I’m interrupting my 4-part sales management blog series (back next week) to talk about brands, logos, and customer loyalty. I had the opportunity to attend a day of the Masters golf tournament last week (yes, that’s my wife and me at Augusta National). It was my first time… and something I’ll never forget.
A few years ago, I wrote a post about going to Disney World with my family… and what a great job they did with their entire brand, paying attention to the details and creating an amazing customer experience. Well, I think that the Masters (and Augusta National) does just as good a job at that, if not better! Here’s why…
First, the entire city of Augusta, Georgia is in on it. All the schools are on spring break so local residence can attend, work the event or get out of town. A lot of folks leave town and rent out their houses to visitors, players and corporate sponsors.
The local police are engaged to control traffic starting out at the interstate and leading visitors directly to the on-premises (free!) parking.
Long line to get in? Sure… but with several dozen check-in stations, it took just a few minutes.
Need a snack? No problem. Again, lots of stations, lots of options and fast lines. And then there is the ridiculously low-priced food… $1.50 for a sandwich (the pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches are famous)! Want a beer? Just $6 for a 16 ounce one. Compare that to what you’d pay at any other professional sporting event. BTW, the beer is the most expensive thing on the menu.
Want a Masters polo shirt? No problem. They have the biggest pro shop/merchandise store I’ve ever seen. Long line? It was… I think we stood in line for about 30 minutes, but once we were inside this ‘merchandise wonderland,’ all was forgiven. The place was amazing, housing every conceivable golf, clothing and household product you could imagine… and every one of them bearing the iconic Masters logo. (My shopping list? Polo shirts, a baseball cap, a golf towel, Masters ball markers, logo’d whiskey glasses, and more… don’t ask me how much we spent!). The products in the pro shop are not available anywhere else in the world… talk about building demand. In 2024, Augusta National – open for just seven days during the tournament – sold more than $80 million worth of goods!
In addition to the pro shop ‘merch,’ the majority of the patrons I walked past already had on Masters apparel (myself included). As I said earlier… other than the Disney mouse ears, it may be the most recognized logo in the world.
Another terrific part of the customer experience was the staff. Every parking attendant, gate guard, food server, course worker, and merchandise handler could not have been nicer. Clearly, they have been well-trained to be proactive and friendly when engaging with patrons.
And the loyalty that the Masters generates isn’t just among fans. We chatted with a fairway crossing guard (he controlled the ropes) who’ve been doing it for 27 years, 25 of them with his father! What? What kind of organization engenders that sort of loyalty in its employees (and in this case, in its volunteers)?
It was an amazing experience all day long.
Oh wait! There was also golf and the golf course itself. Unless you play golf (I do, though I’m really bad at it!), you can’t appreciate how good these guys are and how much more difficult the Augusta National course is than where you and I might play. A friend once described the greens here as “…trying to chip a ball onto your dining room table and getting it to stop!” He wasn’t kidding.
But even if you don’t play golf, the other big part of our experience was the course itself. Amazing, beautiful, breathtaking… I don’t have enough adjectives to do it justice. And like Disney, every detail was perfect. Not a blade of grass out of place. Not a single weed anywhere… and I was looking! Sand traps raked to perfection. Elevation changes you can’t really see on TV. Stone bridges, meandering Rae’s Creek, the azaleas (of course)… and we just happened to be there on a warm, cloudless, sunny day. It’s the world’s most beautiful park that just happens to have a great golf course in it.
Sidenote: in September 2024, the course loss more than 1000 trees as Hurricane Helene roared through. Seven months later… you can’t tell!
Bottom Line
Our day at the Masters was an unbelievable experience. The people, the facility, the merchandise, the product (the golfers and the golf course), the omnipresent logo… no detail was missed (and no expense was spared) in creating a remarkable customer experience. And in doing so, creating a worldwide following of truly passionate fans!
Need a case study on building a brand? This is it!