Price is significantly more important than any other attribute when consumer were making a sporting goods industry purchase decision over the last year, but product quality trumps low price and value for the price when deciding which brand to buy. 


According to recent consumer panel surveys conducted by The SportsOneSource Group, 68% of respondents said that Price ‘has a major effect’ on their decision of where to purchase a product, while 58% of respondents to a follow up survey on the strength of brands ranked Product Quality as ‘extremely important’ when deciding which brand to purchase.


The price question about where to purchase sporting goods supports another section of the How America Shops study that indicated that price had surpassed convenience of location as an influence on where consumers chose to shop for sporting goods. 


The where to purchase assessment is part of the SportsOneSource 2008 How America Shops study released last month.  The study is based on a survey conducted over the summer that measures the decisions consumers make when deciding which sporting goods, outdoor or mall specialty store to visit to purchase athletic or outdoor products.  The SportsOneSource Brand Strength Report, based on a survey conducted in October 2008, measures the decisions consumers make when determining which brand to purchase.


The How America Shops study, which focuses on retailers, was conducted prior to the recent Wall Street meltdown, and the Brand Strength survey was conducted after the financial mess came to light.
In the How America Shops study, which is currently available for delivery, the Return Policy of the Store (54%) and having Items Easy to Find (51%) were also mentioned by a majority of the respondents as having a ‘major effect’ on where  to purchase sporting goods.  While important in their own right, the SportsOneSource report notes that both attributes are significantly less important than price when consumers make decisions on where to purchase a product.                                                               


In the Brand Strength Report, which will be available in late December, Value for the Price came in a close second (55%)  to product quality as ‘extremely important’ when consumers are deciding which brand to purchase.


The price factor was most important in the Northwest region of the country, where 79% of the respondents said that Price ‘has a major effect’ on where to buy sporting goods products, followed by the Midwest with 74% indicating the same. 

 

 Predictably, price was seen as less important as incomes rose, with 77% of the respondents with annual household incomes under $40,000 citing Price ‘has a major effect’ on where to purchase, while that same importance level was cited by just 65% of those with household incomes over $100,000, still the top reason for that income level.  Women said Price ‘has a major effect’ more often than their male counterparts, 74% to 69%, respectively.


All regions had Return Policy of the store as the second most important reason for where a consumer chose to purchase a sporting goods product – measured by those respondents indicating the attribute as either ‘has a major effect’ or ‘has some effect’ on where to make a purchase – with the exception of the Rockies region, where respondents appeared to be more influenced by Items Easy to Find as the second most important reason for where they chose to purchase sporting goods product.


Product Warranties and Store with Something New and Different were the least mentioned attributes on where to purchase products.
In the Brand Strength Report, the Product Quality and Value for the Price attributes were cited as ‘extremely important’ more often by females than by male respondents in determining which brand to purchase. 

 

In terms of household income, Product Quality was cited most often as ‘extremely important’ by those with annual household incomes over $40,000.  In the under $40,000 households, Value for the Price (59%) edged out Product Quality, but the attribute still had a majority of respondents (56%) suggesting it was ‘extremely important’ as a reason to purchase a brand.


Of the consumers responding to the How America Shops survey, 60% had purchased footwear at a full-line sporting goods store, while 78% had purchased apparel and 20% had purchased sports licensed products in that channel.  Athletic equipment was purchased at full-line stores by 60% of the respondents and outdoor equipment was purchased at full-line by 18% of the respondents.  Mall specialty and outdoor specialty accounted for the balance.