2nd "Golf Survey": Analysis of experiences and images of 13 types of sports reveals that golf has the most active players!

2020.07.16 Press Releases
CCC Marketing Co., Ltd.

- Golf is the second most popular sport for people who want to try it! Proactively promoting its fun and excitement is the key to encouraging people to make their golf debut.

CCC Marketing Inc. (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Kazuhiko Kitamura) is pleased to announce that following up on its first "Golf Questionnaire Survey" released in December 2019, it has conducted an original survey on the image of 13 types of sports, including golf, to investigate the appeal and demand for golf, in order to consider the future of the golf industry in light of recent challenges in the golf market.

2nd Topic: "Golf Survey"

[1] Golf has the most active players of any sport! Would you rather play the game than just watch?
[2] Golf has a strong image of being expensive.
[3] A thorough comparison of 13 types of sports images using a text mining tool. What does this mean for golf?
　　　■ Promoting the appeal of this sport as a fascinating sport
　　　■The global success of professional golfers is a catalyst for increasing interest in golf
　　　■By actively communicating the fun and interesting aspects of golf, you can make it your own sport.
[4] Golf is a sport that is easy to start even as an adult and that people want to try.

[1] People tend to actually play golf rather than enjoy watching it.

A survey was conducted on experience, interest, and awareness of 13 different sports (baseball, soccer, basketball, table tennis, tennis, rugby, golf, track and field, swimming, gymnastics, judo, bouldering, and surfing), and the results showed that golf had the most active players, with 2 to 6 times more than any other sport. If we include those with experience, the total comes to 15%, which is about the same as swimming or tennis. However, compared to swimming and tennis, the percentage of people interested in watching golf on TV or attending matches was low at 26%. Major ball games such as baseball and soccer have a high percentage of people who are interested, at least in terms of the percentage of people with experience, and are considered "sports that people enjoy watching." However, this tendency is lower for golf, with the combined total of those who "only know a little about golf" and "don't know anything about golf" coming in at 60%, resulting in a high percentage of people who are indifferent.

[2] Golf has a strong image of being expensive.
Respondents were asked to provide written responses to the question, "What kind of image do you have of golf?" and the results were analyzed using the text mining tool "Visualization Engine" (*1). The graph above shows the top results of the dependency word ranking (ranking the keywords "subject and predicate" and "modifier and modified word" in order of frequency of appearance). Also, the word that appears far ahead of the others is "money-costly."Many other words related to money also appear, such as "rich - sports" and "rich - doing."Additionally, words such as "lifelong sports" and "aging" evoked images of activities that can be continued even as people get older.

*1) Text mining tool "Visualization Engine" provided by Plus Alpha Consulting Co., Ltd.

[3] Thoroughly compare 13 types of sports images using a text mining tool!
As with golf, participants were also asked to freely answer questions about their image of 12 other sports. The responses were mapped using the Visualization Engine's "word cloud" and the response trends for each sport were compared, revealing three key points. These can be seen as hints for how golf information will be disseminated in the future.

Text mining tools reveal three tips for disseminating golf information
① Promoting the appeal of "a captivating sport"
② The global success of professional golfers has sparked interest in golf
3. By actively promoting the fun and interesting aspects of golf, we hope to make it a personal sport.

① Promoting the appeal of "a captivating sport"
Words that seem to be associated with super sports plays by athletes, such as "cool" for soccer, basketball, and surfing, and "amazing" for gymnastics, swimming, and bouldering, appear frequently. This may be due to the lack of flashy actions and the difficulty in conveying the "amazingness" of professional golfers' skills to inexperienced players.

② The global success of professional golfers has sparked interest in golf
In some cases, the names of athletes appear as an image of a sport. The words bring to mind top athletes, gold medalists, and notable players of recent years who could be considered the faces of their sports, such as tennis players Kei Nishikori and Naomi Osaka (including the incorrect kanji for Osaka), gymnast Kohei Uchimura, and swimmer Kosuke Kitajima. In golf, there have been appearances of players who have attracted attention for their success in 2019, such as Hinako Shibuno, Shibuko, Tiger Woods, and Ryo Ishikawa, but the number of appearances is not as high as in other sports. The further success of professional golfers on a global scale may also serve as an opportunity to increase interest in golf.

3. By actively promoting the fun and interesting aspects of golf, we hope to make it a personal sport.
As with the ranking of golf image dependencies mentioned above, the word that appears most frequently in golf is "money."Other words that are often seen are those that refer to people who are far removed from the person, such as "old man," "rich man," and "celebrity."In order to increase the number of comments about golf that are based on personal experiences, such as "fun" and "interesting," which are often seen in other sports, it may be necessary to actively communicate the fun and excitement that golf has to offer.

[4] Golf is a sport that is easy to start even as an adult and that people want to try.

When asked to give an open-ended response to the question, "What sport would you like to try in the future?", "golf" came in second place, just behind the first place answer, "tennis.""Golf" ranked first among men in their 30s to 60s and older. Although it was ranked fifth among women in their 20s and 30s, it was ranked high in all age groups. Sports that are easy to start even as adults rank highly, and golf is probably at the top of that list.

As noted in the first "Golf Questionnaire Survey" (※2), it could be said that implementing measures to remove the hurdles for people starting to play golf while more actively disseminating information about the appeal of golf will lead to further development of golf.

*2) First "Golf Survey"

[5] Survey Overview

Survey period: February 12th (Wed) to February 17th (Mon), 2020
Survey organization: CCC Marketing Co., Ltd. T Survey (online survey of T members)
Survey target: Nationwide / Men and women / aged 20-79
Allocation and number of valid responses: As shown below.
Survey design: CCC Marketing Co., Ltd.

Materials related to this matter

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