Commentary Box
Recently, I have been doing a lot of work with some start-up businesses. The common theme among these start-ups is that they have a really great product or service and have been taken a little bit by surprise at how quickly they have taken off. It is only after they've had a bit of success that they decide they need to look at ways to improve their marketing to take their business to the next level. This is because up until this stage it has been their great product/service that has been driving sales, not marketing.
You would almost have to be living in another galaxy if you didn't know by now that tomorrow Apple are going to release their latest product. Countless news stories have generated tens of millions of dollars worth of FREE PR, and what have Apple themselves said? Well, nothing really, just that they are going to release a new product. What the new product is going to be has not been released (although I think everyone knows what it's going to be). What the name of the product is going to be has been a news story within the news story.
There is a certain symmetry between how human nutritional diets have evolved and how a modern advertising budget should be spent. Think about it. Up until recently it was the norm for people to wake up in the morning and skip breakfast. They might grab a quick coffee mid-morning and then a real quick bite to eat for lunch. Too busy to stop and have something substantial. That would get them through the day (barely).
Unfortunately for producers of high-end leisure, luxury and sports goods, such as boats, jet skis, motorbikes, golf buggies etc, they are the first to suffer in times of economic downturn.
Last year Sport England presented their findings from the largest ever body of research undertaken on the quality of experience that people had when involved in sport. The surveys and focus groups took in all forms of sport, all age groups and skill levels. Their aim was to find out why people played sport and what would help to keep them from dropping out. Their long-term goal is to get more people playing sport and for longer.
They found that there were 7 main drivers. 4 of these were seen to be more important, they were the emotional (or enjoyment) drivers.
Tigers notoriously private life has suddenly been thrown into lounge rooms all around the world. It seems everyone has an opinion on what he should do next, even though no-one knows for fact what's actually happened to date. So I thought I might as well put in my two bobs worth as well.
Firstly, there's a big question to answer, "is it any of our business what he does in his private life?"
It is widely accepted in the marketing world that consumers can be grouped according to how quickly they adopt a new product. There are 5 distinct groups:
- Innovators (approx 2.5% of consumers)
They are well-informed and are the first to try new products in the market.
In the sporting world, these ‘innovators’ are more or less the elite athletes. They are the first to test any technological breakthroughs in equipment from the manufacturers and, if proven advantageous, are the first to use these new products in their field.