Marketplace Secrets of Park and Rec Departments (Profit and Recreation: Municipal parks departments offer more than summer fun)

Summer officially begins in June, which means people everywhere are enrolling in local park programs and taking advantage of recreation areas for picnics, parties and a little pool time. Park and recreation departments across the country provide their communities with programming, services and facilities such as swimming pools, community centers, outdoor recreation spaces, tennis courts and more.

Though summer is the busiest season for these professionals, their operations actually run year-round. In my experience in the Park District of Highland Park, Ill., promotional products played a major role in several marketing goals. While I was the aquatic coordinator and served a stint in the marketing department, I saw four primary areas where the park district relied heavily on promos to help achieve these goals.

Staff uniforms

At the pools, we turned to promotional apparel companies to order staff uniforms. Each summer we clothed more than 100 pool employees. The annual budget for staff uniforms for the aquatic department alone was about $15,000. With $500,000 in budgeted expenses, this makes uniforms about 3 percent of the total budget. To give you a little perspective, Highland Park is an affluent community just north of Chicago, along the lake and with a population around 30,000.

Rewards programs

In the winter, I spent most of my time at the indoor recreation center, which included basketball courts, a pool and a fitness center. In the surrounding upper-class community, the market for fitness centers is extremely competitive; private clubs still receive the majority of business. The park district’s fitness center is relatively new, having just opened in 2005. After about a year, we were not happy with membership retention. (That being said, it is common for new clubs to have poor retention numbers for the first couple of years.)

To improve the numbers, we began an intensive membership-rewards program. It was set up so that members received communication each month via phone, mail or e-mail. We also incorporated prizes given at random or for contests. When new members joined the fitness center, for example, they received an imprinted lanyard to hold their membership card. Each lanyard cost between 85 and 90 cents.