Bowling Proprietors Association of America
Who wants to go bowling?

Bowling is one of America’s most popular sports. But what do 54 million people have in common besides a love for crashing pins and multi-colored shoes? And what would make them come back more often? That’s exactly what the Bowling Proprietors Association of America (BPAA) hired CCG to find out.

	Relationship Marketing Program Feasibility, Analysis and Design Consulting Services Primary Research Database Analysis and Target Audience Profiling Data Appending/Customer Segmentation Database Mining Contact Strategies POS Solutions Membership Communications Return on Investment Analysis Potential Program Partnerships/Coalition Participation

The first step was to talk to proprietors and other stakeholders in the bowling business to find out what they know about the elusive open-bowler, what issues they face with the decline of league bowling, and whether they would be interested in a BPAA-sponsored loyalty program. The answers: proprietors know very little about open bowlers, they have a list of concerns longer than a cosmic bowling waiting list, and while interest in a loyalty program is high, few proprietors have the resources to design, implement and measure a program by themselves.

To find out more about customer perceptions and preferences, CCG conducted focus groups with various segments of frequent bowlers. At the same time, bowling center databases of open bowlers were collected and analyzed by Looking Glass to determine the largest and best customer segments.

Using this information, CCG designed a pilot loyalty program to appeal to best customers for a select group of centers to test for eventual rollout. Based on CCG estimates, the test centers should be able to bring in a significant lift in sales that will more than compensate for the initial cost of the program benefits and communications.