Airsoft Market Research

[CADPAT]

• What county do you live in?
Edmonton Alberta, Canada.

• How far do you travel to play airsoft?
1,547Km(960mi)

• How often do you play per month?
About 2 to 3 times if I can(If there's games)

• How many BB’s do you use during the spand of All Day Play(12 hours)?
About 2000 to 8000 depending on the game and type of game play

• Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
Sometimes if its a good price, but most the time I make my own from home.

• If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
Yes, if you had like pop or energy drinks at a good price(under $1.50-$2.00)

• What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
To small. Field admins are not that grate.

• What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
free-$15 for all day skrim. $20-$40 for ops. $40-$100 for ops/milsim (Trucks, Apc's, helicopters, all that good jazz)

• If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far? Yes 1,550Km

B. Pay more?
Maybe a little

C. Play more often?
Yes

• How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
Almost never here in Canada. When im in the U.S., when i can and when there around.

• How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
$15-$200 depending on the month and time of year.

• Are you apart of a team?
I was now, Now I'm not really. Most the time I just run with the CF/Ex-CF(military/Ex-military) guys here in Canada. In the U.S. I try to run with friends or old team mates.

• Would you attend during special events, regular daily play or both?
both

• Are you interested in State/League competition play?
Hell yeah, Go Team CANADA!!!

• Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Yes, What I leaned in Porland I try and teach to the people(kids) back here in Canada.

[Chad]

Gentlemen,
Thank you for continued information. Please keep them coming! You as players and this site has been the most beneficial and friendly out of a laundry list of other Airsoft Sites.

Thanks again,
Chad

[Orwell]

• What county do you live in?
Clackamas County, Oregon.

• How far do you travel to play airsoft?
1-2 hours, usually.

• How often do you play per month?
At least once, though I would like to play more.

• How many BB’s do you use during the span of All Day Play(12 hours)?
That depends entirely on the gametype. In a skirmish, 2-4 thousand rounds. In scenario or objective games, usually < 500.

• Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
If it's good!

• If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
Unlikely. Water is enough, most of the time. Gatorade or Lemonade if I need something sweet.

• What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
It's nice to have a small shop with basic necessities like death rags and ammunition. A five or six lane layout would be preferable if the arena/field has to be closed, but the more ways there are to get from point A to point B the better.

• What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
That depends on what's being supplied vis-a-vis props, actors, etc. I typically will pay up to $20 for a good game. More if it's really good, though, or particularly long. $40 for a weekend is the most I can shell out, usually. Then again, there's Lion Claws...

• If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far?
Sure, I suppose, but there're a couple of those in Portland that're stepping up their game lately.

B. Pay more?
Eh. I don't mind paint on my cover that much.

C. Play more often?
Not really.

• How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
Lately? I don't. If I can get my bills payed off it'll start twice a month, at least.

• How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
$100-$150 the last few months.

• Are you a part of a team?
We're more like an organization.

• Would you attend during special events, regular daily play or both?
Both, though daily play if the event location is close.

• Are you interested in State/League competition play?
No. Not unless there's a LOT to convince me. It sounds like fun, but the logistics of it and dealing with hackers... ugh.

• Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Definitely. Getting new people into airsoft is awesome.

[Steve]

• What county do you live in?
Washington County, OR

• How far do you travel to play airsoft?
A little over an hour

• How often do you play per month?
2-3 times a month

• How many BB’s do you use during the spand of All Day Play(12 hours)?
About 10k

• Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
Nope.

• If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
Yes. Red Bull. Maybe soda.

• What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
Like: CQB. Friendly People. Carpet. Good refs.

Dislike: Too cluttered. Too much multi-directional cover. Wonky lighting. Lack of background noise at high volume. Lack of strobe lights. Not set up as shoot house / modular. Too small.

• What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
$20-$50 a day for casual play, depending on how the field is set up.
$100+ for a good event with good story, pyro, vehicles, well laid-out field.

• If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far?
Not really.

B.Pay more?
Not really. If the field is multi-use, that's a pretty big down-check in my book. Paintballers tend to look for different stuff than airsofters in field layout. If the field is laid out to cater to paintballers, I'm unlikely to have a good time or be willing to spend as much money.

C. Play more often?
I already play any chance I get, depending on schedule and budget.

• How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
Field? 2-3 times a month. Business? One or more trips a week recently.

• How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
On average, $200 a month during most of the year. Summer time, closer to $600 a month or more.

• Are you a part of a team?
No.

• Would you attend during special events, regular daily play or both?
Both.

• Are you interested in State/League competition play?
That depends. CQB competition, putting rounds into paper targets against a clock, definitely. Against other teams? Not so much. Against actors / dedicated OpFor? Probably.

• Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Depends on the new players. Am I willing to sit down and teach a four hour block of instruction on proper use of cover? Probably not. Will I let them tag along behind me, or answer questions in the staging area? Absolutely.

[CommieHunter]

• What county do you live in?
Oregon, USA
• How far do you travel to play airsoft?
I have traveled up to 3 hours (Tacoma). I prefer to limit to 2 hours or less.
• How often do you play per month?
.5
• How many BB’s do you use during the spand of All Day Play(12 hours)?
Less than 4000
• Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
No
• If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
Yes
• What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
Dislike choke points. If a field has a single feature that always becomes a central feature of combat, either the gameplay or terrain needs to be adapted to spread the players.
Like structures. If you can put up structures in a village and, even better, multiple room structures, you'll add an extra element to the gameplay.
• What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
Usually the event drives the price not the field. I will pay $40 or more if the event is well run and the features are worth it. For just field use, $10-$20 is probably reasonable, depending on the improvements to the field.
• If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far?
Yes. A good field is worth the trip if an event is hosted well.
B. Pay more?
Yes, if the event is hosted well. It's more about the event than the location, but event hosts don't want to hold games at the same field every month.
C. Play more often?
Probably not.
• How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
A max of once a month (but indoors). Less often outdoors.
• How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
Not as much as I used to.
• Are you apart of a team?
Yes, SOTA.
• Would you attend during special events, regular daily play or both?
Probably special events for the most part.
• Are you interested in State/League competition play?
Yes, if it's designed well.
• Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Yes.

