Have you ever visited the Demmer Center before?
Through meeting with Michael at the Demmer Center and our research we saw many key issues presented. The biggest issue is that the Demmer Center is making people aware of its existence and encouraging them to visit the center for their recreational purposes, as opposed to strict affiliation with organized team sports.
One of their biggest issues is getting people to buy memberships. A huge contributing factor to their lack of membership sales is that not a lot of people know what the Demmer Center is. If our marketing strategy is implemented, more attention (and therefore more memberships) from people in the surrounding area would result. Some of the memberships that the Demmer Center has right now are people who want to support the University, and are mostly MSU Alumni or family members of the Demmer Center staff. This is a problem because these people have memberships but do not even visit the Demmer Center at all. Therefore, they may be supporting the Demmer Center financially, but are not really supporting the business by giving their time or spreading the word about the Demmer Center to people they know.
Financing is another issue right now as well. The Demmer Center is a newer company and they have to pay the starting costs to get the company afloat in the long run. They are also on a Michigan State University loan, and are trying to make money to pay it off. Obviously, the absence of customers and memberships is making it difficult to make money to pay the starting costs and pay off the loans from MSU. One more issue that was pointed out to us by Michael himself was aesthetics of the buildings sign. The sign is a small, close-to-the-ground university sign that most people don’t even look at. Michael would like to replace it, but once again there are not enough funds, and signage is more of a secondary cost right now.
The Demmer Center community wants the center to be a family and friends atmosphere. The only problem with that is getting families over the issues of safety. However, our team witnessed that this facility could not be any safer. Without the families visiting, this means that kids aren’t coming in, which is a market the Demmer Center very much wants to come in and experience. They have shooting ranges for kids and friendly staff to help throughout the process, but if they don’t come in these resources can’t be used.
A drawback for many experienced shooters is that the Demmer Center only offers shooting of guns that have a .22 caliber rifle or less. Many hunters and shooters shoot much more powerful firearms. So, the “weak” firearms do not provide any real incentive to use the Center’s equipment for experienced shooters. When talking about shooting and archery, there aren’t any combination memberships for these two activities. There is only one for archery or one for the rifle range. That doesn’t allow someone to shoot both without buying both memberships, which can get pricey and will eventually drive valued, experienced shooters away.
One last issue is definitely the Demmer Center’s website. It is great that they have a website, but it is cluttered. They have too many links on their main page which impedes can confuse users and people that seek information about the Center, which can turn someone off very quickly. Additionally, the address on the website is correct, but when typed into MapQuest or Google maps, it takes you in the wrong direction. There is apparently no way to fix it, and for those wanting quick internet directions it is an inconvenience.
