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Survey
Says: Fishing Has A Future!
Some
people believe that fishing has limited appeal beyond a core of white,
middle-aged male anglers, and that the future of the sport is therefore
dim. But a recently completed national study indicates that interest in
fishing is alive in many quarters, even among some people who have never
before baited a hook. And the good news is that target marketing can
lure more participants to the sport. Complete
findings of the Future of Fishing project will be published this month
by Responsive Management, the Harrisonburg, Va., research firm that
conducted the groundbreaking study over the last year. For information
on how to obtain a copy, contact Responsive Management Executive
Director Mark Duda by fax, (540) 432-1892, or by email, mdduda@rica.net. Duda
said the $200,000 study, funded through a federal aid grant from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is the first major national study to
identify specific strategies for increasing the number of anglers, as
well as reasons for their recent decline. "The
successful marketing and promotion of fishing relies on careful
selection of target markets," Duda said. "This survey provides
us with careful, quantified information on who's interested in fishing
and who isn't, what groups are likely to respond to fishing promotions,
and what other things these people are interested in." Responsive
Management, which specializes in fishing, hunting and outdoors research,
first gathered information during focus group meetings with specific
market groups around the country. Researchers used the issues raised in
those sessions to formulate questions for an extensive national
telephone survey of 1,500 anglers and 1,500 non-anglers, conducted this
summer, then further refined the survey results during a second round of
focus group meetings. The
country was broken down into six geographical regions for the survey,
and data is available for each separate region as well as collectively. The
Future of Fishing report concludes that several markets would be
receptive to information and outreach about freshwater fishing, including:
Groups
most likely to be affected by outreach about saltwater fishing include:
Duda
explained that several groups who expressed low interest in fishing at
the beginning of the survey are recommended as viable target markets
because they demonstrated a tendency toward greater interest after
discussing the subject with surveyors. Activity-Based
Marketing "What
really jumps out when looking at the results is how strongly fishing-
needs to be marketed with other outdoor activities, like canoeing,
camping, target shooting, or hunting," Duda said. "If we could
encourage people to incorporate fishing with those activities that they
already participate in or that they do more often – encourage them to
take along their fishing rod when they go camping or hunting, for
instance – it could be very effective." Bruce
Matthews, president of the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation,
agreed that the findings indicate there are "tremendous
possibilities" for co-marketing angling with other sports and
leisure activities. He believes the Future of Fishing study, completed
just in time for the recent meeting of RBFF's market identification task
force, will be a valuable tool in accomplishing the foundation's goals. "This
study has given us a whole new way to look at the concept of marketing
boating and fishing," Matthews said. "The findings underscore
the need to think outside of the box in our efforts ... We've never
looked at the demographics in terms of activities before. It's pretty
interesting, considering that fishermen tend to see jet skiers as the
bane of their existence, that jet skiers turned out to be one of the
segments among non-anglers who are most interested in both freshwater
and saltwater fishing." Why
We Fish Experts
who have reviewed the data noted that, in rating their motivation for
fishing, anglers offered reasons that were "mostly social in
nature" – including spending time with family or friends (25
percent), or simply relaxing (33 percent). "Those answers ought to
give some direction to nationwide marketing efforts," said Robin
Knox of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, a member of the Future of
Fishing oversight committee. For
oversight committee member Bob Wattendorf of the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission, the popularity of fishing's social
aspects offer a solution to the problem most people blame for lack of
fishing – lack of time. "That's
an issue that comes up in virtually every study," he said.
"Obviously, there are only 24 hours in a day, so there has to be
competition for what people do with that time, and with a strong
economy, more people are working more, which is hard to compete with.
