The SIA Downhill Consumer Intelligence Project takes SIA members beyond demographics to give you a complete view of skier and snowboarder psychographics. Psychographics identify common personality traits, values, opinions, attitudes, interests and lifestyles of defined groups – like skiers and snowboarders. This level of knowledge will help members build more effective marketing campaigns, help designers better understand their target customer, and generally provide a deeper understanding of the type of people who choose to participate in snow sports.
Including this report on Downhill Participant Psychographics, we will add three new reports to the SIA Downhill Consumer Intelligence Project report series in July. Additional reports that we will discuss in future articles include the SIA Report on Consumer Trends, and the Special Report on Snow Sports in the Action Sports Community. These three reports will take SIA members into the lifestyles and the preferred trends of skiers and snowboarders.
The SIA Participant Report, published each September includes a wealth of information about snow sports participants including the actual number of participants who reside in the U.S., their demographics, and data for both core and casual skiers and snowboarders. We are using the data produced in our Participant Study, and we are overlaying it with psychographic data available from Nielsen’s PRIZM segment explorer. There are 66 defined segments in PRIZM, and a few of those segments really stand out when we overlay various snow sports disciplines. The DCIP will include a deep look at both downhill skiers and snowboarders. The following is a quick preview of the psychographics of skiers nationwide. The full report in the DCIP series will include regional psychographic data.
The Top PRIZM Segments for skiers and snowboarders in the U.S. are:
- Young Digerati
- The Cosmopolitans
- Executive Suites
- Young Influentials
Young Digerati
They are wealthy, younger, and many are starting families. Young Digerati are tech-savvy and live in fashionable neighborhoods on the urban fringe. Affluent, highly educated, and ethnically mixed, Young Digerati communities are typically filled with trendy apartments and condos, fitness clubs and clothing boutiques, casual restaurants and all types of bars–from juice to coffee to microbrew.
Demographics Traits
- Urbanicity: Urban
- Income: Wealthy ($150K+ in annual household income)
- Income Producing Assets: Elite (wealth and high income)
- Age Ranges: 25-44
- Presence of Kids: Family Mix
- Homeownership: Mix, Renters
- Employment Levels: Management+
- Education Levels: Graduate Plus
- Ethnic Diversity: White, Asian, Hispanic, Mix
Lifestyle & Media Traits
- Shop at Bloomingdale’s
- Travel to Asia
- Read Dwell
- Watch Independent Film Channel
- Drive and Audi A3
The Cosmopolitans
They are upper middle age to older, most are empty nesters. They tend to be highly educated, upper-midscale, and ethnically diverse, The Cosmopolitans are urbane couples in America’s fast-growing cities. Concentrated in a handful of metros–such as Las Vegas, Miami, and Albuquerque–these households feature older, empty-nesting homeowners. A vibrant social scene surrounds their older homes and apartments, and residents love the nightlife and enjoy leisure-intensive lifestyles.
Demographics Traits
- Urbanicity: Urban
- Income: Upper Mid
- Income Producing Assets: High
- Age Ranges: 55+
- Presence of Kids: Mostly w/o Kids
- Homeownership: Homeowners
- Employment Levels: White Collar, Mix
- Education Levels: Graduate Plus
- Ethnic Diversity: White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Mix
Lifestyle & Media Traits
- Shop at Macy’s
- Vacation abroad
- Read Audubon Magazine
- Watch Masterpiece
- Lincoln Town Car Flex Fuel
Executive Suites
They are thirty-something to middle age professionals without kids. Executive Suites consists of upper-middle-class singles and couples typically living just beyond the nation’s beltways. Filled with significant numbers of Asian-Americans and college graduates–both groups are represented at nearly twice the national average–this segment is a haven for white-collar professionals drawn to comfortable homes and apartments within a manageable commute to downtown jobs, restaurants and entertainment.
Demographics Traits
- Urbanicity: Suburban
- Income: Upper Mid
- Income Producing Assets: Above Avg
- Age Ranges: <55
- Presence of Kids: HH w/o Kids
- Homeownership: Mostly Owners
- Employment Levels: Management
- Education Levels: Graduate Plus
- Ethnic Diversity: White, Asian, Mix
Lifestyle & Media Traits
- Order from barnesandnoble.com
- Play golf
- Read Veranda
- Watch Saturday Night Live
- BMW X6
Young Influentials
They earn midscale to high income and are young to middle age professionals without kids. Once known as the home of the nation’s yuppies, Young Influentials reflects the fading glow of acquisitive yuppiedom. Today, the segment is a common address for middle-class singles and couples who are more preoccupied with balancing work and leisure pursuits and who live in apartment complexes surrounded by ball fields, health clubs, and casual-dining restaurants.
Demographics Traits
- Urbanicity: Suburban
- Income: Midscale
- Income Producing Assets: Below Avg
- Age Ranges: <55
- Presence of Kids: HH w/o Kids
- Homeownership: Renters
- Employment Levels: WC, Service, Mix
- Education Levels: College Graduate
- Ethnic Diversity: White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Mix
Lifestyle & Media Traits
- Shop at Best Buy
- Play racquetball
- Read Details
- Watch American Dad
- Mazda 3
The Downhill Consumer Intelligence Project series of reports will include a full report on skier and snowboarder psychographics. These psychographics offer excellent deeper insight into the typical snow sport consumer’s lifestyle. Snow sports marketers, designers and sales teams can use this information to better understand and connect with their target groups.
This is a step beyond typical demographic information and the DCIP series aims to bring even deeper insight to the snow sports market in the future. In addition to the Special Report on Snow Sports Consumer Psychographics, the DCIP will bring you a full report on General Consumer Trends. These are hot consumer trends impacting the discretionary spending of snow sports consumers, including trends in festival attendance, food trends, and vacation trends among Millennials. In addition, we will present a Special Report on Action Sports and the Snow Sports Consumer that focuses on action sports participants age 13 to 25 who may or may not participate in snow sports, their attitudes about snow sports, preferred brands, buying behaviors and overall trends in behavior in this specific group that is key to snow sports participation.
For questions about The Downhill Consumer Intelligence Project series, contact Kelly Davis, SIA Research Director at 703-506-4224 or by email at [email protected]. More information, data and interim reports that are part of the DCIP are available online at http://snowsports.org/DCIP.