If you’ve never been to McCall, Idaho, I’d highly encourage you to go. It really it one of the most lovely places I’ve ever been.

Amazing views, a charming town on beautiful Payette Lake, and one of the most scenic drives I’ve ever taken as you make your way from Boise along a meandering river (especially enchanting if taken during evening light).

But recently it’s their marketing – their product specifically -that’s really caught my eye.

Fare Thee Well Intimidation
One of the biggest challenges of learning to ski is simply overcoming the intimidation factor. What feels like a bunny hill to a seasoned skier like yourself might as well be a vertical wall to a newb. Add in skiers racing by and that first ten minutes on skis can feel like a lifetime.

A solution I’ve always loved to this problem is to make the beginner area completely separate from the rest of the mountain.

And that’s exactly what Brundage did, except they took it one step further.

Brundage Brings Ski Lessons and Rails to Town https://t.co/cHBOXGzUjT

— FirstTracks!!Online (@FirstTracksMag) November 11, 2015

Yes, Brundage took their just-outside-of-town Activity Barn from a simple tubing hill to a tiny ski hill where beginners can learn how to ski in a low-stress environment. Here’s how the release put it:

“The new 600-foot Sun Kid conveyor, commonly known as a magic carpet lift, will comfortably transport guests to the top of the hill in less than three minutes, tripling the uphill capacity to 600 people per hour.

Skiers and snowboarders can use the new conveyor to take advantage of a new rail park, and the Brundage Mountain Ski & Ride School will be providing beginner ski lessons on gentle, groomed slopes at the Activity Barn on weekends, holidays and by reservation. This allows beginners and families to try out the sport of skiing at a convenient location and on a slope that is ideal for learning.”

Amazing, but that’s just one piece.

Moving Up
A bunny hill in town may boost the confidence, but eventually these budding skiers will want to move up. And when they do, Brundage has already removed the barriers.

Eye on Boise: Brundage to offer free lift tickets for its beginner chairlift, all season https://t.co/lziQUeUlA1

— Betsy Z. Russell (@BetsyZRussell) November 5, 2015

Yes, they’ve made the beginner lift at their mountain completely free for the entire season. Remember the potential within “learn vs try” and giving non-skiers a way to “sample” our sport? Well, Brundage’s April Whitney put it this way.

“We want to give people a ‘free sample’ of the Brundage Mountain experience because we’re confident that they’ll fall in love with the sports of skiing and snowboarding.”

They’ve even made the sides of the beginner run semi-gladed to help skiers catch a glimpse of how awesome tree skiing can be.

The Principle
So what’s the principle I alluded to in the title? In my GBOP post on the topic, I said it this way:

“Give away a partial solution to the problem your product completely solves.”

Giving beginners a place to ski for free or learn in a low-risk setting doesn’t solve the whole problem. It does, however, solve the most present problem while simultaneously making Brundage and most likely candidate when they want to full solution.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve applied this principle and how effective it is once you nail that balance between free and paid.

So, So, So Good
I love this 1-2 punch of bringing the mountain to the people and giving people a way to simply try skiing.

Perhaps they’ll need to hire an instructor to roam the beginner hill and give tips and pointers to the newbs trying to do it on their own, or maybe perhaps they’ll need a free group lesson once a day.

But that’s stuff that can be identified and addressed on the way. It’s the concept that counts here, and they’ve nailed it.

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.