Driving for insights
Editor's note: Donald Hein is market research analyst at Phoenix-based golf equipment maker Ping. Jon Last is president of Sports and Leisure Research Group, White Plains, N.Y.
From the days of “feathery” golf balls and hickory-wood shafts on golf clubs, the manufacturers and marketers of golf equipment have sought to better understand the motivations behind customer purchase behavior. There’s been an abundance of proprietary research conducted over the years to gauge the impact of various sources of influence, from the tens of millions of dollars spent on traditional advertising to visual merchandising and in-store promotional programs, as well as endorsement deals and the pursuit of those better players deemed to be at the top of golf’s “pyramid of influence.”
In a groundbreaking Driver Purchase Process study conducted by Sports and Leisure Research Group (SLRG) and Sports Illustrated Golf Group, distinct stages in the purchase cycle were identified and defined to resemble a “purchase fairway,” where, unlike traditional purchase funnels, the consideration set actually widened somewhat in the final stages of decision-making.
This study and other ongoing proprietary brand perception research conducted by Phoenix-based golf equipment maker Ping and SLRG, White Plains, N.Y., raised a series of important questions among Ping’s executive management team. First and foremost among these questions was what, specifically, was happening at the moment of truth – that instant where a golfer made the ultimate decision regarding which brand and model of driver they were going to buy? This included a need to gain a better, real-life understanding of how golfers behaved at retail and determine to what extent product trial, retailer recommendations and existing brand loyalties dictated the ultimate decision.
The hypothesis that the specific experience at retail could radically shift the purchase decision drove Ping management to learn more about the role of other elements of the marketing mix, including some of the less-frequently studied aspects of the role of word-of-mouth, in-store visual merchandising and point-of-sale elements.
Most competitive in golf
Of course, such research needed to be conducted in ways that were both pragmatic and additive to what was already known. The driver category is one of the most competitive in golf and shares a long history of innovation and technological advancement. Beginning with the introduction of metal woods in the 1980s, drivers have emerged as emblematic of golf technology innovation and customer appeal, given their ability to allow golfers to hit the ball far and straight off the tee, setting them up for an easier approach into the green.
In numerous studies conducted by SLRG principals, the driver emerges as the ostentatious star in the golf bag. “Drive for show and putt for dough” is a popular expression that epitomizes the pride that golfers feel when you “stripe one” down the middle, 20 to 30 yards further than your playing partners. A well-struck drive is one of the truly visceral joys of the game and something that keeps golfers coming back for more.
In the 1990s, golf equipment manufacturers began pushing the technological limits of driver head size and the spring-like effect that results when the ball leaves the face of the club. The first decade of the 21st century brought about advances such as adjustable weighting, which allowed golfers to customize the launch angle of their shots. Others experimented with different-shaped head designs. In more recent years, the use of various driver head colorations combined with technological shifts in shaft and face design have spurred increased driver sales, as golfers seek to be on the cutting edge to get a few more yards and shave strokes off their scores.
Of course, with the prevalence of frequent new product introductions, the consolidation of manufacturers competing in the space, the growth of marketing budgets and a flattening of golfer participation levels, the category has become even more contested. Leading manufacturers like Ping needed a more robust understanding of what was transpiring at retail to maintain their competitive edge. The research would need to be actionable but also compelling and easy to quickly grasp. It needed to be both insightful and entertaining.
An important component
The Ping and SLRG research team recognized that a qualitative and observational approach would be critical for delivering the needed insights. Because of the desire to bring the findings to life, it was apparent from the beginning that mobile video technology would be an important component at each research phase. The agreed-upon approach included the following phases, each aided by this technology:
Retail ethnography
The SLRG team members had substantial experience embedding themselves in a discreet but immersive fashion within specialty sporting goods retail. It was a project imperative to incorporate extensive hours watching and capturing customer interaction and behavior at a variety of retail channel types.
