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Action-Sports Service Provider Network

Category: Marketing

Opportunities in All Age Segments

Age is our friend. Contrary to our obsession with youth, its profitability and our reflective youthful behavior, the other end of the spectrum is looking more and more interesting as each year passes. For those of us who are also obsessed with staring at the horizon looking for opportunities, there continues to be a huge opportunity across the boards to expand sales, extend loyalty and develop the aging segment of the market.

Again, obsessed as we are with youth we’ve been looking at the US Census Bureau numbers and birth rates for years now to determine market growth. We’ve portended the future and we’ve seen the opportunities even in the face of not-so-good news. We reported the dip in the 10 to 14 year-old age segment a few years back and sure enough even before the economy went south skate shoe sales went in that direction. There weren’t enough 12 year-old feet to fill all those shoes that were filling retailers’ shelves.

But strap in because about ten years ago couples leaned more toward amorous behavior, which resulted in lots of little feet and prospective skateboarders. Indications from our quarterly retail reports are that sales as well as margins are picking up and as money starts to flow more freely sales will continue to rise. Money is again being spent on little feet.

Meanwhile there’s an aging phenomenon happening. Boomers have been the engine driving the economy for more than four decades now and will continue to hold up their end. While many of the heritage brands and brands like Old Guys Rule have already identified the aging surf market, there may be even more opportunities on the horizon.

Recently we were asked by a client to determine retention among surfers and we saw a number that might be approaching 70%. It comes down to 60% of surfers in the U.S. are over the age of 25. Starting age for surfers has gone from between 10 and 13 years old to 16 years old. And, the older age segments are growing each year since we’ve been counting.

It’s not just surfers who are aging. Our last Skateboard survey shows that 17% of the 9 million+ skateboarders in the U.S. are over the age of 25: 8% are between the ages of 25 and 34; 6.9% are 35 to 44 and almost 2% are over 45!

Snowboarders look the same. The thinning of available dollars may have resulted in advancing the ages of snowboarders and precluding families that snowboard, but again, there are opportunities in the older market as well. According to our last snowboard survey, 60% are over the age of 25 and almost 34% are over the age of 32.

Opportunities abound among these aging surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders. Think feet. Think shorts and T-shirts. Think shirts. And, don’t forget about the youth obsessed chicks over 35 who surf, snowboard, frequent the beach and practice the lifestyle. The “older” age segments – even in this economy – have more money to spend than their teenaged counter parts. Think margins!

A friend sent me a birthday card that said something about being like a fine wine … life just gets better with age. And, so do the opportunities.

by board-trac marie on June 21, 2011
filed in Marketing
tagged , , , , ,

The graying of the skateboard market: A look at skateboarders age 35 and Older

Check out this recent article written by Killeen Gonzalez, Yahoo contributor

According to figures previously released by Board Trac, 17% of the over nine million skateboarders in the United States are 25 years old or older. Of that 17%, 8.9% are 35 years of age of older. This change in the sport’s demographics has understandably made things a bit more complicated for those on the business side of things, especially since the sport was once considered solely for the young. Let’s take a closer look at some of the older skateboarders behind the trend.  http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-8488773

by Angelo Ponzi on May 18, 2011
filed in Marketing

Brand exceptionalism by Seth Godin

Seth Godin, the author of Linchpin, Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, Tribes and most recently Poke the Box is an excellent source of marketing ideas and business strategies.

This is a recent cut and paste from his blog:

Your brand is your favorite. After all, it’s yours. You understand it, you helped build it, you’re obsessed with the nuance behind it. Your organization’s actions make sense to you, you sat in the room as they were being argued about… you might even have helped make some of the decisions.

So, your brand doesn’t do anything wrong. What it does is the best it could do under the circumstances. Someone who knew what you know would make the very same decision, because under the circumstances it was the only/best option.

Of course we should buy from you. You’re better!

When your brand starts falling behind a competitor (Dell vs. Apple, Microsoft vs. Google, Washington Mutual vs. Everyone and then Apple vs. Android, Google vs. Facebook)… you say it’s not fair, nor expected.

The problem with brand exceptionalism is that once you believe it, it’s almost impossible to innovate. Innovation involves failure, which an exceptional brand shouldn’t do, and the only reason to endure failure is to get ahead, which you don’t need to do. Because you’re exceptional.

In the battle for attention or market share, the market makes new decisions every day. And the market tends to be selfish. Often, it will pick the arrogant market leader (because the market also tends to be lazy), but upstarts and new competitors always have an incentive to change the game or the story.

Brand humility is the only response to a fast-changing and competitive marketplace. The humble brand understands that it needs to re-earn attention, re-earn loyalty and reconnect with its audience as if every day is the first day.

by dougworks on May 15, 2011
filed in Marketing

Riding Positive Trends Into 2011

By Angelo Ponzi, Co-Founder Board-Trac, Inc.

