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Timeshare and the 7 per cent solution
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Interesting statistic about the timeshare industry - through the years it has been widely reported that fewer than 6% of the American households own some form of timeshare, and usually the context suggests that this is a small number. Timeshare is painted as niche product.
This may or may not be an accurate portrayal.
A recent article in BusinessWeek magazine suggested that fewer than 7% of those that identify themselves as football fans have actually attended a game.
I've seen reports that suggest something around 7 per cent of the population have taken cruises.
Yet it is never implied that these are niche products.
The reality is no business needs to serve everybody in order to succeed. They need to identify their market, reach their market, and serve the needs of their market in order to succeed.
By and large, timeshare has done a good job, at least by many measures. Until the current economic crisis, timeshare has enjoyed near double digit growth on an annual basis. Customer satisfaction levels hover near 90% with a favorable impression of their ownership.
Their is still considerable room for improvement - marketing needs to move away from "you've won a trip, spend 90 minutes with us."; and in fact, it has. There is more mainstream promotion by timeshare, whether ads on TV and Radio, sponsorship of sporting events, and promotional booths at various sporting events and fairs.
A big difference with the promotional booths today, it's clear they are affiliated with timeshare promotions - not hiding behind a raffle for a car, where the only way you know it's a timeshare promotion, is by reading the fine print on the back of the entry slip.
I think the days of timeshare hiding behind euphemisms like "vacation ownership" and "interval ownership" are fading into the past. The industry, especially as the traditional hospitality companies have become dominant, and timeshare has been a major part of their revenue streams, is seeing itself as less niche, and more mainstream.
