From time-to-time there have been postings on this and other discussion boards regarding how best to market the C&TS. What is often missing is information about the railroad’s actual strategies and practices. So here is some background information that may prove useful.
The overall responsibility for marketing lies with the Commission which contracted several years ago with West Agency in Santa Fe to develop and implement the marketing and advertising strategies for the railroad. Principals at that agency have had the advantage of hands-on experience promoting the C&TS going back to 2000. Because of Commissioner Randy Randall’s prior and continuing involvement in the tourism and hospitality industries, as explained at several past Commission meetings Randy is the Commission’s point man on marketing strategy (you can find his bio. toward the end of [
www.cumbrestoltec.com]).
In turn, the Commission has delegated to CTSMC the execution of certain of those strategies, primarily those involving sales programs. As CTSMC’s Director of Marketing and Sales, Gayle Martinez is responsible for the tactical implementation of the strategic marketing plans developed by Commissioner Randall and the West Agency.
There has been ample evidence over the years that, as a practical matter, the most effective way to attract riders has been through TV advertising, although print, radio, and the Internet also play a role (with the Internet key to booking reservations). Research has shown that, primarily due to its location, the C&TS has to rely upon the “drive-to market”. But this is only part of the story.
There is a fairly predictable pattern that more than half of the railroad’s riders make reservations less than 48 hours before departure, often as walk-ups the same morning (this pattern was first identified back in 2000-01). The implication seems to be that a surprising number of riders don’t decide to spend a day on the C&TS until they are already vacationing in the mountains, no matter where they hail from. No question that some riders make their reservations well in advance, but often the decision seems to be “what are we going to do tomorrow, or the next day”. And, no question that some are able to drive up from their homes in just a few hours.
As a consequence, the railroad’s TV buys are concentrated in an area that covers all of New Mexico (plus El Paso, Texas) and Southern Colorado (including Durango, Pagosa Springs, and Alamosa). The ads typically run around evening news time. Buying TV time beyond those markets is simply cost-prohibitive (e.g., Denver rates are 4-5 times higher than Albuquerque and Dallas-Fort Worth 8-9 times higher). Given those rates the railroad would have to be far closer to those population centers to justify use of TV. Instead the railroad relies upon radio along the length of the Colorado front range (Boulder to Pueblo), with C&TS ads featured on two talk-radio and weather-traffic stations daily during drive times. Of course, print ads and rack cards are also part of the advertising mix.
As has been mentioned before, the C&TS has an annual marketing budget of $400,000, which works out to $9 to $10 per rider. That’s a pretty healthy chunk for an operation that has to spread its ticket revenues ($3.5 to $3.6 million) over some hefty fixed costs required to operate and preserve this historical treasure. an outfit like the D&S (which carried over 160,000 riders last season) can spend half as much per rider and still be spending two times as much on marketing as the C&TS. That is the stark reality.
So no matter what, the C&TS is in a bind and has to be pretty clever in deciding where to put its chips. As John West has pointed out, word-of-mouth helps, and good PR and free press coverage go a long way. So those of you reading this, please keep your friends and neighbors in mind. What the railroad clearly doesn’t need is the kind of negative, unfounded comments that shows up from time-to-time on web sites.
