In the last decade, public recreation administrators have had to face financial difficulties caused by budget cuts, private citizens' reluctance to pay more taxes for recreational purposes, and aggressive competition from the private sector. In order to survive and overcome these financial obstacles, recreation administrators have had to adopt more efficient management skills. One way to achieve increased efficiency has been to develop and implement marketing objectives for their recreation programming.

Marketing — a management tool
Marketing is one of the most important managerial skills. In recent years marketing techniques have been adopted by nonprofit organizations, especially by academic institutions responding to declining levels of university enrollments. Management in these organizations has realized that in order to cope with the situation, they have to market their services more effectively. In public recreation services, the concept of marketing was introduced only a few years ago. Unfortunately, there are still many administrators who are not familiar, or who are only slightly familiar with marketing methods. Hence the purpose of this article is to briefly introduce basic marketing concepts and to focus on some of the human aspects of marketing.

The "top-down" approach to marketing
Traditionally, the philosophy of doing business has been production-oriented, assuming that anything produced can be sold. This is called the top-down approach to marketing. In this concept, markets are seen as "arenas of competition," where available resources are used to achieve a competitive advantage. An example of this approach in recreation services would be when an agency offers programs according to its own resources, regardless of the public's needs. In order to survive, the agency would have to promote its programs heavily, either by reducing prices or stressing their advantage over competitors.

Adopting a marketing concept
In the early 1960's, businesses began shifting their philosophy towards, what is called today, the marketing concept. The three basic assumptions of this concept are: (a) companies should produce only what customers want, (b) management must integrate all company activities in order to develop programs to satisfy those wants, and (c) long-range profit goals rather than short-run "quick" sales should guide management decisions.

This concept has also been called the bottom-up approach to marketing. Here, the emphasis is on the consumer. Managers who adopt this concept discard the notion that customers must buy whatever the company produces. The primary task of market managers is to anticipate and react to shifts in the structure of the market. This may result from changes in customers' reactions, requirements, and needs. In marketing literature, many examples of successful companies are listed that adopted the bottom-up approach.

Today, an integration of both approaches is recommended. The integration of the two approaches can lead to a better understanding of the whole picture of the market and the ability of the company to compete in it.

These two approaches should be implemented in public recreation services. The right proportions of both approaches can be the key to success. Recreational agencies should not offer services without appropriate facilities or instructors. They should also not offer a program only because they have the resources for it. The balance between these two approaches for recreational agencies should lean toward the bottom-up approach, because the product is basically leisure experience, life satisfaction, and fulfilling the public's recreational needs.

The important role of demographics
To use the bottom-up approach to marketing effectively, administrators need to gather a lot of information about the community they serve. What facts should they look for? In marketing and consumer behavior, there are endless areas that can be of interest to help administrators know and understand their consumers better. For instance, they can gain information about their community's demographic characteristics. This information, which can be very basic and can be easily acquired from census data, can assist administrators in planning their programs. If a large percentage of the community is over 65, more programs for that segment should be offered. On the other hand, if there is a large number of single young adults, programs should be tailored to their interests.

Aside from being familiar with the demographic profile of their community, administrators have to know the consumers' recreational needs and habits, and the trends in them. This information is usually obtained by conducting a market demand analysis -- a type of research that measures a population's demographic characteristics, needs and preferences.

Academic literature on marketing and consumer behavior provides a more in-depth portrait of the consumer. Through such a portrait, administrators can gain valuable insights into how to approach their consumers in ways that may yield the best results. An important aspect of consumer behavior is consumption decision/choice. In this particular instance, how do recreation consumers make decisions about what programs to attend?

Consumer decision-making processes
Consumer decision-making is an area that has been studied extensively. There are several decision-making processes;

any particular one a consumer uses depends on the type of product, the consumer's personality, the number of choices, and prior information.

Two of the most commonly used decision-making processes are the lexicographic and the linear processes. In the lexicographic process, the consumer chooses the product possessing the one attribute that is most important to them. "Buy the cheapest" is a common example of consumers using this process.

On the other hand, the linear process is more complicated. Consumers who use it consider a set of salient product characteristics (attributes) and weigh them by the importance of each attribute and the degree to which they believe the product possesses that attribute. The alternative that "scores" the best result is chosen. Usually when consumers use the linear process they take into consideration four to ten attributes of a product.

A study, sponsored by the Illinois Park & Recreation Association, sought to determine what decision-making processes are used by new park district consumers. The study used a sample of new registrants to park district classes during the Spring of 1988. Each enrollee received a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate the importance of ten attributes or characteristics of the program or class they had enrolled in (see list of attributes in the following paragraph). Next, they were asked to rate the degree to which they believed the program possessed those attributes. The questionnaire also measured their level of involvement in the program and if they had considered another alternative before enrolling in the program or class.

The results of the study ranked the importance of attributes in the following order from most important to least important:

1. meets one's interests and needs
   
2. convenient time
   
3. quality of instruction
   
4. friendly instructors
   
5. convenient location
   
6. clean facility
   
7. competitive price
   
8. not too crowded
   
9. attractive facility
   
10. friendly classmate

After identifying the importance of the different attributes, the study sought to determine how the enrollees, who had considered other alternatives, arrived at the decision to register in a particular program at a particular public agency.

Researchers found that most of the registrants employed the linear process to make their decision.

Survey results determine marketing strategies
What implications can be drawn and applied from the findings of this study? Primarily, one must pay attention to the importance people place on different program attributes. One can conclude that the more important attributes are those that describe the actual content of the program (how it meets one's interests and needs, quality of instruction, and convenient scheduling). The immediate implication of this finding is that public recreation managers need to do more to enhance and promote these attributes in their program marketing.

As found in this study, the most important attribute is "meets one's interests and needs." This confirms the assumption presented earlier in this article that the bottom-up approach is most appropriate for recreational services. The practical implication of this is in order to attract as many participants as possible, recreational planners and administrators have to learn what the needs are of their current and potential consumers. This can be accomplished by conducting a market demand analysis every few years, based on a random sample of citizens from the community. The cost of this kind of study is relatively low when compared to the marketing insights it can provide. Managers, however, should be very careful when conducting market studies. Sometimes a market demand analysis, not properly executed and analyzed, can be misleading and cause more harm than good. Further, the fact that consumers use the linear process of decision-making indicates that recreational administrators should develop and promote all the program's attributes, especially those that are perceived as most important.

In summary, administrators of public recreation services need to remember their primary purpose is serving the public. If their primary concern is to be sure the service suits their public's needs, they must understand the values, behavior patterns and characteristics of the people who will be affected by policies, decisions, and actions. Besides, public recreation administrators should look at the essence of recreational services. Recreational services deal with people's free time and choice in the context of activities and physical settings. These activities and physical settings need to be responsive to human needs and well-being. Recreational administrators are in the business of providing and delivering opportunities for satisfying experiences and improving the quality of life. If administrators are not sensitive to public needs, they may come up with programs which do not address and satisfy their public's needs. This lack of accommodation can result in a lack of consumer interest and participation.

So, who are you Ms. Robinson? If recreational administrators really want to serve you, they have to get to know you better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gur-Arie Rotem is a Department of Leisure Studies doctoral student at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. This article is the 1987-88 winning write up in the Research Award program conducted annually by the Administration and Finance Section of IPRA.