Marketing for Golf Management

Colin Robertson’s Marketing for Golf Management applies marketing principles to clubs, courses, memberships, and golf-related services. This guide follows all 11 chapters, connecting customer understanding with digital communication, relationships, partnerships, pricing, research, and an integrated marketing plan.

How to study this book

Use a fictional golf club as a running case. For every proposed action, state the target audience, customer need, value proposition, channel, budget assumption, and outcome measure. Read the golf examples as applications of principles rather than as evidence that the same tactic will suit every facility.

Chapter-wise explanations and study tasks

1. What Is Marketing?

Marketing connects organizational capabilities with customer needs and perceived value. In golf, different customer groups may seek different combinations of access, experience, social connection, and price. Segmentation makes those differences visible before channels or promotional messages are selected.

Study task: Define two plausible segments for a fictional club and write a distinct value proposition for each, supported by stated assumptions.

2. Social Media Marketing

A social-media strategy requires objectives, audience understanding, suitable platforms, content, and evaluation. The club examples illustrate how communication can build a community as well as promote offers. Distinguish audience activity from meaningful progress toward a marketing objective.

Study task: Apply the source’s six-step framework to a four-week fictional campaign, identifying one outcome measure beyond follower count.

3. Digital Marketing

Email campaigns and paid search have different roles in attracting and communicating with customers. Campaign planning connects an audience and offer with a relevant message and destination. Evaluate costs and results together rather than interpreting clicks as completed bookings.

Study task: Draft a fictional email campaign brief and a paid-search outline, explaining the action each asks readers to take and how you would assess it.

4. Service and Relationship Marketing

Customer relationship management links information, rapport, satisfaction, and loyalty over time. Repeat visits are influenced by the service experience as well as promotion. Consider how staff interactions and follow-up help identify and resolve problems without reducing relationships to a database entry.

Study task: Map a new member’s first month and propose a contact or service improvement at three points, including one method of collecting feedback.

5. Brand Partnership, PR, and Sponsorship

Partnerships and sponsorships connect organizations whose audiences or goals may overlap. Public relations and corporate sales involve reputation and relationships as well as exposure. Assess fit and reciprocal value before proposing a logo placement or sponsored event.

Study task: Prepare a one-page hypothetical sponsorship proposal identifying audience fit, each partner’s contribution, expected benefits, and an evaluation method.

6. Evaluating the External Environment

A golf facility operates within both a broad environment and a network of closer stakeholders and competitors. Tourism adds another context for demand and positioning. Separate external conditions the club must respond to from internal decisions it can directly change.

Study task: Create a macro- and micro-environment scan for a fictional destination course and identify two implications for its marketing priorities.

7. Consumer Buying Behaviour

Individual buying decisions reflect personal, psychological, social, and cultural influences. The decision process can differ between a low-involvement purchase and a substantial membership commitment. Identify what information and reassurance customers need at different stages.

Study task: Map the stages of a fictional golfer’s membership decision and propose a useful communication at each stage without assuming all customers follow the same path.

8. Business Buying Behaviour

Organizational purchases may involve several participants, formal criteria, and different purchase situations. A corporate event buyer is not simply an individual consumer buying more. Understand who influences, approves, uses, and evaluates the service before developing a proposal.

Study task: Create a buying-role map for a company planning a golf event and identify the information needed by an organizer, budget approver, and participant.

9. Pricing and Membership Structure

Pricing links customer value, segmentation, external conditions, and the broader marketing mix. Membership structures can create different patterns of access and commitment. Examine the chapter’s MILLIONS flywheel and fan discussion as frameworks to evaluate rather than universal formulas.

Study task: Compare two hypothetical membership packages, explaining the customer segment, perceived value, capacity implications, and assumptions behind each.

10. Marketing Research

Research starts with a decision problem and a question, followed by a suitable design and data sources. Primary and secondary information serve different roles. Survey wording, sampling, and analysis determine what conclusions can reasonably be drawn.

Study task: Design a short neutral survey about a proposed club service and explain how the sample could bias the results.

11. The Marketing Plan

A marketing plan integrates analysis, objectives, responsibilities, actions, forecasts, and ongoing evaluation. It should make the reasoning between the diagnosis and chosen tactics visible. A forecast is an assumption-based estimate, so explain how results will trigger revision.

Study task: Build a marketing-plan outline with one measurable objective, three coordinated actions, assigned responsibility, and a review decision based on results.

Applied assignment

Develop a fictional club marketing plan that combines segmentation, an environmental scan, a research question, a membership or service offer, and two coordinated channels. Include a realistic budget assumption, an evaluation plan, and a strategy for retaining the customers attracted.

Suggested reading plan

Study chapters 1–3 for foundations and digital channels, 4–6 for relationships and context, 7–9 for buying decisions and pricing, and 10–11 for research and integration. Revise the running club case after each block.

Questions for reflection

• Which customer need does the proposed campaign address?
• What distinguishes engagement from a business outcome?
• How might a membership offer affect service quality and capacity?

Edition and source notes

Based on Robertson’s linked 2024 Fanshawe College edition, which contains 11 chapters and supporting transcripts. Platform examples and campaign tactics reflect that source and may change; these original instructions emphasize the underlying reasoning rather than current platform specifications.

Consult the official source and full text.