Affinity Group Management - Capturing Elusive Scene Markets
Kitesurf Market Research and Analysis of Consumer Behaviour

168 pages, in English, including 174 b/w graphics and spreadsheets and 12 colour illustrations 

59,90 €, 79,90 US$, ISBN-13: 9783837001242

The Book 
Web 2.0 is the young generation's window on the world, but the associated well-informed and interacting customers, group-individualism, and a multi-optional society challenge existing management and marketing structures.
Nevertheless, Web 2.0 communities provide an insight into elusive scenes and the affinity groups and markets based on them. Strategic Affinity-Group Management offers a new approach to identify, segment, and address specific scene markets which goes beyond classic market segmentation criteria. This work relies on and comprises the first independent empirical market survey on kitesurfing and includes numerous graphics and spreadsheets. Kiteboarding, as it is also called, serves as a vivid illustration of the Affinity-Group Management concept and proves its applicability in practice. This concept points out the importance of (virtual) opinion leaders and information brokers within scene markets for the information diffusion and buying decision process. The key to understanding a scene market is to understand its participants and their highest common factor: the shared passion for their affinity object.

The Author 
Dipl.-Kfm. Marc Stickdorn, born in 1980, studied Strategic Tourism Management and Marketing at the University of Trier, Germany and the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Porto, Portugal. He worked as a tutor at the Marketing department of the University of Trier, Germany and in various projects in sports tourism and sports event management within Europe. Author's contact: info@kitetourism.com

Abstract 
The image of kitesurfing recently changed from an extreme sport to a 'trendy' fun sport, resulting in rapidly growing popularity and fast market development, although this sport has not been in existence for more than a decade. But who are kitesurfers? The typical stereotype of a kitesurfer is 25 years old, male, lives in a developed country, is risk seeking and embodies a surf-style image. However, how does the 45-year old businessman, kitesurfing during his lunch-break, or the 14 year-old kitesurfing girl from Brazil fit in there? Classic market segmentation approaches fail to understand the kitesurfing market, like many other sport- or culture markets, since most of them are based on scenes. Nevertheless, scenes are exactly the crux to capture these elusive markets. What connects all of the above-mentioned characters is their passion towards their shared affinity. Strategic Affinity-Group Management offers an approach to identify and segment scene-markets, using the two dimensions of Public Commitment and Affinity/Involvement to define not only the scene, but also the Affinity-Group based on it. The Affinity-Group is larger than the scene, as it comprises also fans, hobbyists, wannabies and newbies, which are related to the scene, but not part of it. Virtual reflections of scenes developed on the internet as forums, communities or blogs, due to the recent development of web 2.0. Scene communication is publicly available and analysable through this and access to scenes are made easier for the public.
A survey (N=813) was designed to examine whether the Affinity-Group concept on the group of kitesurfers was applicable in order to identify the kitesurfing scene, the related Affinity-Group, and to analyse their consumer behaviour. The survey not only proved that the Affinity-Group concept tool was appropriate, but also identified three different clusters within the Affinity-Group, named BASIC, SCENE and PIP. These clusters show different communication structures, tourism product demands, kitespot requirements and expenses structures. Although from an outside point of view the kitesurfing market appears homogeneous, these clusters differ significantly in some points, e.g. PIP spends approximately three times more on kitesurfing than the other clusters, while BASIC prefers different media than SCENE and PIP. Beyond data regarding the concept applicability, this work proves the importance of tourism for kitesurfers as they spend almost the same amount of money on tourism as on kite gear. Moreover, survey's findings reveal that kitespot and kite gear requirements depend on the kitesurfer's riding style and skill level. Furthermore, statistics of brand and kite tourism awareness (Top 30 kitesurfing brands and kitespots, most known kitesurfing websites and travel operators), media usage (most used media and most interesting topics), tourism products (destination, accommodation and kitespot demand), factors influencing the satisfaction of kitesurfing holiday and expenditure level and structure have been collected.
Affinity-Group Management offers not only efficient market cultivation with minimal scattering losses, but also leads to a new consumer view: Products are not developed for company's consumers, but together with them. An Affinity-Group is not a target group, since customers have the possibility to be involved in a company's communication, based on their shared culture and values. Their common passion towards the affinity object not only connects both the company and the consumers with the Affinity-Group, rather they compose the Affinity-Group itself.
A second survey (N=388) verified the Affinity-Group operationalisation and collects more data regarding market volume and structure. The amount of worldwide active kitesurfers is estimated to be between 85 and 113 thousand riders, resulting in a total market volume of at least 159 million € for kite gear and 126 million € for kite tourism. Kitesurfers' social behaviour has also been analysed, leading to the assumption that information differs from higher skilled riders (scene core) to lower skilled ones (scene-interested people). Nevertheless, at the same, time the identified groups obtain a high level of cohesion, resulting in strong influences from friends during the buying decision process as well as the significant influences of opinion leaders within an Affinity-Group.

Based on different marketing and social psychology theories and the findings of both surveys, the work concludes with a possible enhancement of the Affinity-Group concept: The Affinity-Group Information Broker. The survey's findings reveal that beside real-life opinion leaders, virtual opinion leaders (Affinity-Group Information Brokers) exist, dealing with scene-specific information and being decisively involved in the buying decision process. This finally raises questions for further research, regarding opinion leader's role and influence within an Affinity-Group.

info@kitetourism.com