E-Newsletter   |  FEBRUARY 2020
THREE COMPLIMENTARY DOWNLOADS FEATURE GOLF AND SPORTS MARKETING TRENDS AND INSIGHTS

Our eleventh annual Trends breakfast at the PGA Merchandise Show on Wednesday, January 22nd highlights new Golfer Research conducted with Golf Magazine/Golf.com and the ASGCA.  This year we again hone in on key trends that will impact the golf industry across equipment, facility operations, travel and the golfer's mindset. Results were derived from surveys with more than 4,000 active golfers as well as numerous additional golfer research conducted by SLRG over the past twelve months. Click HERE for the presentation. More in depth results are also available on a custom basis. Please contact us for details


SLRG 2020 WINTER SPORTS OMNIBUS highlights  are also available for download HERE and contain the latest insights and trends from a national sample of avid sports fans regarding their participation and viewership habits across the most popular spectator and participatory sports.

2020 ASGCA GOLF MARKETING TRENDWATCH
Available for the first time to News & Views Readers, our third annual trends study conducted in partnership with the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) reveals trends in golf facility development as well as the attitudes, business trends and perceptions of superintendents, facility operators and architects.  SLRG President Jon Last presented the findings on January 28 at the ASGCA's Inaugural Winter Meeting in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show. Click HERE to download. 

GAP ANALYSIS HELPS TRAVEL PROPERTIES DIFFERENTIATE "ACCEPTORS AND REJECTORS"
A number of our travel and leisure clients often seek insight from prospective guests about numerous topics.  Recently we've looked at everything from the potential impact of new amenities and onsite venues, to entertainment preferences.  Clearly, by deriving a solid understanding of priorities and preferences, a property can better determine a strategic direction, and tapping into emotional and motivational insights, develop more effective marketing collateral.  We will typically also recommend that this research is augmented with the inclusion of house files of frequent or high valued guests to allow a richer analysis that measures gaps in attitudes, behaviors and perceptions between those who are loyal to a property and those who may throw their allegiances elsewhere within the competitive set.  Such gap analysis allows for a telling understanding of a property's perceived strengths and weaknesses among a broader and more actionable universe.  We'll be happy to elaborate.   Reach out to us.

ELIMINATING GROUP THINK TO OPTIMIZE SPORTS MARKETING CONCEPT IDEATION


We've all likely been in brainstorming sessions where the wisdom of crowds helps to facilitate creative thinking.  However, in many cases the strong assertions of an organizational leader, the dominance of a single participant or a desire to not rock the boat and "go with the flow" can often subjugate everyone's perspective.  One of the tasks of a good qualitative researcher is to determine the likelihood of either scenario in choosing the right methodology.  We've recently been engaged by multiple sports properties in studies where particularly high stakes creative decisions have spawned dichotomous and strong viewpoints across certain members of senior management.  In these circumstances, we've typically opted to conduct confidential one-on-one depth interviews.  With a well-designed discussion guide this approach can elicit creative thinking across all invited stakeholders, including those who might choose to hold back in a group scenario. On the opposite side, those with strong convictions behind their opinions, can voice them appropriately, without fear of repercussions and effective moderation can draw out the rationale behind their feelings, adding further to the ultimate concept list.  We can do this for you.   CONTACT US

POV
"BEING SWITZERLAND"
The only joke that I've ever heard about marketing researchers centers around a CEO who is ripping his hair out trying to figure out the answer to 1+1.  After being further frustrated by the esoteric answers of his CFO and head of engineering, he calls in his Insights Chief to receive the answer, "What do you want it to be!" 
 
While the point behind the joke unfairly subscribes to the old adage that one can make numbers tell any story you want them to, I'd maintain that a more ethical and valuable use of my chosen field when working alongside executives with strong and unwavering opinions, is for validation and acting as a neutral third party advocate that is surrogate for the voice of the customer.  Of course the more rigid of leaders may fear that their presumption of fact can turn out to be incorrect, thus throwing a wrench into one's plans.  However, we've been in enough of these types of scenarios, where well constructed research can better inform a strategic direction and provide a level of objectivity and impartiality that supports a chosen strategy.  Good marketing research isn't necessarily required to be absolute or beyond reproach.  But done effectively, it adds strong clarity and context to complex marketing decisions.  The effective researcher is fearless in his or her willingness to step from behind the security blanket of numbers that inevitably contain some margin of error, to assert a point of view that helps to advance the marketing agenda. 

SLRG IN THE NEWS
2020 PGA SHOW AND GOLF INDUSTRY REPORT
Compass Point's Casey Alexander highlights SLRG findings in this comprehensive outlook for the year ahead in the golf equipment business. READ HERE
One of the fun parts about sports marketing research is that we get to delve deeply into the mindset of fans.  In both the qualitative and quantitative space, a number of research techniques that borrow from the social sciences are quite useful in getting past generic, push-button answers to arrive at the deeper emotive rationale
READ HERE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 SWINGU STRATEGIES WEEKLY COLUMNS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE SLRG WEBSITE
Golf, sports and leisure marketing professionals can gain more research driven perspectives from SLRG President Jon Last's weekly column featured in Swing U's weekly Strategies newsletter.  Last's column look's at consumer trends and other marketing strategy issues.  Here's what you may have missed over the past eight weeks... 

POSTED: February 11,  2020

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