CBMR shares marketing vision with Town Councils

Untamed and wild

By Mark Reaman

Instead of trying to attract the typical ski family looking for flawlessly groomed slopes, the new Crested Butte Mountain Resort marketing campaign is targeting those skiers, including families, who want something a little out of the ordinary.

CBMR vice president and general manager Tim Baker told the Crested Butte Town Council Monday night that he is excited the ski area ownership, Vail Resorts, “is pushing the envelope in ways the company hasn’t done before. We spent the last year [since purchasing CBMR] trying to listen and learn and we want to share the ‘voice’ we’re trying to put out there. We are tailoring the message to those looking for a Crested Butte experience—and that’s different.”

Baker introduced CBMR marketing director Morgan Bast, who outlined the new branding to the council. “The brand position is that this is an untamed destination at the end of the road,” she explained.

CBMR has shifted the pillars that support the core of the marketing brand—“the foundational truths that define, guide and bring the brand to life”—from being about the “town, terrain and location,” which Bast said is what most ski resorts focus on, and moved to focus on the emotional elements of the place and people having qualities like being untamed, intrepid and gritty.

“This is what we want to communicate to people,” Bast said. “The brand voice is purposeful, clever and has a quiet confidence. The target audience is the Wild Ones, people who take bold risks in pursuit of adventure off the beaten path. They don’t seek convention. They seek to be who they are with like-minded original, free-spirits.”

Bast said the marketing is meant to get the message to such people that Crested Butte provides “untamed exhilaration.”

The “Be Wild” marketing campaign is focused on finding people who would like Crested Butte for what it is and would not be disappointed to discover a funky place that isn’t like other ski resorts.

“We want people to come here and enjoy what we have,” Bast told the council. “And that includes certain families and individuals. Not everyone is comfortable with it, but we want to attract those who are.”

Look for some of those wild ones to be in the Silver Queen and North Face lift lines starting this coming ski season.