COMPLIMENTARY DOWNLOAD — A Look at the Opportunities For Those Marketing Through Sports-Related Travel Now Available at sportsandleisureresearch.com
Sports Travel Marketing Trends and Implications
SLRG President Jon Last addressed members of the Travel and Tourism Research Association on February 25, 2015 regarding trends and strategies impacting the marketing of sports-related travel. This presentation was also adapted for presentation by Last at the May 12, Connecticut Governor’s Conference on Tourism (See below). You can download the presentation, here.SPEAKER’S CORNER
SLRG’s Last Addresses Connecticut Tourism Industry on Sports Travel
Connecticut tourism and hospitality industry, with the session, “Win Big with Sports Enthusiasts”, at the Connecticut Governor’s Conference on Tourism. In this interactive presentation, Last reviewed recent consumer research on trends and opportunities for those marketing sports related travel.
Fall Golf, Inc. Conference to Look at Forces Shaping the Future of Golf
Golf, Inc.’s Strategic Summit has been scheduled for September 28-30 at the LaQuinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, California. Among the events scheduled for the conference will be a panel discussion, moderated by Sports and Leisure Research Group President Jon Last that will speak to a number of important trends impacting the golf industry. Panel discussion topics will include land use implications for golf course development, evolving consumer attitudes and needs, the impact of technological transformation on facility operations, and customer service best practices. More details to follow both through this newsletter and here.
RECENT SLRG RESEARCH OF INTEREST
Sports properties have become acutely focused on all aspects of their direct customer facing functions. Certainly, fan satisfaction with the on-site and in-game experience are key elements that many teams and property holders actively measure, but recently the SLRG team has had opportunity to immerse themselves in research that examines interactions that begin well in advance of game day. Multiple recent engagements have allowed our researchers to get a fan’s perspective on everything from communications elements that seek to delineate the offer details and positioning of various ticket packages to online ordering site usability for various properties. Such research can and has been conducted across a breadth of observational, qualitative and quantitative modalities. Each plays a role in optimizing messaging and enabling our clients to create a consistently fan friendly experience across a multitude of touch points. Let us know how we can help you to do the same. Contact us.Understanding Kids and the Sports That They Play
In separate recent engagements, Sports and Leisure Research Group has had the distinct pleasure of working closely with two premiere governing bodies from different major sports, to profile youth participants and gain a better understanding of their emotional connection or disconnection with the respective sports at both the fan and participatory level. These proprietary studies yielded insights that looked at the broad and evolving battle for share of kids’ time and attention that created unique challenges and opportunities for the client organizations’ respective sports against a plethora of competitive activities and responsibilities. Youth research comes with an assortment of methodological challenges, not to mention legal and ethical considerations. Part and parcel to these realities are the necessity to understand the dynamics of parent and peer influences in resulting youth behaviors. We can help you better understand how to resonate with tomorrow’s best customers. Contact us.
See it. Then Believe It.
At Sports and Leisure Research Group, we’ve always been strong believers in the ability of qualitative research to allow the voice of the customer to yield insights and hot buttons that can add expository breadth to a more traditional quantitative survey analysis. For sporting goods brands and properties that want to go beyond the recollection and probed reflection found in these core methodologies, we take great pride in our ability to immerse ourselves directly into the transactional environment, important to a specific client. Over the years that has manifested itself in a number of SLRG engagements where we send a team of researchers into a live environment, be it onsite at a sporting event, or embedded in a retail space to both observe, interview and participate with target consumers or fans. To do this well, and not become a distraction to the actual experience, takes a careful blend of both art and science where we’ve become quite adept and taken extreme care to become part of that environment. The resulting insights are among some of the most powerful a consultative researcher can deliver. Challenge us to do this for you.