Scott Linden Outdoors

Quit your bellyachin’. Re-order your priorities. Get in touch with your feminine side.

That’s the top line from the first Scott Linden Outdoors survey of upland hunting lodge and outfitter customers, and a parallel survey of lodge operators and outfitters.

As you make plans for the future, look carefully at where you spend your money and why. Some of the survey results are quite surprising. Others indicate that your gut feelings and your own research are on target.

Yes, the economic free fall is on everyone’s minds. But not all news is negative (some is positively uplifting), as you’ll read. For lodge operators and outfitters, knowledge really is power. And here it is.

Do you and your customers see eye to eye?

Sometimes yes, sometimes, maybe, and at least one time, a resounding NO, at least according to my recent survey of over 200 bird hunting lodge and outfitter customers. (With a response rate of 75 percent, I’m betting the accuracy is pretty good.) What you draw from the results should help you be a better operator.

Have you got a handle on the number of lodge/outfitter trips your customer makes in an average season? Apparently, you do. Almost 50 percent of hunters will visit a lodge or hunt with an outfitter three or fewer times per season, but a full 35 percent will hunt four to 10 times with you or a competitor. Here’s the real opportunity: over 10 percent of hunters will spend a season’s worth of time with a lodge or outfitter … 11 or more trips. How did you do when you answered my survey of operators? Pretty close on the low end, but virtually no operator shared his clients’ optimism. Not a single respondent predicted the heavy traffic in frequent lodge/outfitter customer visits.

What’s it cost you to “recruit” a new, one-time customer versus giving existing customers a good reason to re-visit your place one, two or eleven times per season?

 Opportunity knocks:

When asked their plans for the 2009 hunting season, survey respondents are bullish. Thirty percent plan to hunt with lodges and outfitters even more than last season. Fifty-four percent will visit about the same number of times, and almost 12 percent will trim their number of trips (so quit with that down-in-the-mouth attitude, you party poopers). Can you say cha-ching?

Almost one-third of your clients (or your competitors’ clients) say they’ll book more trips. How do you reach them before they make a decision on location?

Is this a growing market for you? “With bird numbers down, I feel it is important to put young dogs on birds,” says one hunter we surveyed.

Take this for what it’s worth, but it may possibly be the shape of things to come: “As I am young, I will certainly be hunting more as my finances increase,” said another respondent.

What they want

Hunt with enough guests and you know why they choose a lodge: habitat. Price, friendly staff, food, even lodge amenities and service pale by comparison. You agree, based on my survey results. And it’s largely reflected in your priorities, too. Acquiring more and better habitat is your top priority and for good reason. But you aren’t spending enough time managing the cover you have, based on your responses.

Back to your customers: from a priority standpoint hunters want:

1. Great habitat

2. Good value for price

3. Skilled and friendly staff

4. Good dogs

The more outfitters I meet, the more I like their dogs

Speaking of dogs, paws down, it’s a pointing breed game for lodges and outfitters. Hunters ranked them number one when it came to preference, with retrievers and flushers distant second and third, respectively.

“God only made pointers. The others just think they are dogs,” says one passionate survey respondent. Apparently, most lodge operators and operators agree.

Gas prices? Pshaw!

“Mileage is no object,” to paraphrase the cliché at least for almost half of our hunter-respondents. What does that say about how you attract customers, and from where? It is at least a regional, and for most a national marketplace. Of course, much depends on your own facility, but our survey indicates a long drive is less of an impediment to attracting customers than one might have thought.

Of the remaining respondents, most will stay close to home, driving less than 100 miles (22 percent); another 14 percent will travel 100-150 miles. Food for thought, at the minimum and total revision of the marketing plan for some!

“I would travel farther if there was something out there that caught my eye. So far nothing I have seen has,” said one survey respondent and frequent hunter.

Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em

 Spouses are much more important to you – and your hunting guest – than you might have believed. This is especially true at decision-making time. Over 20 percent of spouses are part of the budgeting and planning process, perhaps the same 20 percent who actually accompany their husband but don’t actually hunt. Which brings up an interesting misconception among lodge operators and outfitters. Hunters tell me just under 12 percent of their spouses hunt with them. You believe almost 40 percent of couples hunt together. Hmmm.

 And keep your ego in check. There is plenty a spouse wishes was different about the lodge experience … despite operators’ beliefs that everything is hunky-dory. Not a single lodge/outfitter thought the spouse’s experience needed improvement or was “boring,” while almost seven percent of hunters wish you’d help them maintain marital harmony while visiting you.

“Only a small percentage participate with spouse,” in the decision making process, is what one lodge operator said … perhaps indicative of the discrepancy between perception and reality.

Reality check:

So, what are your challenges? Obviously, getting more acreage is a prime concern. It’s a start. Improving the acreage you have is a low priority, you say. But according to the hunter survey, you should re-consider this.

Based on the survey, many lodge operators and outfitters might consider shoring up their marketing efforts. While the opportunity is there (remember question number one?), reaching out to the thousands of hunters who will increase their number of lodge visits in 2009 is a low priority.

Someone will get those dollars … why not you?

Home, sweet home … or who cares?

Depending on your particular operation, this may be critical. But according to our hunter survey, unless you’re housing guests in a cave or under a rock, you might re-consider what our lodge/outfitter survey says is your second-highest priority: facility improvements. Instead, take a look at re-ordering your priorities based on what your potential guests had to say.

Good luck

Finally, and perhaps indicative of the state-of-the-industry, two other challenges are uppermost in your mind, both critter-related. You need good birds, and dogs to find them. I wish you well in these challenging areas.

Bottom line?

Time to consider changes in your priorities, practices, at least in your ad copy and media strategy. Reach out, literally and figuratively, for brand-new customers. And look at your current crop of hunters in a decidedly different light.

Who is this guy, and why is he helping me?

I am an avid bird hunter and dog owner that has figured out how to make a living at it. Some of you know me as producer and host of “Cast & Blast” and “What the Dogs Taught Me,” television series on the Outdoor Channel. I’ve also created “Clay Target Shootout” for television, and host two nationally-syndicated radio shows. I’ve got a background in consulting, trade group marketing, advertising, publicity, publishing and obviously, media.

Over coffee before dawn and tipping a Jack Daniels after the guns are cased, in the field and cleaning out kennels, while doctoring dogs and cleaning birds, and around a pool table with lodge operators and outfitters around the country, it became clear to me that there is a need for marketing help in the industry. I’m not sure what kind of help, nor the best way to provide it … yet.

It may be a “trade journal,” or an association of operators/outfitters, or even collaborative advertising that causes the tide to rise and float all the boats. Possibly some joint buying activities. These are some of my initial thoughts.

It won’t be another pay-through-the-nose “endorsement” deal, nor an advertising scheme that goes nowhere. I’ll let you know when something makes sense. Or you let ME know.

In the meantime, I hope you can use the results of these surveys. And contact me to discuss, make suggestions, and help grow your business and the industry.

Sincerely,

Scott Linden

541-382-1726