Clambake Café ™

Golf Marketing: What Works Best?

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Courtesy of Mr Business Golf

Business Golf Ball with club From time to time I get involved with reviewing the marketing plan for a golf course, golf business or a Golfer.  To say the challenges they have are many would be a gross understatement in light of the economy golf faces.  The golf industry will have to rely heavily on marketing to survive.  Promoting what Golf offers to the consumers has to be done.  How it is done is what is at issue in the golf industry today.

I see all kinds of attempts by golf businesses trying to market Golf, or their golf products, using methods that make no sense.   I also see a number of golf businesses doing nothing as far as making any attempt to market their business outside the narrow golf channels.   It is no wonder so many non-golfers do not see golf as something of interest to them.

It seems the marketing of Golf outside of traditional Golf media sources, like the internet, is not of interest to may old school golf businesses.  A few are starting to stick their toe in the vastness of the social networking arena but usually pull back quickly due to the uncertainties of this new way of marketing. 

Most golf businesses, golf clubs and golf professionals will take one of three directions toward doing any marketing online.  They either attempt to do their own internet marketing, move to hiring large marketing firm who are proven in traditional marketing methods but have little experience in the Golf arena, or sit on their hands and wonder why they are not developing any new business.  Any of these directions lead to dissatisfaction, hard feelings towards the internet and a lot of wasted money.

Social Media for Golf

There are effective ways of using social media in the golf industry.  What it takes is someone who knows what the golf consumer’s wants and needs are…someone who plays golf and someone with more than a passion for selling something.  I will agree it takes more than knowing what end of the golf club to swing and how to develop a slick web-site to accomplish anything using social media.

To face off the challenges of today’s weak golf economy a newer, faster and more social way of marketing has to be put in place.  A business needs to put as much dedication to overseeing their social media as they do their operations.  Sometimes the smart thing is to hire a Social Media Director to make sure the business is focused in its social networking.

How a golf business goes about marketing its services or products is very important.  In today’s economy social media is working best.  So use it.  Let me know how I can help.

Top Golfers to Watch in 2011

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golf-ball-cup 2011 could be the year golf comes back to being interesting again.  It also could be the year we say bye-bye to Tiger Woods as the dominate force in Golf…or will we?  Needless to say, but I will, Golf is going to be…AGAIN… worth watching in 2011.  It starts in only two weeks, so get out the sunscreen and lets image we are in Hawaii.

Here are my favorites for 2011

You can put these players in whatever order you want… I have placed them in random order to who comes to mind first.

ian-poulter_trophyIan Poulter will take center stage year if for nothing else but for him finally getting his designer golf apparel worth me wearing.  However, he has the golf game to match the sharp looking slacks he wears. Now if he would just take his online act to Facebook instead of Twitter he would become the all time number one social mediaist golfer in my book.

Dustin_johnsonDustin Johnson would be someone you would think would have the name Bubba.  His laid back attitude towards golf reminds me of the younger Fred Couples.  Humm, could you image that Skins Game? Funny how history repeats itself.  Dustin has the game to go to the top..keep your eye on him.

 

Graeme-McDowellGraeme McDowell..a force to be reckoned with for sure.  Will he hold up for a long stretch of wins?  Answer: With that short compact swing..Yes!  We have not heard the last of Mr McDowell. (VERY Classy web-site, bravo!)

Bubba w trophyBubba Watson will move up in the rankings just because he has a name..Bubba.  He also has a golf game that is unbelievable good at times.  Him swinging from the wrong side will not be held against him since hitting 400 yd drives from the southpaw position is something to see.  Bubba will win again.

 

lee-westwoodLee Westwood..the Real Deal?  Westie seems to have come out with a well needed ‘Kickass and Take a Few Names’ attitude.  His game has evolved to actually match the attitude…all he needs is a Good hat to wear to keep from burning out.

 

Rickie FowlerRickie Fowler..the Justin Bieber of golf..can someone find him a barber please.  Seriously though, Fowler can play and if he keeps his head on square we maybe seeing a lot of Orange this year…I mean a lot of Orange, on Sunday.  Yes, make sure you check the color setting on your flatscreen..orange is not a good color to pick up, but we will be seeing a lot of Fowler on Sundays.

Hunter_Mahan_03012010Hunter Mahan ..as far as unsung heroes go, Hunter is just that.  It seems Hunter is growing up quiet nicely and is moving on from the White Belt and and matching sunglasses to hitting fairways and greens.  His Ryder Cup standoff with Mr McDowell flushed out all the butterflies and proved to himself he can go up against the big dogs.  I feel strongly we will see Hunter a few times this year.

