More than once I’ve talked about a phenomenon I’ve seen in Utah’s resort marketing landscape that, for lack of better words, has left me scratching my head.

A year and a half ago I wrote about something else Brighton was doing, and I think I said it best with this phrase:

“The huge LDS community in Utah is often talked around, rather than to, in resort marketing.”

So even with a huge number of people in the state that don’t even drink, you end up with many more resort-branded beers than LDS-tailored marketing campaigns.

What If
I want you to imagine for a second that you just became the marketing director at a resort near a large metro area.

As you start researching your market you learn three, interesting things about the people who live there.

• One-third of all the people in the city exercise.
• People will usually form groups of 3-6 to exercise with.
• Wednesday is the towns official “exercise night.”

In other words, 1/3 of the population is all exercising in small groups on Wednesday night.

What would you do in that situation? Well, probably come up with a group ski deal, market it with a “healthy living / excersize” angle, and make it valid on Wednesday nights, right?

Brighton
Well, let’s go back to Brighton. Because when Jared and crew look at their SLC market they see:

• A population that is about one-third LDS.
• Families are a huge part of LDS beliefs and culture.
• Monday is the LDS church’s official “Family Night”.

In other words, up to 1/3 of the population in Utah is all spending time together as a family on Monday night.

And what did Brighton do in this situation?

That’s all it took. They didn’t even have to use to the “family” to make the value instantly clear to LDS families.

Not the First Time
I’ve never quite understood why these campaigns are so rare in a state with these sorts of trends, but I applaud Brighton for not only taking the time to understand their market but cater to them as well.

It’s not the first time they’ve done this and I have a funny feeling it won’t be the last.

Great work.

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.