Cullasaja Club

The Plateau area of Western North Carolina (Highlands/Cashiers/Lake Toxaway) has long been known as a luxury mountain destination with magnificent natural beauty, cool summers, great shopping, and dining. The area boasts 14 private golf clubs in a very competitive environment.

In 2014 Cullasaja Club was second from bottom in membership sales. The club was seeking a partner with the capabilities to investigate the current brand, marketing efforts and making recommendations. Once identified, to have the capabilities to reposition the brand and story, strategic marketing campaigns including ad campaigns, online and offline solutions with agency management of all channels.

We went to work with a brand immersion, utilizing focus groups, member/staff brand surveys, boots on the ground, competitive analysis, to uncover where the club had been, attempts at branding, current state, target market and marketing efforts. In the end, we identified an ownable positioning platform that captured a clear differentiating strategic direction for the Club.

A brand essence was presented to the board presenting our findings and the new direction for the brand, website, brand narrative, and communication strategy. Once the brand narrative and communication manifesto was approved, all touch points were recreated; collateral, websites, print media, social platforms and membership tour presentation, all rising to a fresh strategic message.