THE BRUNSWICK CLOUD MAKES IT EASY TO PREPARE A 12-MONTH MARKETING PLAN

(reprinted from the December Brunswick Newsletter)
All business owners need a financial plan for the future. That’s why you and your team sit down each year to reflect on the past year’s budget and make plans, goals, and adjustments for the upcoming year.  In much the same way, your team should be planning for the next marketing year as well. The process is similar: review the previous year, plan for the next year, and pivot and adjust along the way.

Having a 12-month plan allows your team to create measurable goals, stay on the same page, and be proactive instead of reactive. Once this year’s plan is developed, it will be easier year over year to implement similar marketing efforts. As we head into the new year, now is the perfect time to put together your 12-month marketing plan.

Start by reviewing your objectives and thinking about your main business goals for 2020. It’s also crucial to know your budget for marketing and where you’re going to focus your spending to maximize your ROI.  Then you can appropriately lay out a strategy to help those areas grow.

Are you hoping to attract more league bowlers?  Increase birthday party revenue? Drive food and beverage sales for guests already in the center? Some goals might be seasonal, such as league building or holiday-driven special events. Others might require attention throughout the year. Once you finalize your goals, write them down and assign each goal to a quarter or multiple quarters. The table below provides an example of objectives assigned to dates throughout the year.

Now that goals have been identified, it’s time to reverse-engineer to determine when the appropriate marketing efforts should begin. A marketing campaign for winter leagues will require a 4-to 6- week lead time for marketing. Planning ahead promotes being proactive instead of reactive. We know the holidays that are coming up, we know the leagues that are about start, and we know the events that lie ahead. Our customers should too.

If you want to increase your birthday party sales during the highest-volume months, marketing efforts need to begin in the summer. Promotion of company holiday parties can begin as early as summertime. (Many businesses book their company parties that far out.)

Knowing when to start a given marketing strategy is imperative. It allows enough time for your campaign to gain momentum and enough traffic to bring awareness to what you’re promoting. Most centers don’t allow enough time for a campaign to pick up steam and end up with a lower turnout than hoped for a promoted event.

All of this means your marketing materials and concepts should be finalized one or two quarters in advance of the start of your campaign. One of the most powerful features of the Brunswick Cloud is the ability to plan ahead and let the Cloud go to work for you.

Creating your 12-month marketing plan is easier than you might think when you use Brunswick Cloud.  Case in point: use Brunswick Cloud’s Custom Campaign Manager to create monthly emails for the entire year. Brunswick Cloud lets you tailor colors, imagery, and links to support your center’s brand. Take full advantage of the 50+ pre-built campaigns provided in Brunswick Cloud to promote holidays, upcoming events, and promotions on birthday parties, food & beverage, happy hour and more. Once you establish your goals and calendar, you can schedule each campaign digitally in Brunswick Cloud, allowing campaigns to turn on and turn off according to your schedule.

With a 12-month marketing plan, you’ll be strategic, planned, and prepared with campaigns to support your fiscal goals. Let Brunswick Cloud help you start 2020 knowing you’re ready to make it a great year!

Buying the right equipment is only half the battle. In this article, we’ll explain the importance of quality installation, how we ensure quality on every job, and provide 6 questions you should ask to make sure your equipment is installed correctly.

When it comes to modernizing a bowling centre, or building a new one, one of the most important considerations is the quality of the team installing your lanes. Whether you’re installing new lanes, pinsetters, overlays, or scoring systems, quality installation can mean the difference between decades of worry-free performance and nightmares like voided warranties, early breakage, higher maintenance costs, and poor bowler experience.

One of the most critical parts of the installation process is the preparation; what you do before you screw down a single lane panel can mean the difference between decades of trouble-free experience and replacing damages lanes a couple of years down the road, dealing with increasing maintenance costs, and coping with poor bowler experience.

On the extreme side, we’ve seen lane installations that were put down over old foundations without proper preparation and the impact of the balls eventually caved the lanes to point of breaking. Less severe, but equally problematic are shifting lanes, uneven surfaces, and poor bowler experience.

At Striker Bowling, our professional installers will spend up to two days on preparation. This time ensures that your lanes go down on a solid foundation, levelled to a 20,000 tolerance, and meet the requirements of the industries ruling bodies.

When equipment isn’t installed correctly, you’re bound to see issues popping up years down the road. Issues that are going to erode you investment.

We have five foremen across Canada, all certified and thoroughly trained by Brunswick. All of whom have run their own bowling centres. That means they know the business from your side. They know the importance of proper installation, and they take care to always do an exceptional job.

