I love a lot of things about this industry and its history.

But perhaps my favorite of all is the representation of both lifestyle and art that is preserved in the ski posters of days gone by.

I have a coffee table book with a sizeable collection of posters from all over the world:

Smaller, framed versions above my desk:

And the only thing preventing me from getting more is the space I have on my walls.

Enter, Vermont
Which is why I love the annual poster Ski Vermont releases and sells on their website.

Created very much in the style of vintage posters, these are some of my favorites:

2011

2015

2007

There are a handful of things the ski industry has done to preserver our roots, but posters are a simple one I’m glad to see live on through Ski Vermont.

And not just live on, but exist within the same style of years gone by.

One Item
There’s another thing here that I like about Ski Vermont’s poster strategy and that is focus. Because posters are the only thing in their online store.

Some big resorts and brands have a retail arm that can justify and support a long line of retail products. But others don’t. What’s smart about this strategy is it gives their brand four things with very little overhead:

• A physical object to place their logo (add value and weight to brand).
• A product that is extremely inexpensive to produce (low upfront cost or resources tied up in inventory).
• A true one-size-fits-all product (no awkward quantities of leftovers).
• Something that is unlikely to be returned (little time required to fulfill/manage).

For smaller areas and resorts looking for a retail arm, I love this idea building a tradition around an annual product (like a poster). I think what Ski Vermont has done is beautifully simple and really well played.

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.