A while ago I did a simple analysis of ski resort 4-pack pricing.

Among all the numbers I pulled was one that really, really surprised me. When I looked at the average discount of these packs compared to the window rate, the savings was 41%. Take away the low outliers and that number becomes 46%.

In other words, almost 50%.

That number kept coming to mind this morning. But not the number as is , but how one tweak could significantly change its meaning.

The Power of Punches
Marketers have long-known the power of punch cards. Not only do they drive incremental visits, they also drive loyalty because cards are business-specific. Though I haven’t seen a resort version for a few years, in other verticals these cards typically require anywhere from 6 to 10 punches to earn a freebie or reward.

And that’s where that “almost 50%” number comes in when purchasing four tickets, because if you put that into punch-card-offer form, you’d have:

“Ski 2 days, get 2 more absolutely free!”

Interesting, no?

You could either prepay for four days all at once, or ski two days individually and, on the second one, instantly receive two free days.

I won’t pretend to know which one would be more appealing to skiers, but compared to other punch cards and the “pay all at once” nature of other pass products, I can’t help but see a lot of potential in a reward system that’s essentially giving you a free day for every day you ski.

Deeper
Now, of course there is more at play here than just cash amounts. There’s pre-season revenue, interchangeability, bridges between passholders and daytrippers, etc.

But I bring this up because even if it wasn’t 1:1 (or 2:2), even if it was…I dunno, 3:2, you still have a really, really strong offer that, as far as I know, has never seen the light of day in skiing before.

The math makes sense for 4-packs, but 4-packs are no longer unique to your resort. Maybe a little reshaping of that offer could give it some fresh legs in your market.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.