Traditional intercepts
Part and parcel to this process was gaining access to golfers who were nearing the moment of truth in deciding which equipment to buy. So, much of the methodology called for a traditional intercept approach, where members of the field team would seek out and screen potential respondents and then pass along those who met a distinct set of screening criteria to one of the SLRG partners for a videotaped in-depth interview and shop-along exercise that stressed a natural environment, where the interviewer was along for the ride as a friend with whom the respondent would share his thought process as he sampled and considered various products. For some this included interaction with retail associates and product trial. Using micro Flip-style cameras, the interviewers would be able to capture critical interactions as they occurred, without creating an artificial environment.
Pre-recruits
Because it was important to find respondents who truly were about to make a purchase, an extensive phase of pre-recruitment would also be required in advance of each in market field visit. Here, the recruitment screener needed to be designed in a way that masked the point in the purchase process at which each respondent needed to be, to avoid satisficing responses. Utilizing prior learnings, the SLRG-Ping team would need to create careful and extensive screening that gauged the consumer process stage and also assessed golfer engagement, experience and product/brand knowledge, to assure that those in an obviously qualitative study were still reflective of the most sought-after target segments defined in prior research.
Post-retail video diaries
We realized that expected incidence of individuals who would actually make a driver purchase during our field time AND consent to interviews was going to be suboptimal. So the methodology built in a post-retail phase, where select respondents who had either bought that day or were committed to making a driver purchase within a narrowly-defined future time horizon were then invited to take one of the mini-cameras home to keep, along with an additional incentive in exchange for completing a directed video diary which would be uploaded and sent back to the project team. This would allow the researchers to observe the actual closure of the process and let the respondent reflect on their purchase, as well as use the new club and capture initial reactions of both the purchaser and his often-influential group of playing partners. We saw this as an opportunity to also explore preexisting hypotheses regarding potential buyer’s remorse as well as a “constant shopper phenomenon” that had been identified in the earlier SLRG work with Sports Illustrated Golf Group. This phenomenon involved a sizable segment of new-equipment purchasers who actively took advantage of more liberal retailer exchange policies to consistently upgrade their equipment with frequent new product introductions.
Synthesize the findings
Paramount to project success was a recognition of internal client expectations. The video helped the team synthesize the findings and address the entertainment and illustration factors that we knew would be important in garnering management attention to the findings. So, before fieldwork even began, a master plan for the ultimate presentation deliverable was fleshed out.
There were also numerous process realities to address. In addition to recruitment necessities, referenced above, it would be critical to gain cooperation and involvement from several of Ping’s retail partners. Fortunately, both Ping and SLRG enjoyed strong client relationships from prior in-store research experience at a number of the stores targeted for this project.
Incentives were designed to benefit both the respondent and the cooperating retailer. But there were still legal releases and cultural elements that needed to be addressed. Once onsite, it was essential to keep the nature of the research and the sponsoring manufacturer blind from store associates and respondents. These challenges were amplified in certain locations where competitive sales reps were present for promotions or customer visits.
Discussion guides and post-interview diary guides needed to be constructed in ways that were sensitive to both the retail environment and how the respondent shopped.
Fortunately, both client and research firm leveraged industry knowledge to plan the fieldwork around these realities and eliminate recruiting challenges. In a couple of retail locations, it became evident that some of the prerecruited respondents may not have been truly qualified for the stringent screening requirements. A team less aware of the intricacies of golf might have not captured these inconsistencies and may have allowed these respondents to continue with their interviews, thus impacting data quality.
Long days
This approach required long days in the field. The onsite team had specific onsite roles that helped them stay out of the way of the natural selling environment while still meeting project objectives. There were often hours of little productivity, where it was imperative to stick to project specifications and not settle for suboptimal respondents. In one market, this begged for flexibility, where again relationships with multiple retailers facilitated an opportunity to move to where customers were present. In others, the team needed to navigate around promotional static such as a tent sale or visits by competing manufacturers’ representatives that could distort the customer traffic or representation.
