I sometimes feel I do too much critiquing and too little suggesting. Like, somehow, I’m the 400 pound, mullet-sporting guy on his 3rd beer at the baseball game yelling at the 2nd baseman to hustle. So, every once in a while on a Wednesday I’ll try to balance the scales a bit and put my own ideas up for display, analysis, and critique. (view all ‘WID’ posts).

There are a few views in my skiing adventures that stand out from all others. None of these vistas, however, are even close to worthy of a National Geographic cover. Instead, they are the simple views that trigger those happy, skiing memories and increase my desire to ski. For me, some of these views from my Utah days include:

• When you come over the first ridge at Sundance, Utah and catch a glimpse of the back mountain and Bishop’s Bowl
• Right as Alf’s High Rustler at Alta, Utah, comes into view from the highway
• Pulling into the Brighton, Utah parking lot on a powder day and seeing Millicent

None of them are outrageously grandiose, but seeing them gets my blood going and the stoke starts to build. Just thinking about these images is enough to make me wish I were on the mountain.

So, what would I do?

Identify Skiers’ Favorite Views / Images
Social Media can be a great tool for a lot of things including, or maybe especially, market research. Casual, simple questions about what skiers like, dislike, or are looking for can be deployed, one at a time, and spark some fascinating debate.

The first thing I’d do is use social media to start to identify some of those favorite mental images that skiers have stored from your mountain. I’d get a list of a 8-10 different types and then use the Facebook “question” tool to narrow it down to the best 4-5. Along with finding out WHAT they are remembering, I’d do my best to find out WHEN they saw it (early morning, powder day, last run, etc.)

Get More Skiers to See Those Things
Once I identified the key images, I’d use signage and resort communications to get more people to those spots at those times. I’d have my lifties give tips of “as soon as you can, get to the top of X chair…the morning view is amazing” or if it’s the view coming into the resort I’d put up something to draw attention to the view like a sign reading “Awesome view huh? Theres a reason why our employees smile so much.”

If I could get those memorable images in front of more eyes and stored in more brains, I’d be setup perfectly for the final step.

Use Those Images in Marketing Communications
This wouldn’t do as much good if you were reaching out to first-time guests, but for those you want to come back, knowing what images skiers are seeing and remembering gives me the ability to trigger those feelings, memories, and emotions that create desire to ski. I’d use them everywhere:

• Social media backgrounds (Twitter) and cover photos (Facebook, Google+)
• Free desktop wallpapers available on your site
• Print ads in magazines and local newspapers
• Direct mail imagery
• Website hero and background images
• Images printed on some lift tickets

If I could identify the most memorable images of the resort that invoke the happiest skiing memories and get more skiers to see those scenes when they are at my mountain, I could know exactly which images to use to bring those memories back to those guests and give my marketing an extra boost.

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.