 

tiger-woods-trophiesTiger Woods..Of course we will see the new king of golf..TV and his sponsors will make sure of that even if he misses the cut they will still have the highlights of his Friday three putts running during the Sunday round.  However, Tiger is Tiger and he has the strength, knowledge and fearlessness in him to ‘Bring It’ at any given moment.  I think we still will be hearing from The King for few more years now.  Lets just hope what we hear about is what he is doing on the golf course.

Paul CaseyPaul Casey..I don’t think we have seen the last of Paul.  We are talking BullDog mentality here and it seems with how he was treated with the 2010 Ryder Cup selection he is out to prove someone (if not everyone) wrong.  I know Paul’s smiling face will be seen a lot this year.

anthony-kimAnthony Kim ..speaking of smiling.  What an attitude AK has for golf and life.  I am not sure if it can be done, but if Tony could bottle that smile of his and hand it out around the PGA (and LPGA) Tour, I know watching golf would be a much more uplifting experience for the fans.  It is very fortunate he has the golf game to make his smile. Being one of the more exciting players on tour who, if his recent injury to his thumb can be repaired, I am sure will return to the limelight of contending on Sunday.

These are just a few of the stars of golf that are shining brightly for me.  As I have said many times before, the best golfer to me is the golfer that is left standing at the end of the round on Sunday (or whatever day the tournament ends).  Professional Golf is a tough enough game to play that a true golf fan cheers for the winner as much for the losers.  Golf..what an outstanding experience it presents to a person’s life.  No OTHER sport can match it.  If you don’t play golf I invite you to join us to find out what I am talking about.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

John (Speed) Raser Chats With Mr Business Golf on ClamBake Cafe

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This morning was a long time coming interview with aspiring PGA Tour professional John Raser.  John brings a refreshing, yet serious, energy to social media for the golf industry.  John is a member of the Business Golf Country Club and is an entrepreneur focused on bringing awareness to his sponsors through the effective use of Social Media.

John can be found at:

Web-site: www.gospeedraser.com

Twitter: @johnraser

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johnraser

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-raser/8/867/a59

John Raser on ClamBake Cafe to Talk About His Trek to the PGA Tour

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John Raser 2 John Raser, aspiring golf professional who is working his way to the PGA Tour, will be making his appearance on the ClamBake Cafe.  John has been a member of the Business Golf Country Club for over a year. 

When it comes to Social Media, not many surpass John’s grasp of the golf market.  His influence on the game of golf and the internet has been phenomenal and was made famous online with the now infamous match between him and Christina Kim broadcasted live via their iPhones.

John brings the freshness the PGA tour needs to keep it going.  His interview on the ClamBake Cafe will bring you another opportunity to hear from him what his goals are from making the PGA Tour. 

CBC-Logo-1 My video interview of John will be posted Monday, August 23, 2010, on the ClamBake Cafe, the BGCC and other video sites.  Make sure to bookmark the CBC so you don’t miss this interview.

The ClamBake Cafe is the broadcast media division of Innovative Business Golf Solutions and is used to promote the Business Golf Country Club and its members.

BGCC Dallas Chapter June Clambake Cafe

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On June 9th the Business Golf Country Club improved the world of golf with the launch of it first Chapter Club in Dallas, Texas.  Here is the ROLL CALL for who attended this very special gathering.

The mission of the BGCC Chapter Club is to offer the members of the private online business/social club an opportunity to gathering offline to play golf, enjoy food and drinks while making connections plus learn something they may not know about new business development processes.  the BGCC Chapter Clubs meet monthly at private country clubs.  Other activities we will be produced as the membership of the Chapter clubs grows.

The BGCC is open to College Students, Business Owners/Executives and Professional Golfers.  To join the BGCC Click here.

Next scheduled gathering of the BGCC Dallas Chapter is on July 22 3:30 to 8PM at the Las Colinas Country Club.  More information on the Dallas Chapter Club can be found HERE.  To join the Next Dallas Chapter gathering Click Here

ClamBake Cafe™ Mixes Old Together With New

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CBC-Logo-1 You do What? Business Golf Country Club offers me What?   Say What?    So when I join the BGCC I get What?    The ClamBake Cafe™ is What?

I know..I get a LOT of questions asked of me everyday and I answer just as many everyday.  For some people answering these kind of questions would be questionably a waste of time, but for me, it offers an insight into how people perceive things they do not understand.

I have been talking with golfers and non-golfers about the changes the Business Golf Country Club is making towards accomplishing its mission to putting business back on course.  During these discussions with people around the world the question that seems to be asked about the most has to do with the ClamBake Cafe.  Why do you not talk about the ClamBake Cafe in your blog?

