1. Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
(970) 627-3402
www.grandlakechamber.com
Best Practices and Proposal
Overview
Marketing a mountain town near the entrance to a National Park is a unique and complex venture. Connecting
with teams that have been successful in this endeavor is advantageous all companies involved. The
Yellowstone Association preserves the park by bringing awareness and education to visitors of Yellowstone
National Park and works closely with the NPS bringing exhibits, publications and programs to the park. West
Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce is the lead business and marketing center for the town and connects the
park entrance to the town of West Yellowstone. The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center is an AZA accredited Not-
for-Profit, wildlife park and educational facility.
Proposal
This proposal is for The Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce integrating some of the best practices of the
Yellowstone Association, West Yellowstone, and The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center into our marketing and
strategic plans. The Chamber’s website and social media should more strongly connect with RMNP,
highlighting their best programs and natural features and include links to their webpages. When the Park does
well, the town does well. The Chamber should also either implement a new blog section on their Facebook
page or renew the blog section on their webpage. This blog can contain posts on relevant topics including the
national park, local news and events, season changes, Grand Lake History, interview with a local, wildlife and
nature. This blog should be posted to at least once a week in order to keep their audience engaged and
returning to the sites.
Two changes suggested for the Chamber of Commerce’s website are the addition of a Trip Planner tool and
positive feedback from visitors to chamber businesses in the side banners of the pages. These two changes
can make the website interactive to the visitor, keeping them online longer and increasing the likelihood of
the online visitor becoming an in town visitor.
An Instagram photo contest could be an easy and fun way to highlight the beauty of Grand Lake and
surrounding areas. Use a unique hashtag such as #instacontestgrandlake2015 to track photos entered in the
contest and pick a theme such as Fall Photos or Wildlife. There can be winners for different categories (best
moose fall photo, best aspen tree photo) and a grand prize winner who gets their picture included in our next
GuestGuide.
A direction that is going to be crucial to the growth of Grand Lake in the coming years is the expansion of the
target market to include families with children. This populated market is largely underserved within Grand

2. Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
(970) 627-3402
www.grandlakechamber.com
Lake. The final suggestion for the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce is the design of new programs focused
on educating and entertaining children. These interactive programs should encourage the child to investigate
and connect with the beautiful world we live in through hands on experiences. These programs can be done
in partnership with other businesses and organizations with specific hopes to collaborating with Rocky
Mountain National Park. Ideally these programs could take place all year long and be in collaboration with the
town, our local businesses, Rotary, and Rocky Mountain National Park.
Alternatives
If the above goals are not achievable there are other some alternatives that may still work well for the
Chamber. Blog posts can be made bimonthly or follow a certain outline instead of being redone from scratch
each time. If the addition of a trip planner and a positive feedback banner to the webpage proves to be too
costly or time consuming, the Chamber should still attempt to add an interactive element to their webpage.
This could be as simple as adding a link to review a business or event. These reviews could help the Chamber
better understand the effectiveness of their events and the opinions visitors have about the chamber
members. The Instagram contest should be done, but could involve just a small number of prizes and
categories. If initiating a long term youth program is out of reach at this time, the Chamber should start by
organizing 2 -4 well organized events for summer of 2016.
Next Steps
The Chamber should now add a number of Rocky Mountain National Park events and web links to their
website and begin linking to RMNP through social media and other outlets. Responsibilities should be given for
the blog posts and Instagram contest as well as a timeline or schedule made for both including timing of posts,
marketing tactics, and for the Instagram photo contest, rules, prizes and theme. The Chamber should research
information and connections on how to get Trip Planner and side bar reviews onto the website.
The Chamber staff or board should research and brainstorm for youth programs ideas considering types of
programs, who to work with, costs, grants, and if a separate committee should be formed. Contact Grand Lake
Rotary’s executive committee for support of programs and connecting with West Yellowstone. The Rotary club
supports the town’s economic development and may be interested in helping the Chamber develop a
relationship with another National Parks gateway community as well as supporting our efforts for youth
programs. The Chamber should consider getting connected with the Rotary Club of Big Sky in Montana and
bringing that connection to Rotary.
Best Practices
Yellowstone Association

3. Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
(970) 627-3402
www.grandlakechamber.com
Overview
Yellowstone Association is dedicated to connecting people to Yellowstone National Park and our natural world
with the mission of preservation and education through efforts of publications, trail leaflets, exhibits,
programs and films. These labors are funded through purchases made at the Park Stores and the support of
their members. Yellowstone Association is a nonprofit and is governed by a board of sixteen nonpaid business
and community leaders from across the United States. The Board is supported by both seasonal and full time
paid staff and volunteers.
Best practices
The Yellowstone Association funds exhibits at the Canyon Visitor Center and Albright Visitor Center and
currently has plans for redesign and expansion of the Albright Visitor Center exhibit space.
This Association has multiple membership options with different benefits attached to the level of
commitment. Commitments can be annual, monthly, or a one-time donation. They market their membership
as being prestigious and philanthropic. You become part of their “family” when you join, giving their members
a sense of connection to the Association.
“When you become a member or renew your membership, you join nearly 35,000 Yellowstone enthusiasts who
are committed to preserving the world’s first national park. Eighty-nine cents of every dollar we spend goes
directly to education and research in Yellowstone.”
Yellowstone Association has a well maintained blog with engaging and relevant posts being made nearly twice
a week. The blog follows the national park and features programs and natural events within the park. The
relevancy and frequency of posts helps bring visitors back to their webpage.
Their website links directly to NPS articles and Webpages; this keeps the connection strong between the
Association and the Park.
The Yellowstone Association Official Park Store is available online, offering the world’s largest selection of
Yellowstone-related materials.
The Yellowstone Association has an array of multiple day fall and winter programs to get people into the park.
These programs span a number of topics: historical, environmental, wildlife viewing, skiing, photography,
geology
Weaknesses
Having a Board that is located all across United States could be seen as either a strength or a weakness. The
Board may be missing a sense of connection that is felt when members are localized and it may be harder to

4. Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
(970) 627-3402
www.grandlakechamber.com
bring the group together. From a view of positivity, a board of this type can bring together people with
different backgrounds and strengths, making it an important asset.
West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce
Overview
West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce is the lead business and marketing center for the town and connects
the park entrance to the town of West Yellowstone.
Best Practices
Going Green While in Yellowstone
Explains the unique situation that high volume tourist towns with low numbers of year round residents face in
regards to the disproportionate amount of trash the local population encounters. Taking a green approach to
Yellowstone Park trip is essential to protect this incredible place: Recycling is helpful to diminish the amount of
trash. Unused or partially used canisters of bear spray can be recycled at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.
(They use them for demos at their bear talks.) Send-It-Home will recycle your packing peanuts and bubble
wraps.
Some highlights of West Yellowstone include:
 Connects well with the park programs and ranger led programs
 Build your own trip planner
 Self-guided tours
 Instagram photo contest #westyellowstonelove
o 5 prizes will be awarded, 1 for each segment, and 1 grand prize package. Grand prize
winner will also be featured on the DestinationYellowstone.com website and as part of the
2016-17 Vacation Planner.
Weaknesses
There are some changes that could be made to the Chamber’s webpage. While West Yellowstone is beautifully
branded, the font size of the headings for items such as calendar events is too large and makes it difficult to
navigate. Also, the webpage doesn’t have any “about us” information.
Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center
Overview

5. Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
(970) 627-3402
www.grandlakechamber.com
The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center of Yellowstone is an AZA Accredited, not-for-profit Wildlife Park and
Educational Facility. The main purpose of the Center is to help visitors gain knowledge about grizzlies and
wolves through educational programs. Visitors can spend their time watching these fascinating animals
interact in their outdoor habitats. These animals have a second chance at the Center. The main conservation
focus of the Center is of habitat and wild species in the Yellowstone ecosystem.
Best Practices
The Discovery Center became a non-profit business, securing alliances with important agencies. In 1999 a non-
profit 501(c) (3) operation was formed. The Center received instant credibility with many of the past skeptics
and began to make new alliances with federal and state agencies. They made agreements with Yellowstone
National Park and started hosting some of their programs, began testing bear-resistant containers for the US
Forest Service and were given the thumbs-up by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to save grizzly bears from the
lower 48 because of our non-profit status. Then in 2001 the American Zoo & Aquarium Association accredited
the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.
The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is very effective at being seen as family friendly entertainment. The
Center attracts families with kids of all ages to their location with activities and programs that target certain
age groups. For example; the Keeper Kids Program invites kids ages 5-12 to have a hands-on experience hiding
food for the bears to find inside their habitat. They also give discounted admission rates to children and school
groups.
Their admission is good for two consecutive days, keeping visitors in the area longer.
Their website puts positive feedback and reviews in the side banners of every page, keeping the visitor feeling
positive about the Discovery Center through their whole experience at the website, while also subtly
reminding them to leave a good review.