Sports Retailers - Are You Still Shooting Arrows In The Dark?

In the 90s, every urban and semi-urban residential area around the world had a sporting goods retailer. They sold the kids their first cricket bats and swimming gear. And the adults bought their grown-up badminton and football gear from them too. But a lot of these stores saw an increasing decline over the years, with video games and then mobile games becoming the go-to for adults and kids alike.

In recent years though, active lifestyle have found its advocates again. Senior executives running marathons and biking to work, kids going out to play again – outdoor sports are all the rage now!

But the market is still fragmented. With brands like Decathlon and the convenience of online shopping, national and local sporting good retailers have so far been unable to leverage the returning interest in active lifestyles. Why is that? Because they have not been able to achieve deep levels of personalization in their marketing. Their billboards and print ads are often shooting arrows in the dark, as are their limited digital and mobile campaigns. Casting a wide net and praying to catch customers in 2017 is like preparing to play Tug Of War in the 2020 Olympics. It just won't work anymore!

So What's the Answer?

Sports retailers need a quick and amazing new marketing strategy, which is as data driven as their other retail counterparts. Geomarketing is one way to achieve it, because nothing is more of a give away of a customer's hobbies and lifestyles as the places he goes when he is not at work!

What Does a Good Geomarketing Strategy for Sports Retail Look Like?

Simply put, it is one that knows and deeply understands the active members of the community. Geomarketing is a powerful force that can help sports retailers. With it, sports retail marketers can:

• Engage the active members of the community in a more personalized fashion
• Spend less on advertising served to those who can't tell their football from their basketball
• Sell more – who doesn't want to do that!

There are three primary angles to a sound geomarketing strategy for sports retail:

Geo-Targeting

This one is by far the most crucial aspect of geomarketing. Using Wi-Fi networks, GPS, or cellular network-based triangulation, sports good retailers can identify the active members of the community. They are the ones who check in to sporting clubs, joggers' parks, hiking hotspots, and sports stores.

Geo-Fencing

With geo-fencing, sports retailers can create a virtual perimeter within which they serve their digital and mobile ads. These locations can vary from your own outlet where you can capture already engaged consumers to malls and markets where active members of the community are known to shop. Hyperlocal deals and promotions are a great way to influence purchase. Offer a coupon to someone who checks into a sports club or in your shop, once or every time they return to the area. You could also target bikers in your area with promo on helmets and safety gear for city traffic. Or you can promote your store's latest arrivals – that swimwear brand that's a global rage or that badminton racket the country's favourite player uses!

Geo-Conquesting

This is similar to geo-fencing except in this, you target competitor's locations. Consumers queuing up at your competitor's outlets in peak swimming, hiking, or marathon season? Personalized promos will bring the footfalls back to your store.

Timing is of Essence

Geomarketing is nothing if not timed immaculately. Chances are that if you are capturing the mindshare of a customer during the busy morning commute, your message will be lost. But Saturday morning, with a week of outdoor activity or shopping ahead of them, consumers will be more open to contextual messages based on their lifestyle needs.

Peak seasons are great for sports geomarketing too. Hiking season coming up? Customers are going to start looking for hiking gear soon. Be in front of them when the time is right. The same applies to ski vacations, swimming, and marathon seasons.

Content is King in Geomarketing Too!

You can have the location data, location-based customer personas, and the world's best database of target consumers. But they mean nothing if the ads and content you serve to them is neither interesting nor persuasive. Deep levels of personalization are key for context.

Why We Are Talking About All of This Today?

Because the holiday season is on the anvil, as is the time for New Year resolutions! That means many seasoned active consumers will buy gear for their beach and ski vacations. And a whole new segment of consumers will give in to the itch of inculcating more active hobbies in their sedentary lifestyles.

It is the right time to get on the Geomarketing bandwagon with LifeSight, that will make your OOH to TV, print to digital campaigns that much more accurate, transparent, measurable, and viewable. With LifeSight, sports retail marketers can now get hold of an entire spectrum of location data, in near real time, from a single source. They can actually view the online-to-offline journey of their customers in real time. They will have access to sound dashboard technology to help them get instant access to critical consumer data, view it in real time, and navigate their marketing spends accordingly.

With LifeSight, you will have a one-stop solution to not only accurately targeted ad platform but also actionable and highly personalized yet anonymous insights about your consumers' sporting and outdoor activity interests and needs.

You will also have a measurement and attribution framework that moves beyond broad strokes like last click to measure marketing effectiveness at granular, in-store SKU level though legitimate transaction and accurate location data.

The stage is set for sports retail to take its rightful share in the retail ecosystem and capture the mindshare of new-age consumers and their diverse hobbies and lifestyles. Geomarketing comes to the rescue – are you ready to make the most of it?