The October deadline for EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa or Chip and PIN) credit card terminal conversion has come and gone and, like many other things, it wasn’t necessarily the anticipated “day of reckoning” event with many retailers across the country still not in compliance. Most of the major credit card companies have now made the switch (they had the easier task relatively speaking though) but I’m still swiping (vs. inserting) my chip card at more retailers than not. For what it’s worth, my local Dry Cleaner is compliant but he says he doesn’t like it because it costs him 1-2 minutes more per transaction. Stuart Lindsay who has addressed and guided our readers through this major shift in both payment processing and course information technology, weighs in this month with our lead article on “what now?” for the average facility owner/operator. It’s definitely worth 3-4 minutes of your time:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201511/
In addition, the November issue gives readers a tour through the following topics:
• Jim Dunlap once again visits the curious intersection of law and golf in a “man bites dog” story about a private club that chose to dissolve vs. yielding to a sexual discrimination suit brought by female members about male-only tee times on weekends. Seems odd that a private club can’t set its own rules but Jim outlines how the court interpreted “equal rights” in this particular situation and how it might affect your facility in the future. He also outlines in the “operator’s corner” how smart facilities are tweaking their beverage cart offering to create some meaningful “found money.”
• Jim Koppenhaver has some fun with his friends in Jupiter, FL and their recent revelation that the golf industry peaking at 30M participants was a “bubble” and that we should consider the current 20% decline from that mark as a mere “return to normal.” You can’t make this stuff up…
• Stuart Lindsay graces our pages with a 2nd article this month outlining why the bigger application of weather to the golf industry is in information (historical trends and future forecasting) vs. the more populist application of having a local weather storm warning monitoring system (also, IBM’s purchase of Weather Channel information assets is a clue)
• Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of weather, rounds, utilization, revenue, RevpAR and equipment sales in one place) and Boston MA as this month’s Market Focus which registered as the 15th healthiest of the Top 25 US Golf Markets in our annual ranking update
We recognize and thank our continuing sponsors; KemperSports, Troon Golf and Bayer CropScience. As we finish this calendar year, that means both budget planning for 2016 as well as potentially small opportunistic spends to build awareness in advance of the PGA Show in January (closing fast on the horizon). For either situation, might we suggest that your organization consider whether Pellucid Perspective sponsorship could help your business gain awareness and trial? For the 2016 planners, we’d suggest our successful 12-month sponsorship offering at a slight discount vs. the basic six month sponsorship rate. Twelve-month sponsors also receive all Pellucid industry-standard reports (State of the Industry, Outside the Ropes, Monthly Weather Impact Tracking (Nat’l, Reg’l, Markets), Top 25 US Golf Markets Scorecard and National Golf Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard). Sponsorship provides monthly exposure to approximately 30K industry leaders and followers and associates your brand with Pellucid’s effort to expand intelligent thinking on today’s most challenging industry issues. For the 2015 opportunistic spenders, we would suggest one of our smaller-bite “Ad Partner” programs for those who may not be able to make a 6 or 12-month commitment (as short as 3 months are now available) or who may not need a half page or more exposure (quarter pages now available). If you’re interested in knowing more about sponsorship opportunities or are interested in a preview of our ad partner options, contact Editor-in-Chief Jim Dunlap (760-212-3714, jdgolfer@cox.net).
If you know of associates who would benefit from the topics and insights covered in this issue, feel free to forward this email and encourage them to register on the Pellucid website (http://www.pellucidcorp.com/news/elist) to join the conversation, discussion and debate.
As always, you can review and order any of Pellucid’s range of reports and services at www.pellucidcorp.com. From the numbers and details of how our industry’s consumer base is changing at the national level to our individual facility-level services including weather impact (Cognilogic) and market analysis (Golf Local Market Analyzer), we’ll keep you one step ahead of the competition in this increasingly challenging industry landscape.
Contact:
Jim Koppenhaver, President, Pellucid Corp.
jimk@pellucidcorp.com
www.pellucidcorp.com
