What is the best way to get new ideas for your club? How about you read Club Solutions Magazine in every way possible — for example, the hard copy you receive via snail mail, the digital issue you receive via e-mail and our app for your smart phone!
Hold up, you didn’t know we had an app? Well check out the link below to download the app for the iPhone, but if you’re on an Android phone just go to your app store and search Club Solutions Magazine. Our new smart phone application puts all of Club Solutions Magazine in the palm of your hand. You can easily get updates concerning the industry from Facebook, our website, YouTube and Twitter!
http://www.clubsolutionsmagazine.com.mobapp.at
Note: Click the above link on your iPhone or iPad.
Having a smart phone application has been a dream of mine for several years. That just shows how long implementation can take on a project of this caliber. I had to find the resources that would allow Club Solutions the best opportunity to develop a functioning app, then I had to go though Apple, Android and a myriad of other mazes, but it finally got done.
I was thinking about how you come up with new ideas. You wouldn’t get a lot of great ideas from the club right across the street, because no one wants to be directly aligned with their competition. However, sometimes you need small ideas to help you think outside the box. Looking at other clubs around the world can help you with those ideas. Maybe you directly use a marketing tactic they used, or maybe you tweak it to be better for your market.
When we decided to explore digital media, including our digital magazine and smart phone application, it would be crazy to say it was all our idea. WE KICKED IT OFF FOR THE ENTIRE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY…yeah, right! We looked at other magazines that we hold in a high regard. We absolutely love GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Rolling Stone, Spin, Boating, Golf, Surfer and many others. It was looking into those high-end consumer mags that we got a lot of our ideas. For one, they typically have a little more cash flow and massive teams to help them implement cool elements to their brand — something most business magazines don’t have.
I believe that most people in our industry spend a lot of time reading consumer magazines — especially the ones I listed. If you don’t, check them out. They have great style tips and workout tips that can benefit you and your members.
Take time to look into other clubs. Try to drop the egocentric view of your club (we all want to believe we are the best), but as my grandma always said, there is always someone better — I used to scoff at that.
Grandmas are always right. You’ve got to look into other markets to generate inventive ideas. Just because you live in a small market doesn’t mean your female members aren’t seeing the cool gyms that the ladies in Sex in the City are using (I don’t know if they go to gyms, but you get the picture). Your guys are seeing the gyms that the guys in Entourage are using. They see this, and although they don’t live in a large market, they want something that appears to be high-end and a little flashy. Something they can really be proud to be a part of. This doesn’t mean drop another $2 million into your club. This means, spend some time on Overstock.com, go to Lowes and find some cheap ideas to help spruce up your club. Look through each of our issues and see some of the small details that our cover stories have (paintings, plants, canned lights, tile, etc.).
Remember, just because you look elsewhere for ideas doesn’t mean you don’t have the upper hand on the competition. It just means, you know exactly where to look to ensure that you always have the upper hand, regardless of what the competition does.
Tyler Montgomery is the Editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com
