Alvamar Country Club Members

The initial objective of this paper was to distinguish if there is a significant difference in the media methods in which Alvamar Country Club gains new members. While gathering the data it came to be very clear that it did not exist. This quickly reverted this study to the information that was readily available. Looking at the member’s relationship with the club and the age of said members a connection can be made to the effectiveness of the media campaign in place and to whom it reaches.

Original Hypothesis: There is a significant difference between marketing mediums when country clubs try to recruit new members.
New Hypothesis (Hypothesis Used): There is a difference in mean ages between dinning, golf and swimming members at Alvamar Country Club.
General Context The main purpose of this paper is to prove that there is an importance to having a strict strategy to marketing for new members at Alvamar Country Club. Finding a significant difference between groups of members may help to uncover why certain people join. By using only one marketing strategy Alvamar is limiting the amount and type of people that it as an entity can reach. This research will help show that there is a difference between the members at Alvamar. For the purpose of this study there are three different types of country club members. Golf, dining, and swimming; once a member has joined a certain group that person can experience the benefits of the other two groups for a set fee. However, those numbers have nothing to do with this specific study. This study will try and uncover if there is a specific difference when it comes to age within the membership groups. By determining if there is a difference within the groups it will prove that a more in depth process needs to be put into place for data gathering on the people who are considered new members. For the purpose ‘new members’ are classified as members that joined within the same calendar year. The data gathering process at Alvamar is lacking simple because of the fact that it is not tracked as hard data when new members join the club. If there is a significant difference between group members age then there is proof that different marketing strategies should be put in to place to gain new members in each group. The first group is the Dining Group. This group has a minimum set for the amount required per quarter for food. If this member wants to golf or swim there are set fees. The second group is the Golf Members there are different packages witch include amount of rounds per year, with or without a cart, and number of guest allowed per year. If golf members want to swim or dine there are different fees included for that. The final type is the Swim Group; this membership includes different numbers of passes to the pool up to unlimited, number of guests allowed, and swim lessons. Just as the others there are set fees that are used if swimming members would like to enjoy benefits of the golf or dining membership. Finding a difference in the ages for these groups will help to magnify the potency of the marketing campaign. Much of this study was influenced by previous research done by past authors.

Literature Review Research has been done in this specific area and none more similar than to a study done in Southern California in 1998. This Country Club was also revamping many attributes to its marketing campaign and began doing research to see where to start. “One major operational change was development of quantitative performance measures for all marketing activities” (Merritt). The club had been successful at breaking even at the four-hundred member mark but was attempting to push itself over the hump to expand to a thirty-six hole golf course. Expanding with an extra eighteen holes would mean that the club would need to get to five-hundred and seventy-five members to get to the break-even point. The break-even point is when the club