The Striker Installation Difference

• Our installers do everything: lanes, pinsetters, overlays, scoring systems, monitors. That means they know how to make sure it all works together like it should.
• We utilize Brunswick Engineers to ensure everything is done right.
• We meticulously follow Brunswick’s detailed installation guides and Pre-Installation Checklists to guarantee a perfect installation.
• Our 5 experienced foremen across Canada are all current or former bowling centre owners. They’re supported by a team of 20 experienced installers, keymen, and field engineers.
• We communicate efficiently and effectively to meet or exceed all installation schedules set for your centre.
• We’ve completed over 250 installations over the past 10 years and continue complete nearly 30 each year

6 Questions That Will Help You Ensure You Get Quality Installation

You’re putting a lot of trust in the people installing your equipment, but how can you be sure the installation team you’re getting knows their stuff? Here are six questions you can ask that help ensure you make a smart choice, and signal to the company that you know what to look for and keep them on their toes:

1. How long with the installation take? (Beware of short timelines, it could be a sign corners are being cut)
2. How many years of experience do the installers who will work on my jobhave?
3. Does the same team install everything or just part of the job?
4. What does your pre-installation checklist look like? (Request a copy)
5. Do your installers work on a project or hourly basis (sometimes installers working on a project basis will cut corners to finish sooner and save their costs)
6. Ask for references from past job those specific installers have been on

Summer is winding down and it’s time to begin preparing for the upcoming fall season. Now is a good time for some lane and lane machine maintenance.

Most lane machine manufacturers have tune-up kits for lane machines. These kits include wear items such as buffer brushes, squeegee blades, wipers, spray nozzles, etc., which come in handy during a thorough cleaning.

Deep Cleaning

Dust and oil can migrate inside the lane machine and can build up over the course of one year. The deeper cleaning helps the machine last longer and perform more consistently and gives you an opportunity to look more closely at other items on the lane machine that might require replacing.

Nothing makes a bowler happier than consistent lanes.

Lane Conditioner

Once the machine is cleaned and all the necessary components are replaced and properly adjusted, you should be able to get an accurate evaluation of a new lane conditioner. lane conditioner technology is quickly changing with products like Defy and Defy v30 providing more durability and more consistency than any other oil on the market.

Testing a new conditioner can take some time so it is best to do it sooner rather than later. You want to be able to hit the floor running when the fall season begins.

For more information on conditioners, cleaners, and clothes, check out Brunswick’s Know Your 3Cs brochure.

Lane Maintenance

if you haven’t already, take a look at all your kickback plates and flat gutters. These items take a beating and it is not unusual for screws to break or become loose in the flat gutters which will affect how well your pins move.

The kickbacks and plates can get damaged so a little urethane coating on both can help protect them from the years of abuse. it is also good to inspect the lane panels if you have synthetic lanes. make sure all the plugs are in the panels, replace any broken screws and seal any panel seams to prevent moisture from gaining access to the underlayment and causing damage.

Addressing these items now will ultimately make your bowlers happier and help avoid some potential headaches once leagues get rolling!

Reprinted, in part, from the Brunswick Newsletter

The hot, summer months are upon us and while traffic may be slowing, the need for bowling alley maintenance remains. Here is a checklist of centre maintenance activities you should be keeping an eye on at this time of year.

Atmosphere Controls:

• Clean out A/C ventilation systems.
• Keep an eye on humidity during the summer.
• Change filters.

Electronics:

• Dust out electronic enclosures including POS systems.
• Allow for ample ventilation.
• Check old electronic spare parts board.
• Replace old batteries.

Building Maintenance:

• Thoroughly clean floors from winter salt. Stripping and waxing might be needed.
• Thoroughly clean approaches from winter salt and dry thoroughly from summer humidity.
• If time allows, strip and wax floors where applicable.
• Painting and touching up walls/equipment.
• Carpet Cleaning to remove any winter salt and dirt.
• Outside maintenance to remove winter issues now that snow is melted.
• Clean off roofing drains.

Bowling Shoes and Bowling balls:

• Thoroughly check and clean shoes.
• Replace any worn or damaged shoes as they could cause safety hazards
• Thoroughly inspect bowling balls for damages and sharp edges.
• Replace damaged bowling balls for equipment and customer safety.
• Cleaning bowling balls with lane cleaner will help prevent dirt from reaching pins and pinsetters.
• Checking and cleaning bowling pins will help prevent jams or stops.

Pinsetters:

• Cleaning dirt and debris from pinsetters will make a huge difference to the start of the winter leagues.
• Replace any broken or worn parts.
• Check on status of pins and clean. Visible wood is a sign of pins needing to be changed out.

Staff:

• Summer is an optimal training time for mechanics to prepare for the busy winter season.

Lane Surface:

• Have your lanes inspected for changes in tilting and warping?
• This is a perfect time to change or test out new oil or lane conditioner to improve bowler experience.