.

Part Three, to be published in September, will conclude the series with an overview of various statistics and methods including corellation and regression.

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=529

Counting On Our Toes...Part One

Counting On Our Toes...Part One begins a series of three casual articles in which we overview some of the perils and potholes of do-it-yourself customer research.

Research "newbies" may want to take note: Old World map-makers often printed this caveat to warn explorers of uncharted regions: Hic sunt dracones (Here be dragons). Originally published in Management and Operations.

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=512

Peepers, Leapers, and Keepers: Consumer Research Among Timeshare/Membership Resorts

First published in The Resort Trades, with Peepers, Leapers, and Keepers we offer an insider's perspective on the dearth of consumer research characterizing much (though certainly not all) of the industry as we take a critical look at its number-one, sacrosanct business tactic. We ain't scared of no ghosts!

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Resort&act=view&id=460

Goodbye Ozzie and Harriet: Psychographics, the Geo-Cultural Imprint, and Why People Like to Play in the Woods

First published in The Resort Trades, with this article we describe the necessary philosophical shift away from the membership resort industry's traditional, deader-than-Elvis activity management service delivery model which for 50 years has labored under the misapprehension that one size fits all...to a highly customer-centric experience management approach to understanding and providing for the real motivations underlying consumer participation in outdoor rec and camping. Not intended for the faint-of-heart or thin-of-skin, the article looks ahead and around the corner to some fundamental changes in business-as-usual, policy-level decision making.

http://resorttrades.com/articles.php?showMag=Management&act=view&id=186

Tell Me A Story™

Tell Me A Story™ is a brand-development methodology incorporating photography, the consumer narrative, text analysis, and logistic regression into a metaphor-evocative framework suitable for small, "underbranded" entrepreneur-retailers.

What is a "brand"? A brand is many things, all related. A brand is what makes your business uniquely you. It is your concept made real--and commercial. It is how you present your business. Even more, it is what your customers will remember about you when it comes time to make another purchase. It is what will bring them back to buy from you. Most importantly, whatever image you, the entrepreneur, had in mind when you opened your store, your shop, your boutique--the brand is, effectively, what the consumer thinks it is.

Let's say that again: your brand is not what you think it is--your brand is what the consumer thinks it is...and the successful retailer will be the one who ensures the synchronicity between the two perceptions...and Tell Me A Story™ is the brand development methodology that enables that synchronicity.

Tell Me A Story™ helps create and communicate a unique brand that promises the delivery of a consumer experience; the Tell Me A Story™ brand will incorporate key marketing messages and images conducive to mental associations, impressions, and feelings. In short, Tell Me A Story™ will create and comprehensively portray a virtual and visceral consumer experience that connects the dots between what you offer...what the consumer wants...and where the consumer will go to get it.

Tell Me A Story™ --The smart money knows that a brand is more than just a swoosh.

JustMyStyle™

JustMyStyle™ is a permission-based lead-generation tool developed to capture consumer impulse propensity in the timeshare, travel, or leisure industry. Developed by psychographics specialist Ken Will, JustMyStyle™ fits seamlessly into practically any existing consumer promotion or Enter-to-Win campaign, whether on-line or in-person, virtually eliminating high start-up costs.

When incorporated via drop-down into the existing, on-line registration process, or the mall display or box route lead slip, with no more than 4 questions, JustMyStyle™ provides an appendable index of impulse propensity that follows the prospect throughout the entire handling chain: registration, call-to-action, tour, pitch, and sale.

Why does impulse propensity matter? Because most pleasure-related or experience-preference consumer purchasing decisions begin emotionally...and impulse propensity, metaphorically described as "the consumer inclination toward jumping from bridges hoping to grow wings on the way down," plays a pivotal role within the high-urgency, persuade-and-decide environment by telling the marketer ahead of time whether the prospect is a bungee-jumping bonzai that even a newbie could sell...or one of those cool, calm, "let me think about it" types who wouldn't buy air if
they were gasping for breath.

JustMyStyle™ is another lead-generation development from Ken Will, Director of Consumer Research for Ohio-based D & A Solutions, Ltd., and is part of the expanding Impulse Propensity Marketing™ methodology.