The experience is worth the price of gas

We are so fortunate to live and work right in the heart of the White Mountains. It is an area that relies heavily on tourism visitors. This summer, we've been hearing concerns that the price of gas may deter visitors from driving here. However, we have long maintained that if the experience is unique and that differential is marketed effectively, visitors will come.

Today, travel is not considered a luxury...it is a right, a necessity, a "payback" for all the hard work and long hours we put in, and it is a necessary way to reconnect with our families. Travel isn't going away....despite the price of gas. We will be more discerning and more demanding with our dollars (see previous post about the guest service) and may wait to check out the forecast before we commit...but we will travel.

Which leads me to the point of this post....one of my sons and I spent the weekend hiking around the Presidential Range and stayed up at the Mizpah Hut. At dinner the first night, we sat next to a man from Philadelphia who had driven up with a friend and their 4 sons, ranging in age from 8 to 11. When I remarked that I was surprised he made the drive with the price of gas (in a Suburban, no less), he said that it really wasn't that bad...between the two men they figured that they would spend about $150 each on gas. He said that "it wasn't a bad price to pay for this experience, and it was definitely worth it." He made an analogy about bottled water and that people were buying it despite the price and waste..."it is all a matter of perspective, and what is important to you."

The next night, we sat next to a couple from Austin, TX who was at a conference in Boston. When the conference was over, they rented a car, drove up and then hiked up to Mizpah for the weekend. "For the experience...we can't get this in Austin, and we were 'right' here, so we had to come do this." Sunday morning, they left the hut at 6:30 am to hike down and then drive to catch a noon flight out of Manchester....squeezing every possible minute out of this experience.

And, finally, we bunked with a couple of chaperones for a high school class trip. They were from an hour north of Toronto and do this every year with their junior Outdoor Education class. Did the price of gas deter them at all? "This is nothing compared to our prices in Canada...and it is well worth it. The kids get so much out of this experience."

Here you can climb the tallest mountain in the Northeast and its surrounding peaks, stay in a mountainside hut, eat hearty meals family-style and meet lots of interesting people.

I'd say that this unique experience is well worth the price of gas.

Teens and Social Networking

An interesting little fact....

The average teen has signed up for over four social networking sites and currently belongs to two. Teens are receptive to advertising on these sites, where the majority of teens learn about:
• Financial services (63%)
• Movies in theaters (59%)
• Mobile services and accessories (58%)
• Travel (57%)
• Other websites (53%)

The conversation starts now - Social Media

Social media is simply about a conversation. A conversation that takes place with or without you...so now is the time to figure out how to be a part of your customers' conversation.

We presented an educational session last week on social media...and it was great. The audience was very engaged and interested. Some were currently involved in social media but most had not yet determined what worked best for them.

Social media is one of the new buzz words, as is social networking. And there are hundreds of ways to involve yourself in social media. It can seem very overwhelming. In our session, we attempted to break it down into those opportunities that are currently most relevant to doing business.

We presented what we call "custom social networking sites" using a platform called "Ning." We love Ning in our shop...in fact, I think we are borderline obsessive about it. (For more information on the phenomenon called Ning, see the May 2008 issue of Fast Company). To date, we have created 6 Ning sites....each designed as a forum of "like-minded" people - a room in which to hold a conversation about a common interest.

For example, one that is taking off nicely is icommutebetter.org. The site icommutebetter.org is simply a conversation for anyone who has come up with better ways to get from work to play. We have just 21 members so far, but they are engaged in the discussion. We post comments, photos, videos - all revolving around the idea of commuting.

Another is womenofthewilderness.com which is a community for women who are outdoor enthusiasts.

Simple idea? Yes. Conversations should be comfortable and easy. Simple to create? Most definitely yes. This is why we are so into Nings right now.... it allows us the opportunity to quickly and easily put up a "room" in which to host a conversation. Now our challenge is to drive more like minded people there to join the conversations. While I'm confident that by the nature of the topics, we will attract enthusiasts - we can not rely on a "build it and they will come" mentality.

We've built the rooms, and now we must send out the invitations to come visit, stay and chat a while. Stay tuned...we are working on that part now.

Adventures on Water

I have had the great pleasure of chaperoning two school field trips the last two weeks. Last week was a "re-enactment" of the Lewis & Clark trip that involved a 22 mile canoe trip down the Saco with the 7th grade class. It was a crash course for me...quite humbling when I realized I didn't remember a single thing from my own middle school history. I had to ask alot of questions.

Then, last night I returned from a whitewater trip up to the Kennebec with the 8th grade. What amazing trips they were. Both trips were fairly tame on my adventure scale, but my adrenaline rush came from seeing both experiences through the kids' eyes. On the canoe trip, the moment came when they made the connection between their trip and Lewis & Clark's. One boy commented when we had to portage the canoes, that it must have been awful (although he used much more colorful and inappropriate language) for Lewis & Clark to carry their heavy hollowed out canoes over land so our canoes weren't that bad.

On the whitewater rafting trip, it was amazing to see the change in the kids' personalities when they were on the boats. All the "too cool" and "tough guy" facades just melted away, and they were just kids having an awesome time. In every single case, they took the importance of working as a team very seriously and bonded as a team. The boats and the experience leveled the playing field and everyone was the same for those four hours.

There must be a metaphor for life in this experience somewhere. Maybe it is as simple as the importance of working as a team particularly in rough times - so that you can stay afloat and make it into the calmer waters together. Hmmm........ I might just run with that one.

An unlikely client

A local church approached us recently and asked if we could help them develop a strategic plan to grow their membership. We paused just for a moment, as we are quite an eclectic group of creatives, and me, a traditionally-raised Catholic (no meat on Fridays served with a little side of guilt) and now not even a "C & E" person - a term one of my college marketing professors used meaning "only on Christmas & Easter." But we do love challenges here, and we quickly came to realize that this church was no different than any of our other clients - a business looking for more customers. And what a great client they are....nice people, open to new ideas and really motivated to grow and succeed in this competitive marketplace. We are getting to know their "business" better by speaking to their existing "customers" and we are working on defining their brand: helping them craft their story and determine what makes them unique.

This is the aspect I love most about my job - the diversity. Every day, something different. Around every corner there are new, exciting and interesting opportunities, sometimes from the most unexpected sources.