We needed to consistently monitor the process and manage the collection of video files – more than 30 hours of video in total! Having both client-side and provider-side researchers in the field together facilitated frequent interaction and real-time consideration of what we were observing and hearing. As much as anything, this partnership of varying perspectives was one of the most beneficial aspects of our field approach. We were able to discern what would become ultimate themes of the process and customer archetypes as they happened. Collectively we challenged hypotheses and we coaxed and calmed each other when we observed retail practices that were clearly detrimental to creating a level environment for the consumer to consider the available products.
Lots of good conversation
As stated above, synthesis of the findings was initiated while in the field. In addition to frequent process debriefs, “napkin drawings” and lots of good conversation over meals (both the client and agency share a strong preference for Southern barbeque!) kept the team focused and challenged us all to keep to the overarching project objectives.
We were able to dynamically define purchaser archetypes and key themes and reach consensus on them while conducting the fieldwork. The post-field synthesis, then, was about affirmation and modification of these findings and a great “treasure hunt” for the video clips that best illustrated what we had learned. With client and researcher at different ends of the country, we faced the arduous task of sharing lots of clips, chasing down multiple diaries that needed to be cajoled away from respondents recruited for that phase and transmitting files in both timely and secure ways. File-sharing site limitations and security concerns eliminated e-mail and private YouTube channels as transmission facilitators but they did aid us in some of the initial review. We ultimately settled on good old-fashioned DVDs, as these met the needs of multiple project constituents. The research team needed to be able to review the footage quickly, without long waits for downloads or buffering. We also needed to be able to create file-naming conventions and identify timestamps to allow the art/design team to easily arrive at the selected highlights. Also, the art/design team at SLRG needed the highest-quality footage to edit into a compelling story.
Report wrote itself
In many ways the report wrote itself, thanks to the practice of laying out critical themes as report sections. In addition, part of our process was to think of ourselves as movie producers. As the client and SLRG teams divided and conquered raw video, working from a thorough outline, we challenged ourselves to nominate the best clips and vignettes for final consideration. We recognized that, allowing for presentation of conclusions, implications and facilitation of discussion, our final deliverable needed to integrate about 25 minutes of total highlights, interspersed throughout the presentation, from 30 hours of raw material.
We each selected our favorites and the final selection culminated in a collaborative session held at SLRG’s White Plains, N.Y., office over several days, where client and research team immersed themselves in a review and selection of the best of the best clips. Finally, when we had finished weaving the story through words and video, we arrived at the idea for a schematic drawing that summarized the major findings on one slide. Our art director brought it to life as a graphic with such skill that it ultimately landed in the hands of several key client sales and marketing executives at Ping.
The resulting presentation was then further massaged and tweaked for multi-tiered management presentations. SLRG principals delivered the initial presentation at client headquarters to multiple audiences. The client research team then created customized modules and additional video vignettes to tailor the findings for specific operating units within the client organization.
The presentations played to rave reviews, capturing the enthusiastic reception of the CEO and spawning thoughtful questions that led to additional tactical follow-up research.
Why were the presentations effective?
The power of video and demonstration. The principals of SLRG have long been proponents of making research come to life through storytelling. Be it through our frequent use of metaphorical movie clips or 1980s hair metal song snippets to illustrate our findings, we’ve always drawn analogies between good research presentations and entertainment. Such an approach makes for an enjoyable experience and dispels some of the dread associated with sitting through a stereotypical research report that is heavy with numbers and methodological discussion. The evolution of micro videorecording has clearly given qualitative researchers a much-needed tool in the never-ending quest to bring respondents to life.
Multitier capture weaves the best qualitative storytelling. Similarly, the integration of various data-capture phases adds depth and context to the opportunities to tell a story. Creative deployment of these techniques needn’t be cost-prohibitive with proactive planning and integration of various field phases.
Define and refine
All in all, this study was unique and ambitious in its scope and objectives. Our work was valuable both in meeting the specific goals of the project and in helping to define and refine best practices for client/agency collaboration and the introduction of new technology into qualitative research design.
Our advice to other research practitioners? Do your homework; know your environment; know your technology; and work from a master roadmap.
The work was long and challenging but incredibly rewarding. Through careful planning and integration of varied qualitative methodologies, the project met its goals and provoked strong strategic discussion among client executives.