While the image of the modern American angler is often portrayed in advertising as a strong looking, middle-aged white male, new research by Southwick Associates conducted for the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) reveals a much broader-and more accurately detailed-view of today’s “typical” angler. Rural workers, soccer moms, retired professors, young auto mechanics, busy young parents and wealthy
empty-nesters who own multiple homes are all part of today’s angling community. The Southwick report “Lifestyles of Today’s Angler: Tapestry™ Segmentation of Licensed Anglers” provides drilled down information on the lifestyle types most likely to engage in fishing; information that is critical to organizations and companies looking to connect with this vast, economically and politically powerful audience.
“When neighborhood types are aligned with fishing license data, we get much more specific information about current anglers’ lifestyles and can identify the potential market for luring more into the angling fold,” says Rob Southwick, president of Southwick Associates.
The study focused on an analysis of fishing license sales data from 12 states overlaid with Address CoderTM and TapestryTM lifestyle segmentation software (both designed by geographic information system [GIS] software developer Esri) to determine the types of neighborhoods, and thus lifestyles, common to anglers of all skill levels and types of fishing. By understanding the types of people who enjoy recreational fishing, it’s possible to determine where additional clusters of existing and potential anglers live in order to better focus marketing and promotional efforts. It can even be used to determine what types of gear and brands of equipment certain anglers will be more apt to purchase.
This information is particularly important as conservation groups and state agencies seek to recruit, retain and reactivate (known as the R3 initiative) those people apt to participate in angling as well as those who have fished before, enjoy fishing, but for various reasons do not do it regularly. Through lifestyle segmentation, R3 efforts can improve success rates by targeting those people most likely to respond to promotional activities and angling opportunities.
Examples of the types of information revealed in the study include:
- Residents of Cozy Country Living, Rustic Outposts, GenXurban and Family Landscapes (lifestyle, also referred to as LifeMode, types identified in TapestryTM) account for 62 percent of all licensed anglers.
- Cozy Country Living is the identified lifestyle with the highest rate of fishing participation-its residents are more than two times as likely to fish as the rest of the U.S. population.
- Soccer Moms and Up and Coming Families, both within the Top 10 Tapestry™ segments, include busy young professionals with families who value their time together. The latter group is one of the fastest growing markets in the country. This group is younger than the stereotypical angler and has smaller children and is more ethnically diverse.
- The Ethnic Enclaves and Next Wave LifeModes (suburban and urban communities with ethnically diverse populations, particularly Hispanics) currently have low rates of fishing participation but are predicted to experience the largest population growth in the future, making them better targets for angler recruitment efforts.
- The Green Acres segment is the most common one across all participation categories (retained, recruited and reactivated anglers), accounting for roughly 7 percent of the overall angler population. These people tend to be avid do-it-yourselfers, with all the necessary tools and equipment for home improvement and care of their land. They enjoy a range of outdoor activities. They also tend to be older married couples, many with no children, who live in rural enclaves within more metropolitan areas.
For copies of the executive summary or the full report, visit http://asafishing.org/facts-figures/angler-participation/u.s.-angler-population-their-lifestyles-and-license-buying-habits.
For more information on Esri’s neighborhood/LifeMode classification system, visit http://doc.arcgis.com/en/esri-demographics/data/tapestry-segmentation.htm.
About Southwick Associates: Southwick Associates is a market research and economics firm specializing in the hunting, shooting, sportfishing, and outdoor recreation markets. Celebrating 25 years in 2015, Southwick Associates has a strong reputation for delivering comprehensive insights and statistics to strategic decision making across the entire outdoor industry. Aside from custom market and economic data, Southwick provides custom and syndicated research including customer-driven new product development, outdoor media consumption insights, and equipment purchase tracking studies. Visit www.southwickassociates.com for more information.