It’s all about how to get dat paper! And by “paper” I mean data, obv…

• Syndicated Data (Companies that specialize in acquiring this info and retailing it to companies)
  • US Census
    • Available for free!
  • Demographic profiling
    • Surveys that collect data on consumer interests
  • Audience measurement
    • Nielsen, Google Analytics, etc… not broadly available
  • Broadcast Exposure research
    • Repucom has a proprietary measurement of brand screen time
• Custom Research (getting fresh data on your own)
  • Quantitative Research (#s)
    • Online surveys
    • Intercepts (interviewing in person)
    • Telephone (yikes)
    • Direct Mail
  • Qualitative Research
    • In-Depth Interviews
      • Cost efficiency
      • Deeper insights (due to laddering questions)
    • Focus Groups
      • Work better when homogeneous! Interesting….
    • Ethnography
      • Not popular, probably because of signal-to-noise ratio
    • Other Qualitative Data Sources
      • Market Research Online Community
      • Social Media sites
• Business-to-Business Research
  • Corporate partners
  • Vendors
  • Premium seat holders

Users of Market Research in Sport and Entertainment (uhh, everyone?)

• Professional Sports Leagues
  • Able to do research on behalf of all teams and also help maintain stability of the league internally
• Professional Sports Properties
  • AKA individual teams
• Sponsors
  • Gotta determine that ROI
  • Risks include trying to save money by comingling brand research with sport consumer research, and by outsourcing the work to the agency of record

Applications of Market Research (case studies)

Research by Milkwaukee Bucks showed their fans had high brand awareness and favorable perception of their sponsor, Potawatomi Bingo Casino

Online survey by Seattle Sounders FC showed a focus on price by fans, limited interet in other attractions, opportunistic use of this knowledge to craft a more appealing cost plan

Las Vegas Motor Speedway surveyed their 18-34 demographic and found largely newer and more casual fans, so attempted to attract more with BOGO and bundling food/drink with the ticket package

St. Louis Cardinals surveyed Facebook and Twitter users and found key differences in use of each platform, able then to tailor to each experience

Performing the right research

• Be sure you know your question!
  • As a trained scientist I am very comfortable with this bullet point
• Let your objective define your methodology and never vice versa
• Plan as much as possible
• Have a sense of budget before moving forward
• Search out a research partner, not just a supplier
  • Y’all got any of that market research data?