Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Surf and Dive Shops. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

eReaders are growing in popularity, as almost three in ten U.S. adults (28%) are using an electronic reader device to read books, according to a new Harris Poll. Almost three-quarters of eReader users are reading 6 or more books in an average year. Looking ahead, 13% of Americans say they are likely to purchase an eReader in the next six months.

Apple’s digital assistant Siri has serious potential to change how people use their smartphones, mostly by streamlining the fast-growing smartphone shopping experience both in, near and out of stores. As the use of personal assistants like Siri grows, mobile shopping will happen more frequently and easily. eMarketer estimates that 68.6 million Americans will use a smartphone to conduct mobile research and browsing activities this year.

Americans plans to spend an average of $145.28 on everything from apparel and candy to food and decorations this Easter, according to a new NRF survey. Nearly half (48.5%) will take advantage of spring sales to buy apparel, with total spending on those items expected to reach $3B, while the majority (89.3%) will shell out more than $2B on traditional favorites such as chocolate eggs and jelly beans.

January’s cruise ship accident off the coast of Italy is causing confusion amongst American cruisers; one in three Americans do not know which cruise line was involved in the accident, according to a recent Ipsos poll. As there is evidence of some hesitation surrounding the cruise industry, cruise lines may benefit from providing additional reassurances to future travelers that all due care is being taken.

According to an annual study of the consumer music market in the U.S. by The NPD Group, growth in the music market can be traced to an increasing number of CD and digital download buyers, and an increase in the total amount that consumers are spending for music. After years of decline, total music-track sales rose 4% during 2011. The number of paid download buyers increased 14% in 2011 to 45 million customers.