In Competition with Themselves
Understanding Everyday Athletes to Refocus a Product Category
Fast-moving consumer goods | New Business Concepts
Situation
An international leading global brand in sports gear was seeing an increasing amount of sales outside of their traditional market of competitive athletes. As the firm sought to focus an offering in this area and expand into services, they realized they simply did not understand the rules by which their customers were playing. Complicating this issue were the regional differences they were seeing between their US, Asian and European markets, and several segmentation models. Red Associates worked with them to help evaluate their consumers globally and formulate a new, global and regional game plan.
Approach
To understand the global and regional situation, Red Associates began by conducting simultaneous research in our client’s key markets in Asia, Europe and the US, doing participant and ethnographic studies with consumers in their homes and during their fitness routines. Ethnographic insights were then tested, substantiated and refined using a quantitative, survey study in each market. Among other global trends, the team identified a key shift in the goals around ‘working out:’ in contrast to an athlete’s definition, average consumers evaluated their ‘workout’ relative to personal goals that ranged from shapeliness to mental clarity and a sense of confidence, and as such were either turned off by, or simply didn’t notice traditional ‘performance’ product. Among regional factors at play for this consumer, significantly varying body image ideals were affecting choice of gear, as were cultural codes of what is an appropriate display of achievement or effort. Insights into these and other global and regional trends were formed into a set of insights and recommendations that could guide developing a global offering product, marketing, retail and services.
Outcome
The team proposed a set of development guidelines and concepts to define a global approach and regional variations in positioning the category, as well as a global segmentation model based on consumer behaviors. The frameworks and insights, together with a database of video clips, quotes and photos, have been used internally to support a series of creative workshops on specific aspects of the category, from retail to marketing to services.
An international leading global brand in sports gear was seeing an increasing amount of sales outside of their traditional market of competitive athletes. As the firm sought to focus an offering in this area and expand into services, they realized they simply did not understand the rules by which their customers were playing. Complicating this issue were the regional differences they were seeing between their US, Asian and European markets, and several segmentation models. Red Associates worked with them to help evaluate their consumers globally and formulate a new, global and regional game plan.
Approach
To understand the global and regional situation, Red Associates began by conducting simultaneous research in our client’s key markets in Asia, Europe and the US, doing participant and ethnographic studies with consumers in their homes and during their fitness routines. Ethnographic insights were then tested, substantiated and refined using a quantitative, survey study in each market. Among other global trends, the team identified a key shift in the goals around ‘working out:’ in contrast to an athlete’s definition, average consumers evaluated their ‘workout’ relative to personal goals that ranged from shapeliness to mental clarity and a sense of confidence, and as such were either turned off by, or simply didn’t notice traditional ‘performance’ product. Among regional factors at play for this consumer, significantly varying body image ideals were affecting choice of gear, as were cultural codes of what is an appropriate display of achievement or effort. Insights into these and other global and regional trends were formed into a set of insights and recommendations that could guide developing a global offering product, marketing, retail and services.
Outcome
The team proposed a set of development guidelines and concepts to define a global approach and regional variations in positioning the category, as well as a global segmentation model based on consumer behaviors. The frameworks and insights, together with a database of video clips, quotes and photos, have been used internally to support a series of creative workshops on specific aspects of the category, from retail to marketing to services.
