I love simplicity. That should come as no surprise.

And part of the reason I’m never at a loss for (written) words about ski resort marketing is how much complexity exists within this industry.

But, what’s also interesting, is that it hasn’t always been this way.

Then…
For example, take skiing 70+ years ago. You either came up and dropped some change on the counter for a day ticket or you didn’t. Same goes for ski school. You either signed up for a group lesson or you didn’t.

That was it.

But our resort marketing forefathers discovered that adding a couple new options could, in fact, increase those ski school revenues. That dividing by age group could do the same. That advanced purchase carried a similar potential. As did catering to specific ability levels.

Fast forward a couple generations and we’ve created 100’s of options a beginner can (must) choose between.

…Now
But if you hold down the fast forward button long enough, you may arrive at Squaw Valley’s website and, in particular, their Lesson Finder.

It takes those four categories – age, sport, ability, type – and puts them into a simple interface that breaks up 50+ options into a simple list of usually 1-3 depending on the guest.

For example, an adult intermediate snowboarder looking for a group lesson gets the perfect lesson matched to them:

But a child beginner skier needing a private lesson gets more options.

A simple UI helps condense the cloud of choices into something much more clear and manageable. All the while increasing confidence that the right choice has been made once the visitor takes action.

Same Concept, More Places
I’d love to see this applied to season passes. Compared to all other resort produts, season passes contain an insane level of complexity.

Six pass types can each be purchased for six age groups at six pricing tiers all different for first-timers vs. renewals.

Hopefully this concept from Squaw catches on and we see more simplicity come from the complexity marketing progress has created.

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.