Chestnut ridge country club has a distinguished reputation as an outstanding country club in the Elma Tennessee area in too many different aspects. The club is facing a decline in the number of membership applicants relative to the competing clubs in the same area. A survey that done by the researchers on the members of the clubs of the same area shows some weakness in the chestnut ridge country club which may cause the declination such as the management, food prices, the quality of tennis courts, as I will explain later. Trying to keep or increase the number of applicants some marketing and managerial steps need to be taken, like commercial steps, change in the membership policies, run some promotions, etc.
Chestnut ridge country club are facing a declination in the number of applicants compared to its three competitors in the same area, the board of directors hired an independent researchers trying to find out the weakness and the reason for that declination, the researchers did a survey on the members of all of the neighbor clubs trying to find out how is the chestnut ridge country club are compared to the other clubs in the same area hopping to find the weakness. The result of survey presents some weakness and strong ness of the chestnut ridge country club which I’m using to explain the situation of the club.
Chestnut ridge country club are located in the Elma Tennessee area, it is the highest rated country club in the composite ratings across all member. The chestnut ridge country club was rated first by all the members in the club landscape. Not many clubs exist within the same area because usually the number of subscribers is limited and it’s not easy to build new club with in a close area unless you are sure that there is enough number of applicants to be able to survive and be profitable organization.
The golf facilities seems to be the main facility at the chestnut ridge country club as I can tell from the survey; the club was rated highly in the golf side, like the golf course maintenance but no information about golf challenges were going on in the club, the golf may not be favorable sport by all the family members since there are different ages with in the same family and different interests and genders, so the young members may not be interested in the golf, the chestnut ridge club has some other sport facilities like tennis courts, swimming pools and it. the club was rated highly in the club house facilities but was low in the number of tennis courts and swimming pools which usually attract the different members of the families and even the food prices was the highest across all the competitors. No information’s about the ages and gender of the members of the chestnut ridge country clubs were available and the survey didn’t show if the members are heavy or light users but usually its hard to predict, in some cases some retired people like to play golf every day and in other cases some of the busy people don’t have time, or they play twice a week.
The country club market is a big market, needs a lot of expenses in order to construct new club facilities and to maintain or expand the existing club facilities. The members are the main source of money for the clubs, so they are the main issue in this business, if the club wants to be profitable they have to have a certain number of subscribers and try to increase them as possible Most of the country clubs depends on the members in their resources, so most of the income comes from the members either for the fees or through the food but the subscription is not a necessity for your living and this is another issue in the business, if you have money you can be a member if not you try to live without it or go for public places. The chestnut ridge country club was rated the best compared to its competitors in the membership rates, even though it was little high two because the rate was 5/7 which is acceptable but not by every body. The demand on the country clubs usually steady unless for certain cases, so we have to try to increase the demand.
Chestnut ridge country clubs has three competitors in the Elma Tennessee area, not every body has the same number of members or number of facilities the Alden, chalet, Lancaster, the number of members to the chestnut ridge club are not known but the Alden has 114 members while chalet 98 and Lancaster has 132 members, the age and the gender of the members are not known either. Some of the clubs are rated better than the chestnut ridge in some areas like golf course maintenance, condition of tennis courts. None of the competitors has a known marketing plan and the number of subscribers is the major resource for any of the clubs. The age of the members are not know and not investigated by the researchers but as I expect most of the members are golf players and males and in the high twenties and up and attends the golf courses. But some of the members will be different ages and gender since there is different facilities in the club.
Chestnut ridge country clubs has a good reputation due to the board of directors that are watching the club and taking the complains , they did good job dealing with some complains about the food facilities, since they did a survey to check the members feeling and hired a new manager.
As the problem rise by the decreasing in the number of applicants, the questions rise is the manager is doing a successful job and does he have a marketing plan to keep the club going forward. The managerial skills compared to other competing clubs wasn’t in a good rank, they were in the 3rd place compared to the other three competitors which is in my opinion is really low.
The survey done by the researchers showed some problems, but the major problem that needs a quick solution for is the declination by the number of applications for the membership. The first problem faced the researchers in the lack of data and statistics, No record are available for the number of membership applications received each year. The survey showed the unhappiness of the members of the way the chestnut ridge country club are managed, so it was rated poorly. Not enough facilities were in the chestnut ridge country club, like the number of tennis courts or the swimming pools, the members weren’t satisfied with that. And the chestnut ridge club doesn’t run a golf course challenge compared to the other clubs in the neighborhood which really might affect the number of subscribers. In overall the club was rated the best in the composite ratings across all the members.
It was a good step by the board of directors to higher independent researchers trying to sense the feelings of the members of the competing clubs in the neighborhood and try to find answers for the declination in the number applicants , the survey present some weakness in the club and the way it’s managed , like some expansion need to be done, like increase the number of tennis courts… but no recommendations were done and no existing marketing plan are present at this time trying to overcome this declination and trying to attract more members.
As shown from the survey some managerial steps need to be taken, like add some more facilities, so all the family members can join the club with different rates and have fun, like add some basket ball courts and sense how the members will respond, try to add some swimming pools or enhance the existing one’s, since two of the competitors doesn’t have such facilities, try to do some golf challenges. Try to improve the food quality. Some marketing steps need to be taken, run some commercial, make some promotions or deals for the new members, and give some promotions or discounts for the existing members. Target the people from farther locations. Try to invent seasonal memberships with cheaper rates for limited time. Do open house for all interested people so they can explore the club. Try to make packages or deals with some hotels or real estate agencies so they can provide seasonal memberships with accommodations. Make deals with the big internet vacation companies like cheap tickets. The people weren’t satisfied by the prices so try to lower the prices as possible.
As a decision, I recommend the managerial steps to be taken into consideration, like expanding the swimming pools and adding some tennis courts and add some different sports courts like basket ball if possible so we can target different ages and different genders. I recommend doing some golf challenges so the members of the other club can join the challenges and might like to join the club. Run promotions through the existing members by give them a discount on their subscription on each new member they bring. Try to attract the people from farther locations by offer some deals for accommodation. Run some promotions and commercials through the media. Offer a seasonal membership subscription with cheaper prices for the people with the limited time and far locations and try to make deals with the hotels and real estate agencies to offer some accommodation for seasonal vacation. Do some advertising through the internet and through the big travel websites like the cheap tickets for packages. Try to adjust the price as possible and sense how the number of applicants are varies.
