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E-Newsletter   |  APRIL 2018
COMPLIMENTARY DOWNLOADS 
Measuring Sports Marketing ROO
SLRG recently measured the impact of sports marketing activation at multiple NCAA Men's Basketball Conference tournaments to evaluate the resonance of different activations in what can often be a cluttered space. SLRG is able to measure efficacy through a series of customized pre and post tests, with exposed and unexposed/control samples of fans. These tests enable properties and activating brands to measure program resonance, awareness, recall, and association in a contextual "brand blind environment for honest, actionable and brand building insights." Through these tests, SLRG is able to conduct gap analysis, and assess opportunities across multiple target markets and program elements to derive audience based solutions. Beyond simply garnering impressions and reach equivalents, SLRG's testing focuses more on measuring the ability of the activation to generate pre to post exposure lift in target audience brand association with key message points. This methodology can enable the client to not only ascertain breakthrough across the environment of other activating brands, but to also see if prospective target customers' perceptions, awareness, and attitudes experience a lift relative to those they compete with day to day. The attached complimentary download will enable you to learn more about how we can do this for you. Read it here.

Surveys and Then Some
Designing a survey is as much science as it is art. At SLRG we pride ourselves on being able to bridge that gap for clients. Recently, we've supported our colleagues and friends of the industry with their own survey writing, with a basic white paper primer that surfaces the nuances that go into survey development, including time and length, guidelines, appropriate question structures, and sampling do's and don'ts. These guidelines are tantamount to writing an efficient and effective survey that will produce actionable insights.  You can download the white paper on survey writing, HERE.  Feel free to reach out to us for any other questions you may have HERE.

SPEAKER'S CORNER
"Tee to Green" Radio:  SLRG President Jon Last appeared on the "Tee to Green" golf radio show on Sunday, March 18h. The "Tee to Green" show is America's longest running Network radio golf show and takes listeners into the world of golf with tips on how to improve their game, top resorts and courses to visit, reviews of the latest equipment and intimate chats with golf's biggest names.  On the show, Jon discussed a number of current golfer and facility operational trends drawn from SLRG studies. These included the benchmark Golf Market Trend Watch study for the American Society of Golf Course Architects, as well as, our recent consumer research conducted with Golf Magazine. You can download our annual Golfer Omnibus report, HERE and highlights of the ASGCA report, HERE. 

Last Addresses Wharton Students 
 
SLRG's Jon Last returned to The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his M.B.A., for a guest lecture that covered the increasingly important role that marketing research plays in sports marketing.  These sessions on Monday, April 9th covered a wide range of topics ranging from Last's career path, to how brands and properties alike can benefit from effective marketing research. Wharton, like a number of leading business schools, continues to put a greater emphasis on educating tomorrow's business leaders about the impact and growing sophistication of sports marketing.  Last also serves on the advisory board for the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.  To learn more, click here.

RECENT RESEARCH OF INTEREST
Fan Insights Fuel Innovation in Sports Venue Renovations

SLRG has had th e go od fortune of partnering with a number of stadiums, arenas and halls of fame facilities that have been focusing on enhancing the on site experience for their valued guests.  The sports venue industry  bar_tv.jpg has certainly see n a trend towards building technology enabled social spaces.  These public spaces face the challenge of providing a mix of comfort amenities, enhanced food and beverage offerings and a modern ambience all while staying true to the core values of the team and the sport in question.  Amidst changing consumer values and demographics and an acute focus on cultivating the next generation of fans, these properties are engaged in a heightened battle for share of customer as new paradigms may be shifting consumer needs and demands. It is within this environment that sports venues seek a deeper and projectable understanding of that demand. Firms like ours are called in to take a pulse of this demand and to test and expose activation concepts at various stages of development. This can include optimizing the food and beverage mix, building out social spaces that appeal to families, millennials and other target segments.  Read more HERE
POV: Fighting Against Respondent Fraud 
Group of happy young business people meeting in conference room. Team of creative professionals discussing new project.
Researchers can create the greatest discussion guide or survey.  But it won't matter if significant rigor is not put in place to assure that the right audience or sample is utilized.  Use of convenience samples, poorly designed screeners and the often blind over-reliance on "cheaters and repeaters" can doom the best designed data collection instruments.  One of the great benefits of having vertical category expertise, is our firm's ability to easily identify the all too often scenario where a potential, but unqualified qualitative respondent has faked their way through an initial screener just to collect an incentive.  Good researchers can first avert these scenarios by going back to questionable recruits and asking technical, subject specific questions in their re-screener.  The re-screener can serve to validate the initial responses of those who look questionable.  A cheater or repeater upon re-screening will often cancel last minute, give a wrong answer, or forget what they said in the first place.  That saves both researcher and client, valuable time and money.

It's both frustrating and amusing to observe vast differences between respondents who qualify for a specific research study and know their subject matter compared to someone who is just trying to talk their way around a topic. 
 
Read more HERE
POV: The Influentials 
The book  The Influentials by Keller and Berry utilized a decade of research to find that " one American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy."  There's a group of people who are responsible for driving trends, influencing mass opinions and most importantly, creating demand for great products. These people are called the "Influentials." The research found that 10% of Americans determine how the rest consume and live by chatting about their likes and dislikes. 
 
Influentials have become an intriguing component of the sports market and a number of niche brands have utilized custom research to gain a better understanding of their role within a variety of vertical categories. At SLRG, we are able to identify and tap into the attitudes and behaviors of these influencers for various sports clients.  Whether it is measuring the exponential impact that a small group of influencers may have against a broader target segment, determining the nature and extent to which influencers actually communicate their preferences and insights to others less inclined, or a combination of both, effective research is the ideal way to help brands develop and cultivate the appropriate influencer marketing strategy. To assess the impact of influencers for your brand, or to find the best influencers for your brand, contact us today.
SLRG IN THE NEWS
MY SOMEWHAT SUBJECTIVE SPORTS MASCOT HALL OF FAME 
In the February Marketing: Sports, Jon Last pays homage to the power of team mascots in building brand equity and fan engagement.    Read it here.

BACK TO THE FUTURE-OR, SOMETIMES WHAT'S OLD CAN BE NEW AGAIN
SLRG's Jon Last reflects on two March 2018 sports marketing initiatives that should engage fans and break through the clutter, in Media Insider's lead item. Click here to read it.
WHAT DO CLUBS (AND GOLFERS) WANT?
The first of a series of articles in By Design Magazine, highlights some of the most pressing infrastructure and amenity needs expressed by golf facility operators, from SLRG's benchmark Golf Facility Market Trend Watch study. Click here to read.
DEAL WITH IT

Terry Mc Andrew's Golf Daily Pulse for February 14, 2018 reflects on some of the key findings from SLRG's recent Golf Market trends presentation at the PGA Merchandise Show. Read it here.
Connect with SLRG
Click here for archived issues of SLRG's "News & Views" e-newsletter, for all of the most up-to-date insight on issues impacting marketing research, the media, travel, sports and leisure industries.

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