E-Newsletter   |  NOVEMBER 2018
COMPLIMENTARY DOWNLOADS 
Golf Inc. Strategy Conference Presentations Now Available For Complimentary Download Along with Full News & Views Archives on  SLRG Web Site








SLRG President Jon Last participated in both the opening key note and closing presentations at the Fall Golf, Inc. Strategy Conference: 

SLRG, Top Golf, USGA, Marcus & Millichap Trends Impacting Golf's Future

USGA Senior Managing Director, Public Services, Rand Jerris, Top Golf Chairman Erik Anderson and Steven Ekovich, National Managing Director, Marcus & Millichap joined Jon for an interactive session on the evolution of the golf experience and reflected onrecent SLRG research.  See the slides HERE


Millennials: Insights From The Market Everyone Is Struggling To Capture

The closing session included research findings  regarding golf and millennials that dispelled some popular generational myths and explored the needs, similarities and differences in the mindsets of various generational cohorts. 
See the slides HERE.
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RECENT RESEARCH OF INTEREST
Understanding the Impact of Technology Innovation in Sporting Goods



One of the more critical elements of product development is understanding how innovation and technology resonate with consumers.  Simple on the surface, the process in assessing innovation impact is multi-layered and lends itself most effectively to face-to-face concept testing and benefits articulation.  SLRG frequently embarks on such research for its sporting goods clients through a combination of customer intercept work at retail and carefully recruited qualitative depth interviews in controlled environments.  

The former allows us to find consumers that are literally in the right mindset for exposure to new product, often at the "moment of truth" juncture of the purchase funnel. Gleaning insights from these customers helps clients to see and hear how proposed new product introductions fit both within the customers' perception of brand equity within the particular product category as well as whether specific message points and differentiating elements of product composition or packaging, resonate and break through in the actual competitive environment.
Controlled testing allows our research team to better ladder up first from consumers' broad initial emotional and functional need states in the earlier stages of product consideration, through a more deliberate and forced examination of various features and design elements of a potential new product.
A combined approach allows us to both observe and probe for better understanding of the impact of potential product innovations, allowing clients to make better marketing decisions and to develop effective communications collateral and POS elements that drive home the most critical components of new equipment. Contact us today, to learn how we can do this for you HERE.
 
Evaluating the Psychological Edge of Athletic Performance

In our eleven years of servicing the sports industry, the SLRG research team has had the opportunity to delve into a number of unique research challenges.  Recently we had the pleasure to assist in a particularly interesting engagement, assisting two well known sports coaches and authors in developing a means to provide a self assessment battery for their readers and athletes.  Sports psychology is a multi-faceted discipline that these particular clients integrate into their coaching methods.  The SLRG team was tasked with creating a methodology from which an evaluation could be derived that properly weights and measures those attributes of the coaches' teaching system being implemented by their athletes.  The SLRG team first conducted a thorough audit of the coaches' upcoming book and spoke extensively with them about their experiences and results derived over their extensive coaching history. Next, a series of attributes and attitudes were identified to represent each of the key foundations of the clients' coaching methods and the desired outcomes that would best represent athlete learning and application of these principles.  The work derived from this phase were then tested, refined and crafted into a series of survey questions, which were later mathematically weighted to provide easy to understand evaluation metrics and normalized scoring.   The results will be incorporated in an upcoming book that will both share the coaching strategies of the authors and provide a means for readers to apply a self-diagnostic that will help accentuate those aspects of the coaching program that will be of best benefit to them. Let us know how we can help you apply research best practices to your most complex sports performance issues  HERE.

CROWNOVER JOINS SLRG DATA PROCESSING TEAM
We're proud to welcome marketing research industry veteran Sherri Pruett Crownover to the Sports and Leisure Research Group family. An industry veteran, Sherri has spent nearly thirty years in data processing and tabulation work.  A graduate of the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, Crownover spent fourteen years with Ardisson and Associates and its predecessor firm Ardisson and Briggs before forming Georgia Data Processing in late 2002.  Adept at programming and coding, Crownover will provide an array of statistical analysis and data management support for all SLRG clients.
SPEAKER'S CORNER
Last Addresses ASGCA Donald Ross Roundtable; Mark Your Calendars for two 2018 PGA Merchandise Show Presentations 
On Wednesday, October 17th, SLRG President Jon Last was in Tampa to present to ASGCA Executive Committee members and corporate partners as part of the Donald Ross Roundtable. The presentation provided an early glimpse at the 2019 ASGCA Market Trend Watch, which looks at business dynamics and attitudes voiced by golf facility operators and golf course architects, and provides a first look at the year ahead.  Full results will be presented and released in early 2019. 
On November 28-29 the ASGCA Foundation will present 
FromTees to Green:  A Symposium on Forward Tees & Other High-ROI Ideas 
in Pinehurst, North Carolina.  SLRG research on golf customer experience will be among the insights presented to event attendees. The ASGCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering professionalism, supporting golf design excellence, and helping grow the game. The association membership helps to design and remodel golf courses worldwide, from the sites of major championships, to those in your hometown. Learn more about the ASGCA and the symposium, HERE  

For the tenth consecutive year we'll be presenting new research for the golf market at the PGA Merchandise Show.  On the afternoon of January 22nd, as part of the PGA Merchandise Show Education program, SLRG President Jon Last will present  Optimizing Golfers' Satisfaction Through Data Driven Insights Leveraging the most recent research and decades of industry studies, the presentation will provide a blue print for optimizing the golfer experience.  Session attendees will get a pulse on current consumer needs as well as best practices for efficiently harnessing behavioral and attitudinal data for competitive advantage.  Then, on Wednesday morning, we'll look forward to welcoming golf industry partners and friends to our annual Golf Consumer Trends Breakfast . Look for more details and an invitation to this event, at the start of the new year.
  

SLRG IN THE NEWS
FAN SATISFACTION: IT'S ABOUT MORE THAN A HAPPY FACE
The October 9th Marketing Insider on Media Post, leads with SLRG's Jon Last discussing why it's important for sports properties to avoid the mistakes of oversimplification when measuring fan satisfaction. READ MORE
GROWTH STRATEGY FOR SPORTS: BROADEN THE EXPERIENCE WHILE MAINTAINING THE CORE
In September, 2018's Marketing: Sports, SLRG's Jon Last speaks to the benefits and caveats of sports properties creating line extensions to reach a broader audience. READ MORE
BY DESIGN - WHAT ARE GOLF COURSE ARCHITECTS DOING?

In their continuing coverage of the ASGCA/SLRG Market Trend Watch, the Fall 2018 issue of In Design features a look at our recent research revealing the types of projects that golf course architects have been most involved with, of late, as well as their key revenue drivers.  Be sure to look for highlights from the new 2019 ASGCA/SLRG Market Trend Watch in early 2019
 
READ MORE
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