Where the ClamBake Cafe Came From

Alllrighty then, the ClamBake Cafe will be what I talk about more in the blogs since once I explain it I get more golfers to sign up for the BGCC.

The ClamBake Cafe is a product of a brain fart I had about five years ago.  Its creation was derived after reading a blog from one of the youngster of the golf blogger world the big dog golf sites picked up to fill their site with dribble.  Obviously, what was written about was Golf needing to change and get away from the Old Ways of promoting Golf.   

What I was seeing was the fact that many of the under 40 year old golf writers have little, if any, memory of the great days of golf when Hollywood celebrities became addicted to playing golf and as a result produced huge gatherings of their friends to ‘Party on the Golf Course’.  One of the little things many golfers today overlook about the great days of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby golf extravaganzas was it all started during the Great Depression.  Yes, in an era like we are stepping into today.  And how they dealt with Golf back then applies to how golf should be dealt with today.

The Good Old Days of Business Golf

During the Good Old Days of Golf, Bing Crosby craftily dealt with golf’s downtrodden image in the mid-1930’s by renaming the gathers Clambakes.  What I like to highlight about this grander time in golf is the golf outings back then were also where the many icons of business of that era spent time getting to know each other better which resulted in some of the largest corporations in the world being created.  Yes, the Good Old Days of Golf played a huge part in helping get the country and the world out of the dumps it was in during the worst economic times in hundreds of years.

So, the misguided remarks made in that article about ‘golf does not need old ideas’ spurred me to thinking Golf does need the old ideas to get new ideas started.  As I searched for how I could help change young people’s minds about Golf’s great past, I could not keep from remembering how much fun it was as a young kid to watch the Bing Crosby ClamBake golf outings on early TV back in the 60’s and 70’s.  Where Bing would interview his friends on camera to ask them about their latest projects they where working on.  Little does most people under 40 know..those events then could be considered the first MeetUps or..hummm, with all the birdies being shot back then I guess they could of been the first..TweetUp.

Good New Days of Business Deals

As part of my personal and professional effort to help golf survive I looked to name a function or activity that best described how business golf is played today.  The Business Golf Country Club was what I named the golf community that needed to be built so modern techniques of business development could be shared, but there needed to be a function developed purposely for highlighting the Old and New ways of playing Business Golf.

So, I re-coined the name ClamBake as a symbol of how golf and business was done during the last time the economy sucked.  Then I thought, how is business done today?  How were the deals swung that made these hugely successfully tech companies the geeks of the world drool over? 

Interesting enough, I was finding more and more people were ditching their high-rise offices to just set up shop in coffee shops.  I also found business people were meeting each other online in chatrooms which someone tagged as a Cafe.   So the term Cafe took on a definition of where business was done today.

The Way Clambake Cafe Came About

My efforts to identify the function that would add old and new ways business is done started with the word ClamBake, the symbol of the old way business was done.  Then I added to the word Cafe, the symbol of how business is done today, to come up with ClamBake Cafe™.

That is how the name came about, but you are asking..

What does the ClamBake Cafe do and why is it an important part of the Business Golf Country Club?

Simply put, the ClamBake Cafe is the social media arm of the Innovative Business Golf Solutions endeavors to help golf and business survive these tough economic times.  The Business Golf Country Club is the golf community IBGS is building to bring together in a business/social environment the real golfers of the world..the real people who understand golf or want to get a better understanding of golf.  The ClamBake Cafe is where the old styles of business networking comes together with today’s new technology.

The ClamBake Cafe (CBC) is where video interviews of the members of the Business Golf Country Club will be shown.  The CBC will be the multi-media presence for the BGCC Chapter Club’s Live Streams.  As the BGCC grows so does the CBC.  Ultimately, the goal for the ClamBake Cafe is for it to become the name of the Conference Expo of the BGCC and IBGS.

Business Golf is not a new way to develop business.   It has been proven over and over for many years now how trust is the foundation of business and golf is one of the only ways to develop trust.  If you do not play golf many doors to opportunity will be tougher to open. 

The Power of Business Golf Shows in the Clambake Cafe

If you are not playing golf now you should and the Business Golf Country Club is a great way to add Purpose to playing golf which should drive you to want to learn to play golf.  The BGCC can help facilitate your learning the game through introduction to golf professionals in your area who are members of the BGCC or through the golf schools produced by the BGCC.

Join ‘The Club’ that makes a difference in your business as well as your personal life.  And, of course, let me know how I can help.