Sports Brand - PUrchase Channels

Global research across multiple markets

Sportswear is one of the most crowded shelves in retail. Everyone sells the same promise (faster, lighter, cooler), so a brand has to understand how people choose, not just what they're offered. This brand wanted to know how shoppers find new names, what tips them into buying, and how its own path to purchase could be better. It also wanted to know whether any of that changed from one country to the next.

I designed and ran the research and then our global team set out to speak to users around the world. We interviewed 30 consumers around the world, in their own languages. That mattered: how people describe price, trust and value doesn't always survive translation, and I didn't want to lose it in the middle. We then ran a survey across several markets, so we could compare what we'd heard against a wider group.

Five things came up everywhere: price, brand reputation, product quality, customer service and environmental impact. People weighed them differently depending on where they lived. Price drove some decisions, reputation others, and sustainability mattered more in some places than others. That's the useful part. A brand that treats "the consumer" as one person is designing for nobody.

The results gave the brand a view of purchase decisions by market, and a clearer picture of where its path to purchase worked well and where it didn't.

If you're selling in more than one country, don't assume your best-performing market is the template for the rest.