Share of Income and Percent of Shopping Spend by Age of Household
Source: “Consumer Expenditure Survey,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics
DEMA’s own Manufacturing Sales Index (MSI) indicates a significant downward shift in equipment sales between 2012 and 2014. This downward shift is in terms of both units and dollars, and impacts soft goods and hard goods, but especially hard goods. As the number of new divers entering the sport has declined, it appears that the sales of diving equipment have also declined, along with the drop in disposable income. Using equipment and travel sales data alone could make it appealing to target only those with higher disposable incomes, which could lead to exclusively targeting an older population (age 45+). Likewise, using age data alone could also lead to targeting a younger age cohort because this seems to be such a large potential audience (e.g.: population in the age range of 18 to 34 is currently about 75.0 million people) and because of the perception that this group will be the “future of diving,” theoretically evolving into heavy spenders over time. The Research Committee determined that using either of these ALONE could lead to a wrong solution to the issue of a proper marketing target. In particular, aggressively pursuing Millennials without considering the need for additional data may be putting the overall Industry at risk. These younger divers may, in 10 or 15 years, purchase dive equipment and travel to dive, but the data indicate that in the intervening time, while they are raising families and building careers, this age cohort is less active in diving and effectively “drops out” for a prolonged period of time. In summary, targeting based on age alone is not the best approach for the recreational diving industry as a whole, even though targeting in this manner may generate a customer that obtains one or more certifications. A targeting strategy that uses additional data is needed. Data Set 2: Using DEMA primary research, pull data representing 10 years of certifications: • Those certified within the last 10 years • Those certified longer than 10 years ago It is known that the number of new entry-level diving certifications has declined (with small year-to-year variations) by about 13% since 2005. The data points found in the DEMA diver survey may reveal more
36