Sporting Goods Market Goes High-Touch, High-Tech

To stay competitive, both general sporting goods stores and specialized stores that sell everything from golf clubs to billiards tables to outdoor equipment are ratcheting up the sophistication of their P-O-P. Brand marketers in turn are creating eye-catching visuals, flexible merchandisers and interactive displays that include computer kiosks and in-store demo areas."There's always a challenge to come up with a visual aid that's different than anyone else has," says Mike May, director of communications for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), North Palm Beach, Fla. "You're back to the drawing board almost every day trying to figure out how you can reach the consumer in a way your competitors are not. The days of just putting the products in the window and letting consumers walk in are long gone. There is a science to how you lay out these stores. Stores are always trying to change their appearance to get people to come in more often and stay longer."Part of the fuel for this intensified competition among channels and marketers could be that the overall sporting goods market has been flat, according to SGMA's Recreation Market Report, released in June. Manufacturers' sales of equipment, apparel, footwear and transport such as boats and recreational vehicles increased just 0.5% to about $68.6 billion from 2002 to 2003, the report says.Over that same one-year span, sports equipment sales rose slightly, from $17.4 billion to $17.5 billion; apparel sales fell 2.5% to $22.8 billion; footwear sales rose 4.2% to $9.7 billion; and transport grew 2.1% to $18.6 billion. Among equipment sales, the top five categories were exercise machines, golf, hunting, camping and fishing, according to the report.May notes outdoor equipment made up three of the top five categories, and he has some ideas why. "Our lives are filled with computers and fax machines and cell phones," he says. "There's something refreshing about going to a park where all you have to worry about is a pine cone falling on your head. You're sort of safe out there. It's a nice de-stresser." He adds such sports have broad demographic appeal: "They can be enjoyed by a 7-year-old as much as a 77-year-old. They're cross-gender and cross-generational."Challenging Wal-MartMost brand marketers and other observers see the SportMarts and Modell's Sporting Goods of the world holding their own against larger mass merchants, such as Wal-Mart and Target, and likewise those who focus on the specialty retailers believe their accounts have found their niches and will survive. Yet there are no guarantees -- especially once you factor in the continued growth of the Web -- and interactive, smart-looking P-O-P is seen as critical to the sector's ongoing fitness, May says.Annette Dorsett, director of fixture purchasing for The Sports Authority Inc., Englewood, Colo., says her chain is opening 20 new stores next year and doing "extensive amounts of remodels," indicating confidence in its continued growth."We're going to try to build on our strengths and key in based on the research we've done and the demographics we're trying to hit," she says. "We offer a very good shopping environment. We're competitively priced. We have good brands. We're definitely a destination store that has a loyal customer base."Rob Wallace, managing partner, strategy at New York-based consulting firm Wallace Church Inc., which works for both sporting goods manufacturers and mass merchants including Wal-Mart, sees a "backlash" of people who don't want to shop in superstores. "There's a harkening back to the local pro shop," he says. "You want to associate with somebody who lives and breathes that sport."Not everyone is so sure. "Nobody's safe from Wal-Mart," says Klara Nowak, assistant global marketing manager for Wilson Racquet Sports, Wilson Sporting Goods Co., Chicago. "They're going to have to compete based on being specialized and being the experts in a certain field. Everybody thought they had their niche, but we've all seen what happened to Toys 'R' Us."Retailers Want to Encourage Demonstration Among the primary ways in which May sees sporting goods stores differentiating themselves from mass merchants is by giving people the opportunity to experience a given activity before they participate in it -- whether it be hitting a golf ball or tennis ball or trying out a particular type of pool table."Try before you buy. Play before you pay," he sums up. "It needs to have a fun flavor to it and an atmosphere that's engaging, so that when they leave they want to come back. If you can get that message to a consumer, you'll get repeat business."Wallace, whose firm has done brand repositioning work for Russell Athletic and Johnson Outdoors, says high-tech displays are one way to keep them coming back. "You're going to see more Duratrans stuff, like you would see in airports -- backlit -- that change for different sporting seasons," he says. He adds that lenticular lenses would be appropriate for the sporting goods category, not only to tell a story, but also to suggest motion.The Sports Authority, which owns a total of 385 stores including the Gart's Sports, SportMart and Oshman's chains, is moving toward standardizing its overall look. It has introduced a color for each department and is adding more high-tech, metal fixtures, especially in its ski and bike areas, Dorsett says."At least 80% of our standard package is permanent," she explains. "We are trying to achieve a consistent look among all the brands, so that when customers walk into the stores on different coasts, they'll have a recognition that we're one company. In certain departments, we have a call-out of different materials. We're using a combination of wood and metal, and within that we've brought in some color."The store has focused primarily on fitness, golf, footwear and apparel, Dorsett says. In the golf area, it has developed a "golf day" program that has created "more of a specialty shop environment" featuring a store-within-a-store concept, she says. "It carries some higher-end brands and brings new customers in the door."Manufacturers in the golf sector are putting more money into merchandising, but both specialty and mass stores are becoming more generic looking, says Michael Paulsen, retail marketing manager for Nike Golf, Beaverton, Ore. "The different manufacturers are becoming more product-centric, like we are," he says. "You'll see more fixtures now that are specific to a given product than you did a few years ago."Nike Golf pursues diverging strategies for on-course pro shops and off-course golf specialty retailers, Paulsen says. On-course, the company produces counter cards and kiosks that customers can use to order a product and have it drop-shipped to their home. Off-course, with more real estate, it relies more on floorstands for equipment products along with bins for footwear. "We've taken a more upscale approach with our signage and graphic frames and fixturing, utilizing more metal P-O-P," he says. "With golf, wood was primarily what you saw, especially on-course. But we've taken a more innovative approach that really helps support the technology stories of the product."Although fitness machines are the top-selling equipment item, according to SGMA's figures, the broader societal trend toward health and fitness is not necessarily showing up in P-O-P. "I haven't noticed too much advertising-wise," May says.Kevin Flynn, senior vice president of marketing for Finish Line Inc., Indianapolis, says the subject simply does not lend itself to merchandising very well. "It's a very dry subject," he says. "It's a very un-cool subject. It's not aspirational. All of our running graphics are very technical, performance-based."However, Marchelle Falcone, marketing director of Tubbs Snowshoes, Stowe, Vt., says such imagery does play into her brand because snowshoeing is a "winter walking alternative. It's got a lot of momentum as a winter fitness alternative, getting out of the gym, getting off the treadmill, getting outside."In the growing outdoors sector, major sporting goods retailers have moved toward a more consistent look and want to partner with manufacturers rather than taking whatever P-O-P is sent their way, says Falcone, whose brand concentrates on specialty retailers first but places its snowshoes, poles and accessories in mass accounts, as well."They're saying, 'You can help us, but we want to create the piece,' " she says. "It flows in their stores, but we get the brand message across. It works." Independent stores, she adds, are "still open to manufacturer advertising. We understand they have limited space. As long as we work with them and don't develop things that will be obstacles to their business, they're very open to getting materials."Falcone has seen a more metallic, high-tech look in displays for other winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding but says Tubbs has eschewed that style of P-O-P. "It comes down to what the brand stands for," she says. "We are very authentic. We have a rich heritage. You won't see as much of that from us. Some of our competitors can get pretty technical and pretty edgy looking."Because snowshoeing is new to many potential customers, accounts are looking for a combination of graphics that illustrate the sport, which leads to a great deal of signage and banners, and brochures that explain how to select the right snowshoe. "Imagery becomes very important for our dealers," Falcone says. "People appreciate having all the product information in one place, so we've done that."Practice Makes PurchaseThe play-before-you-pay trend has been apparent in specialty stores and sporting goods store departments that cater to racket sports, says Nowak of Wilson, which makes rackets, balls, strings, bags, tennis