Posts from the ‘Arizona’ Category

Sep 23

The Best and Worst of the Desert Southwest

I’ll take another break from marketing jibber jabber and move a bit further along in the recent “let’s move back east over the course of three months in an old rv and see if it works out” event. It did work out thankfully and much of it was paid for by the freelance work I was able to rustle up along the way.

Arizona and New Mexico represented just over 2 weeks of the journey, mostly in February. Our location in Tucson was the first RV park to actually welcome us before our arrival thanks to the example work emailed ahead of time. It felt like progress. We also spent time at a couple different state parks, which provided most of the scenery.

The worst things that happened in the desert southwest:

The welcoming RV park, was well, grim. It was also a bit smelly. Our neighbors had about a dozen board games stored on their picnic table. By stored I mean old and decomposing. But hey, it was free.
It was also not camera friendly. They wanted a video to make it look good. New challenge, but still doable.
The fridge had stopped working (from the LP source) in San Diego so we stopped to get it fixed in Tucson. Cost around $300. Might have gotten ripped off.
People generally hate recycling in Arizona. It makes for uncomfortable situations when you are the one asking about it. At one point we drove 26 miles roundtrip to recycle. I think it was the wrong call environmentally.
We went to downtown Tucson. Not great.
Kappy could never run free since everything was prickly.
Many friends telling us to head to really pretty areas in the far away northern part of Arizona where it was also winter. We were not in a situation to explore, baby, RV and all.
The RV Park manager invited me to his cigar night with the park pals. He fed me waaay too much cheap scotch in front of his LP gas campfire.

The best things that happened in the desert southwest:

Stayed one night in a place called Picacho Peak. Amazing and close to I-10. Stay there if between Tucson and Phoenix.
Laura went to the sewing club with all the snowbirds in the RV Park. I assume it was great.
Walked in the only snow of the trip up on Mt Lemmon.
Enjoyed the best sunset of the entire trip on Laura’s birthday near Deming, New Mexico in Rockhound State Park.
Gas was $2.99.
We left the Tuscon RV park early even though it was free. Had to get out of there.
My computer power cord died. Was given a new one free by the scotch giving park manager. Thanks Dan.
Many tacos.
Everyone else we knew was cold in February. We were wearing shorts.

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Feb 24

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One Message Does Not Fit All

One might assume that within one industry, marketing and communications gameplans are all very similar. That’s simply not the case. As a tweet from one of my favorite marketing minds Jay Baer highlighted yesterday: “Context is King”.

As you may or may not know, I’ve been on a slow relocation trip across the west and south as my family and I move back home to Vermont. I’ve been delivering marketing services for RV parks along the way for compensation and trade. What’s interesting is that they all need a different message communicated, but they don’t always know it at first. Sure they are going after similar customers in the same industry, but the more important factor is the current state of their marketing and marketplace. The “context” in which they do business is paramount.

If someone comes to you with the golden goose that’s sweeping the globe, without having listened to your needs, history, resources and expectations, then it’s safe to kick them to the curb. One size fits all is a sure route to disappointment. The best marketers and the best messages orginate from understanding, conversation and teamwork. Listen, think, research, discuss, then go to market. Odds are you’ll do it in a way that is uniquely your own, which is what your audience craves.

RV Parks in Napa, Pismo Beach, Malibu, San Diego and now Tucson have all had very similar operations, with very different communications needs once we pulled back the layers of their marketplace. Tucson is the land of the over age 55 mega park. However, Adventure Bound Cactus Country aims to be (and is) welcoming to all ages and southwestern themed with a laid back atmospthere. This is headed for their website shortly.

Feb 19

Cactus Country RV Resort – Adventure Bound

Prior to departing San Diego our original plan was to hop-skip our way across Arizona with a couple nights at State Parks located near I-10. Laura started to look around on the internet about fun things to do in the Tucson area so I in turn started looking for RV parks that might want to have a video produced for them to get a longer stay in the area. Quickly I realized that this was snowbird territory and most commercial parks were for retirees only. Not exactly what we we’re looking for, but I’ll get back to that.

We get a lot of advice from family and friends to go see this or that, as if Arizona was some small state easy and affodable to traverse in two vehicles with a baby. Haha. Nope. We go in generally straight lines, then poke around the overnight areas in our Subaru. We still hit a State Park – it broke up the drive to Tucson and was quite stunning.

So after one night at Picacho Peak State Park outside of Tucson we headed for the Cactus Country RV Resort, which is now a part of the Adventure Bound family of camping locales and is located on the southeast side of the metro area just off exit 275. It’s one of the few (if not the only) park that actually feels like camping in the desert rather than the concrete jungle. We don’t hear the highway and there’s open space surrounding the entire spot. It’s also frequented by a mix of full timers, snowbirds, weekers (like us), weekenders and some regular working folk with kids.

The production plan is to produce a well rounded piece that features the managers, a few guests, some of the on-site activities, a focus on the western feel, and also touches on the attractions of Tucson. Should be able to wrap it up by the end of the week. Need this crazy windy weather to blow through first.

I’ll update again when the video is done. Until then I threw some new content onto our google map. We plan to scoot across Texas and most of the gulf pretty quickly without long stays in one spot, then return to longer stays in trade for marketing services when we get to Florida sometime in March.