The way to turn it around is to make fishing look like a time saver,
something you can do in conjunction with other activities. If you want
to spend some time with your kids, and some time doing something to
relax, and some time getting outside, why not combine it all by taking
the family on a fishing trip?" Presented
with a list of situations, survey participants were asked to choose
those that would make them want to go fishing or to fish more often. For
anglers and non-anglers, the top two answers were the same – being
asked by a child (88 percent of anglers, 65 percent of non-anglers) or
by a friend (86 percent of anglers, 60 percent of non-anglers). Both
Matthews and Wattendorf said they see promise for some sort of
"take an adult fishing" campaign in those answers. "This
study has told us that a large number of individuals would be more
motivated to go fishing if a kid asked them, and it also tells us that
12- to 15-year-olds' interest in fishing increased significantly after
just talking and thinking about it for a while," Wattendorf said. Knox
said several other answers also suggest effective marketing
possibilities, including "fishing as part of a vacation,"
which appealed to 81 percent of anglers and 45 percent of non-anglers. "Look
at some of the other answers cited by non-anglers – having a fishing
location where all of the gear is provided (45 percent), or being able
to borrow fishing gear for free (39 percent) would make them want to go
fishing," Knox said. "That's what ASA's Fishing Tackle Loaner
Program is all about. So there are some cases where something may
already be in place." Getting
the Message Out The
Future of Fishing report indicates that neither anglers nor non-anglers
regard the sport negatively. Vast majorities of both freshwater and
saltwater anglers said they are satisfied with their fishing
experiences. However, the results also show that only a slight majority
of anglers and 40 percent of non-anglers remembered seeing any positive
advertising, information or news coverage about fishing. "We're not
getting the message out," Duda said. Only
31 percent of anglers and 13 percent of non-anglers could recall seeing
anything in the media in the past year that would have helped them go
fishing or learn about fishing. For those who said they had seen such
information, the most popular sources they named were television fishing
shows (33 percent of anglers, 28 percent of non-anglers), fishing
magazines (21 percent of anglers, 19 percent of non-anglers) and TV in
general (20 percent for both). Knox
said that, while the numbers demonstrate the importance of TV fishing
shows, they also highlight a current oversight. "The statistics
indicate that fishing shows are watched far more widely by white males
than by any other group," he said. "And yet African Americans
and Hispanics combine to make up 10 percent of anglers in the U.S. We
should be seeing more African-American and Hispanic anglers on programs
about fishing." Knox
also warned marketers to realize that "there is no such thing as a
general public." The need for regionally specific marketing was
illuminated for him as he observed discussions of a focus group
comprised of teenagers and their parents. Group members said they
generally are less impressed by national marketing campaigns than by
more local efforts, perhaps featuring sports figures from their region. "There
are some things you can do on a national level, of course, but you have
to spend some time on your local markets," Knox said. "Fishing
and fishing preferences are different across the country. What may or
may not be effective can vary from one region to another." A
Few Surprises Wattendorf
said the greatest surprise the study held for him was the number of
people who told surveyors they would be willing to buy fishing licenses
"simply as a way of contributing to the conservation of
resources" -- 84 percent of anglers and 51 percent of non-anglers.
"That got a much more positive reaction than I expected," he
said. "That suggests to me that there are some groups out there –
including senior citizens, who in some states do not have to hold a
license in order to fish, or even some people who do not fish at all –
who would buy a license anyway as a way to support conservation efforts
in their states." In
addition to the information the Future of Fishing provides on markets
that are worth targeting – and just as valuable to the industry –
are the statistics it offers about those who are least likely to respond
to such efforts. While some low-interest groups demonstrated
propensities for increased interest as they acquired more information
about fishing, others remained unlikely prospects. Among those who
showed the least interest in freshwater and saltwater fishing were
female anglers and non-anglers. Bruce
Matthews predicted that information will surprise many people. "We've
tended to view women as a market with great potential – not only as
anglers themselves, but for introducing the sport to young children,"
he said. "I don't think anyone should dismiss that potential based on
the findings of this study. I think women constitute a market that we need
to consider further." Duda
agreed, noting that the study's findings reflect the reactions of groups
"as a whole. What we need to do is to hone in on particular segments
of the female market to determine what groups among women are interested
and who would be receptive to messages about fishing." The
Future of Fishing project was administered by the International
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, with IAFWA’s Melanie Tarver
as project manager. Other oversight committee members were Bob Miles,
IAFWA; Vishwanie Maharaj, South Atlantic Fishery Management Council; and
Sylvia Cabrera, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. American Sportfishing, Vol. 2, No. 8. November 1999. |