Understanding current social trends can help players in the snow sports market take full advantage of new opportunities, and help industry brands avoid the pitfalls of missing a trend. The snow sports participant base is young, well-educated and often on the front end of social trends like festival attendance, farm-to-table and organic food, the sharing economy and early adoption of technology like wearable fitness apps. Brands that understand their customers’ lifestyles and build around them have a distinct advantage over brands that fail to keep up. And it’s not easy keeping up these days.
Technology is moving at an unprecedented pace, bringing new communication vehicles, ideas, and trends to the marketplace on a constant basis. Think of how quickly Uber became a household word and a commonly used service, how quickly the term “farm-to-table” hit the mainstream, or how fast social media became a central communication hub. Festivals like South by Southwest and Coachella are now star-studded, bucket list-worthy events and others are popping up everywhere. New ways to travel and enjoy spontaneous adventure like Airbnb, Get Outfitted, Gear Commons and Spinlister have attracted millions to activities that previously required months of planning and gear ownership. All of these trends are infused with opportunities for those who understand them well enough to take advantage.
The Downhill Consumer Intelligence Project Special Report on Social Trends is designed to help SIA members understand and exploit the trends their consumers are experiencing and in many cases, driving. This report describes a variety of trends, explores how they may impact snow sports suppliers, retailers and resorts, and illustrates how the snow sports industry can exploit them. This report puts SIA members on the front of some of the hottest social trends happening today.
“If you want to know what your consumers are into today, or you want to find new ways to reach them, if you want to learn how you can be on the front end of a trend rather than reacting to it then you need to take 20 minutes to look through this report.” Kelly Davis SIA Research Director
The Social Trends Report is available at SnowSports.org/DCIP or you can email Kelly Davis to get a copy of the report, ask questions or comment about the report, or simply discuss social trends at [email protected] or by phone at 703-506-4224.