Anyone who knows Seth Godin’s work, knows that the guy has a knack for pointing out the obvious. A couple weeks ago his blog featured a post called “How big is your red zone?” In it, Godin points out that every activity worth doing (like skiing or snowboarding or mountain biking for example) has a learning curve attached to it. He plots the “joy” associated with an activity over time against the “hassle” and comes up with what he calls the “red zone”. This is the place where people give up on an activity because the hassle is outweighing the joy. His contention is that the only reason people get through that gap is that someone on the other side is rooting them on, or telling them stories of how great it is on the other side (the green dot on Godin’s graphs below).
He notes that the bigger the red zone of the activity, the more convincing the advocate on the other side needs to be. Now all of this makes sense, and in the mountain sports business we understand the value of coaches, athletes, friends, brand advocates, etc in promoting and growing our sports. The hitch of course, and he saves this point until the last sentence, is how easy it is to overlook the need for these advocates on the other side of the red zone, when we as marketers who are engaged in these sports have already past through it (and have forgotten the red zone pain).
Personally, every time I’m on the mountain on my board or bike, I see people in the red zone. I worry about whether or not the ad or website or piece of marketing material that I’ve helped to create is enough to help them cross over. If Seth Godin is right in his contention, there is a personal connection requirement that as marketers in action sports, we haven’t traditionally been able to provide to our customers. What will be interesting to explore in the future is the possibilities for social media marketing to fill that personal void. Could it be that we finally have a channel that has what it takes to grow participation in our hassle sports and bridge the red zone gap to avoid the dreaded drop out? Time for us to get creative in this arena folks, it might just be our great white hope.
Very interesting topic on so many levels and I would have to see Godin’s presentation to comment more fully. There was a time (croak “back in the day, children”) when there was a saying (that my old man drummed into me) and it went “anything that’s worth doing is worth doing WELL…” Not being a superstar, not making the national team, but trying to the utmost of our ability. The issue with mountain sports is twofold – ie – you can get killed (avalanches, trauma) or pretty banged up well before you reach Cyzhaiilimizcyki’ (or whatever his name is) ‘Flow’ state. Yes, for a lot of people ‘I might freaking die out here’ would count as a ‘hassle’… To which, we as sport marketers must say ‘well, maybe hiking, or bike touring, or mountain photography, or sea kayaking’ is more your speed. I’m all for ‘pushing the limits’, but in the outdoors, those limits can seriously screw you up.
A good example of ‘coaching’ is Nike +
Think of how many runners wouldn’t have stuck to it had it not been for the feedback and coaching (I use that term loosely) from the nike + website. Social tools like that will definitely help people in the mountain sports arena, and build brand loyalty at the same time.
Definitely a good idea to get coaching as soon as possible in any venture whether it’s running, skiing or academia. The important thing is to get it early and select 1 method and stick with it throughout the coaching period.
Thanks for the comments guys. The role of the pro or the coach, virtual or real, is definitely the industry’s traditional approach to bridging the gap. The use of larger onnline social communities is something that will be interesting to watch. This one in particular has me inspired for what can happen in this realm. http://www.snowmamas.com