 “Don’t look back unless you plan on going there,” is one of my friend’s favorite sayings.  I always liked, “Things look clearer in the rearview mirror.”  Bon Jovi.  And, let’s not forget, “hindsight is 20-20 or the glass is half full, not half empty.”

Looking back on this past year, we have certainly seen many changes in the action sports industry, both internally and externally that have had an impact on business.  Given all of these changes, I could focus this article on the impact that they have had on the overall industry, I’d like to focus on some positive nuggets and get us all looking forward again.

According to the specialty retailers that participated in our Q3 2010 Board-Trac/Board Retailers Association Quarterly Specialty Retail Survey, 62.3% indicated that they were either on plan or exceeded their planned forecast through the end of Q3.

This is an 8.4% increase among retailers from the same quarter (Q3 09) last year.  What’s exciting about that is the percentage of retailers reporting that they were under forecast by 10+% or more, decreased by 8%. Those on plan increased by 6%, and those exceeding plan by 10% increased 4.6%.  These results followed the trend of the positive growth we’ve seen since we began tracking in Q1 2008.  Overall, there has been a 42.7% increase in the number of retailers reporting that sales were up over the previous year.  Also of note is that in Q1 2009 only 18.5% of our participating retailers reported sales were up Q1 ‘09 compared to sales of Q1 ‘08.  In our latest survey, Q3 2010, 50% reported that comp sales were up over the previous year.  We’ve come a long way, baby!

This of course has had an impact on margins as well.  Almost forty-one percent (41.1%) of the retailers reported increased margins, while 29.4% reported a decrease in their margins.

Here’s where that rearview mirror concept comes in.  One of the best ways to help you figure out strategies for the future is to look at the past.  Ask yourself, among those retailers that were increasing their sales and having various degrees of success, what external influences existed and what did those retailers do to help increase their sales throughout the year?

While we are certainly not offering any crystal ball, eight-ball or a definitive solution, you need to examine what the retailers that had increases in sales implemented to help determine your strategies for 2011.

In the chart below, you can see that during the seven quarters represented, better customer service (you can also combine better employee training here as well), better mix of existing brands carried and carrying exclusive brands were three key areas retailers focused on to help improve their sales and most likely a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors.  Note: percentages represent the number of retailers that indicated they implemented the strategy/tactics and should not be added together.

Riding Positive Trends Continued…

by Angelo Ponzi on January 10, 2011
filed in Market Research, Marketing

Planning and Managing an Event

An event can be referred to as many things, for instance a competition, a ceremony, a festival, a party, a demo, etc. In our industry we see a combination of these.

Creating and operating an event, regardless of whether it is grassroots or large scale, is a juggling act. Many issues that you may deal with often can happen in the beginning. One of the first rules of event planning & management is to figure out why you are doing the event. When planning any event you must ask yourself a series of questions to determine if its something that people would want to come to. Listen to what people want, differentiate your event and stop doing exactly whatever everybody else is doing!!

A few things when creating an event you must take into consideration and I have broken down some of the main elements in that process:

First you conceptualize the event (define it) – what is the name of the event, what is your target audience, what’s the mission, where should you have it, when will the event be held, etc. When developing an event make sure you know why and for whom you are creating it. In this stage you will also need to define your sources of revenues (ticket sales, sponsorship, food & beverage, merchandise, etc) – because ultimately you want and need to make money.

After you create/define the event you must then budget it. You will need to be very detailed in order to accurately budget. This is very important, because you may find yourself out of business before you even get started. I would like to point out that even though the cash flow plays an important role, it is also important from a non-financial standpoint that the event becomes an annual event.

Finding a location is a critical part of the process. When selecting a site you need to do research to make sure the location you have chosen is the best for your event. Knowing the local marketplace and the community will only help guide you and in my opinion you should become part of that local scene.

Once the location is selected, comes the most challenging part, in my opinion of the event planning process – finding your sponsors. In most cases the sponsorship support is the very lively-hood and it can be very discouraging at times. I have learned not to take anything personally, because in the long run you are far more productive when staying focused and not letting the intimidation get to you. Finding sponsors is a sales process that is typically a lengthy one.

Once you have done all of the above and more, you will then have to promote it, produce it and basically MAKE-IT- HAPPEN! Many other things will come up along the way and issues will always arrive – that is the nature of events. My advice is to always stay calm and in any instance prepare to have some sort of contingency plan. Creating a list of issues that may happen in the pre-event planning process will help you be better prepared when something does occur.

In the end you must hire & staff the best team possible to make sure that everything is intact and you are ready to go. Essentially no event can run by itself and without the help of a great staff that is motivated to go the extra mile you may run into more problems than necessary. Keep your staff happy and focused on their priorities and this will only help you in producing a successful event.

-Monica Staniec

by monskeez on October 11, 2010
filed in Marketing
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