A few weeks ago I spent a week brain-dumping a caleidescope of thoughts about what I felt Cherry Peak, Utah’s newest ski area, had to do from a marketing perspetive to be successful.

On Wednesday of that week I discussed how the huge LDS community in Utah if often talked around, rather than to, in resort marketing.

That is, until a few days ago.

A Big Deeper
Let me fill in a few more holes will help you see the simple genius of this offer.

Teenage boys in the LDS church participate in scouting. Part of scouting involves earning merit badges that represent skills or knowledge acquired around things like community, life, and the outdoors. These scouts meet together once a week either on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night. If the activity is a larger one, they may save it for a weekend (campout, a community project, etc.).

My best estimate puts the number of Salt Lake-area LDS youth that do so around 25,000.

The Simple Genius
So here’s what Brighton did: they create a product around Boy Scouts earning merit badges. Here’s how the details page reads:

“Snow Sports Merit Badge Assessment: $45 includes night pass (intermediate to advance skiers and snowboarders, 2.5 hours). Brighton Instructors will use Snowsports Merit Badge criteria to educate and evaluate scouts on skills and knowledge on Downhill Skiing and Snowboarding….When: Friday Evening: 3/28 starting at 4:00PM – OR – Saturday Evening: 3/29 starting at 4:00PM.”

For scouts that don’t know how to ski, 2 hour lessons (including pass) are $35.

In a few paragraphs Brighton has created a product that gives 25,000 local kids a way to easily complete a step that helps them get closer to a goal.

One Thing to Remember
I hope the word gets out about this program. My guess is that Brighton is testing the waters, seeing if there’s demand before deciding it it’s worthy of a broader program.

If it doesn’t make waves, I wouldn’t worry because, honestly, it probably won’t. Another aspect of these scout groups is that they have “planning meetings” regularly and decide what they’ll be doing for the next few months. In other words, by the time word gets out many groups will already be locked into doing something else on the 28th and 29th.

If it is successful, I hope Brighton runs with it. Being the go-to Utah resort for this merit badge as well as a friend of scouts could be a valuable flag to fly.

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.