MODERN MARKETING
When they didn’t make their millions on
Day One, they had no choice but to pull
a midnight move and disappear.
It reminds me a LOT of people
online these days.
They think they need a fancy flash
website. So they spend $10,000 with
some “creative design team” and get a
wiz bang site that says nothing useful.
They get all the nice business cards
and letterhead. They hire a copywriter,
thinking that a great sales letter is all
they need.
with 2 other couples, bought 60 acres
of land in Sundre, Alberta. Their plan
was to build a quality campground with
400+ sites in an area that did not have
campgrounds like this. There were a
couple of run down “shanty town” type
parks, but nothing that anyone was
really proud to call their “home-a-wayfrom-home”.
Every single chance we had, we were up
in Sundre working on the campground,
which was named “Tall Timber Leisure
Park”.
Then they are shocked to learn
that a website does not magically
draw people to the site. They can’t
understand why they aren’t making a
mint with their creative web design.
Weekends during school. Entire
summers during time off. Every chance
we had, we were out there working on
building that park up the way it was
envisioned.
They blame the economy.
They made me do every grunt job
possible out there…
…mowing miles and miles of grass
every time I was there.
…picking up rocks and clearing trees
for new campsites.
…building picnic tables.
…climbing in sewer tanks (still have
nightmares about that one.)
…installing power lines, sewer lines and
water.
…picking up garbage.
…painting.
…building playgrounds.
… and so on.
They blame the competition.
Never once do they blame
themselves for not having a plan of
attack re HOW they will get actual
prospects to their site to buy.
In contrast to the morons with Food
123 (what a great name… hey?), here is
a story I am very familiar with. About
a business that WAS thought through
properly.
This is the start of a long weekend
here, and I am heading out of town with
the kids to a secret location 90 minutes
northeast of where I live. Ok, it ain’t
that much of a secret… I am heading to
the campground that I grew up in.
You could kinda say…
“My name is Troy, and I grew up
in a trailer park”…
…and it would be factually accurate.
When I was 8 yrs old, my folks, along
A great place to learn the value of
hard work, as I saw that place come
together bit by bit and morph itself into
a premier “leisure park”. With over 385
permanent sites (rented by the year)
and another 100+ overnight sites, it
quickly became “the place” for bringing
your family and having a good time.
It ran successfully for 25 years that
way. Then in 1999 or so, they sold
individual lots off as private parcels.
They are out of it now, and have a
condo board that runs everything.
They kept their 60 foot mobile out
there, and the kids and I love going
out there for the weekends. Hang out
at the river. Go swimming (it has an
indoor swimming pool and hot tub).
Sometimes I sneak off for a round
of golf. Sometimes when I am on a
serious deadline, I will pack up the
laptop and head out to the trailer for
some serious focus time.
The reason I bring this up?
Because they invested a small fortune
building that place from the ground up.
They had a vision in mind on what type
of campground it would be. They knew
it was targeted at families, not baseball
teams and young teenagers on a
mission to get as drunk as possible.
They had lots of rules in place on how
you had to act in the campground, if
you wanted to stay.
They were priced at a premium. And
they hired tyrants as managers for the
place, to keep everyone in line.
They worked their asses off for
decades… and it paid off in the end.
They didn’t build it, and expect people
to come.
They built it, and worked their
tails off getting people out there
to try it out.
Then to get them to commit for a year.
Knowing full well that one year would
mean the next year, the next, and so on.
Many seasonal campers stayed there
for 25 years, then ended up buying the
lots once they privatized it.
The Food 123 business built it and
expected a flood of traffic the first day.
Apr