footwear and accessories."It's trying to make it interactive and trying to draw people's attention to it, to be able to touch it, feel it, play with it, and not just read about it," she says. Displays often have a "technology look and feel," Nowak adds. "A lot of times, they'll be made out of the actual racket material."Aimed primarily at tennis pro shops, Wilson's P-O-P first and foremost attempts to educate consumers about the variety of products available. "We're trying to make it easy for someone who knows nothing about tennis to gain a little knowledge, and at the same time giving somebody who's a little more knowledgeable some additional information," Nowak says. "That's a challenge for everybody. There used to be three types of rackets, and that was it. The whole tennis field has gotten so much more high-tech and complicated, you need the help from the P-O-P to get the message across."Hockey specialty retailers want more modular fixtures, says Vivian Lefebvre, retail development manager for Bauer Nike Hockey, Greenland, N.H. "There definitely is a trend toward fixtures that are flexible, that can serve a number of purposes at retail, to minimize the investment and give a retailer a lot more options. One day it's a stick fixture, the next day it's a helmet display."In September, Bauer rolled out such a display. Designed primarily to hold up to 60 sticks, the powdercoated metal display also can be used for gloves, apparel and any other hockey-related product except skates. The 25-inch-wide by 30-inch-deep merchandiser was designed with specialty shops in mind, Lefebvre says. "It does have a small footprint. Hockey shops in general are very small," she says. "It really makes the sticks pop. Hockey shops, once they find a fixture that works, they keep it a long time."Billiard specialty retailers only have just begun to use P-O-P in a sophisticated way in the past handful of years, says Mark McCleary, vice president of marketing for Chicago-based Brunswick Billiards. He sees a contrast with the spa shops where his company's products also sometimes sell alongside spas and pools."Over the past two years or so, we've tried to differentiate ourselves and started investing pretty heavily in point-of-purchase," McCleary says. "It's very much a developing market for point-of-purchase. You don't see a lot of corrugate, a lot of prepacks or floorstands or things like that. You tend to see permanent or semipermanent fixtures. You see the use of wood or very durable materials. You see the use of kiosks. The consumer can use them to design their own material because floor space is limited."With 35 different kinds of pool tables in multiple sizes and finishes, such kiosks are crucial to Brunswick, which also sells such rec room staples as air hockey, foosball, furniture such as wet bars, and accessories like billiards clothes, and "everything you could possibly put in the unplugged game room." In larger stores, McCleary adds, the company has introduced the store-within-a-store Brunswick Pavilion, in which anywhere from eight to 18 pool tables can be set up for customers to try out."The thing about buying a pool table is, it's pretty intimidating," he says. "It's not something you really know how to do. If we can allow consumers to self-educate and lead themselves through the purchase process, we can take out the need for a lot of a hands-on sales interaction."The company has one store of its own in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Ill., where customers can play pool, foosball or air hockey. "The environment is special, and it's fun," McCleary says. "Compare that to going shopping in a Wal-Mart, or a SportMart, where it's crowded, and it's loud and there's tons of people. The last thing you and your 12-year-old son can do is play pool."Room for Greater Innovation?Within the broader shoe and apparel industry -- and, from what he's seen, in the general sporting goods market -- Flynn of the Finish Line is not impressed with the creativity of retailers or brand marketers."There's a fair amount of homogeneity in the marketplace in the sporting goods industry, in terms of display and windows," he says. "No one's doing anything ingenious or different right now." Within the footwear sector, Flynn adds, "Nike, Adidas, Reebok, they're producing the same stuff over and over and over again. How many times can you do just a plain banner?"Apparel sections in outdoor specialty stores haven't seen anything that new and different, either, says Barbara Owen, director of sales and marketing for Aspen, Colo.-based Sport Obermeyer, which makes waterproof and windproof clothing for skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports. "I haven't seen anything truly revolutionary," she says. "What we attempt to do is not stand out too far apart from what the stores are using already. We want our brand to stand out but not stick out."