[Chad]

Gentlemen, thanks for the continued information. Please keep them coming.

Chad

[Chad]

Keep the info coming please.

Chad

[Mr. G]

Hey Chad,

Interesting process you are going thru for the new field. I was a bit intrigued by your questions.

If I could, I thought I would just throw out a few suggestions about doing surveys.

I think you indicated about 30 or more responses so far. With over 9,000 members on this forum, that isn't really a "significant" segment of a market. I would think that anything less than 100 responses would be considered "anecdotal" results. Better yet, it would probably be nice to get closer to 300 responses if possible.

You are getting some great feedback, but have you considered a different approach to possibly increasing your participation and results.

I am in the middle of collecting information from Central Oregon Airsofters at http://highdesertairsoft.com/survey/ and used a WordPress blog with a plugin to create the survey.

Another (possibly better for you) option is to use http://www.surveymonkey.com/. Here is a sample http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8LJPFRQ.

There are some advantages to these approaches:

1. You can easily segment your markets by creating multiple surveys and posting different links to the different surveys in different forums. Forum A is given a link to survey A; forum B is given a link to survey B; etc.

2. Your results can be tallied easier. With the free version of Surveymonkey you can see the results and they are tallied for you (but you can't download them - paid version only).

3. With your own website you can collect the data in your location and not burden forum bandwidth and/or storage, PLUS the data is under your control. With the information stored at Surveymonkey, again, it doesn't burden the forum installations.

4. Answering questions in a text format on a forum will probably take someone 10 - 15 mins to complete from the time they read your post, copy the questions, respond and then post their response. If you provide a link to a survey that included drop-down multiple choices, radio buttons and other choices would probably take a respondent only a minute or 2 to complete the survey. This would most likely increase your responses significantly, PLUS you have the added benefit of controlling the responses within market segments you are interested in and/or are more realistic.

If I were an investor or bank I would be more concerned about the quantity (and quality) of results rather than seeing the actual posts and responses on a forum. Granted, the comments and suggestions on the forum do help with "market research".

Anyway, just some thoughts I thought I would share since I am going through a similar process.

[Bircher]

•What county do you live in?
United states of 'merica

•How far do you travel to play airsoft?
Depends, usually at most 85 miles

•How often do you play per month?
Depends in time of year and my schedule

•How many BB’s do you use during the spand of All Day Play(12 hours)?
Depends on how much I shoot..but maybe around 3000?

•Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
Sometimes

•If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
Perhaps

•What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
Small villages that some fields build

•What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
$20-$40

•If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far? Possibly
B. Pay more? Possbily
C. Play more often? Yes

•How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
Wut.

•How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
Depends on time of year

•Are you apart of a team?
Nope

•Would you attend during special events, regular daily play or both?
Both

•Are you interested in State/League competition play?
Sounds cool

•Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Yes

[Chad]

Pestilence: Thanks for the help!

Mr. G:

Thanks for the information. We actually just recently discovered surveymonkey so that will be a big tool on top of Google's surveys and other misc website market tools.

you are correct about the 30 responses thus far over 9,000 members. Even though it will not produce the numbers I need (the surveys you mentioned and website will produce those) it still gives us a small piece of mind about the players within the Pacific Northwest demographic, despite the banks or investors need for it. It tells us a lot about the players; but I do agree it is taking up the forum space.

I do thank Airsoft Pacific for allowing me to conduct this research and ask questions to it's members, and thank you Mr. G on an very informative and supportive post. We will be using these ideas as you mentioned.

Thanks again,
Chad

[Munky]

Ladies and Gentlemen,


• What county do you live in?
Clallam County, Washington

• How far do you travel to play airsoft?
Usually upwards of an hour away but I have made the trip to OR when the right game pops up.

• How often do you play per month?
3-4 times a month

• How many BB’s do you use during the span of All Day Play(12 hours)?
200-100

• Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
Not an option but I would with decent prices.

• If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
Again, I would with decent prices

• What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
I dislike that its only forest, only EVER forest. Oh how I yearn for something kinda urban.

• What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
$5-$15 for all day use, $25-$40 for events (given terrain and stuff)

• If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far?
B.Pay more?
C.Play more often?
A, B, and C are all dependent on the layout of the field. Would I drive further and pay-to-play in another evergreen chunk of forest? No. Would I for structures and trenching? Absolutely. Every weekend.

• How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
Maybe once every couple years.

• How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
$20 right now.

• Are you apart of a team?
It is in the making currently.

• Would you attend during special events, regular/daily play or both?
Both if it were something I couldn't get anywhere else.

• Are you interested in State/League competition play?
Absolutely so.

• Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Every time I get the chance!

[Chad]

Thanks guys for taking time to complete the research survey!

Chad

[Chairmanlao]

• What county do you live in?
Multnomah
• How far do you travel to play airsoft?
AVG 40 minutes
• How often do you play per month?
Twice
• How many BB’s do you use during the spand of All Day Play(12 hours)?
1k (CQB)
• Do you purchase lunch from the fields you play at?
Home
• If the field had an espresso/coffee bar would you purchase any beverages?
No
• What do you like/dislike about the current fields you play on? (Design/Layout, Services, Fees)
Current field is too small
• What do you consider a fair price at a top quality field or event?
20 bucks

• If a field was designed and run specifically for airsoft, i.e. no paintballers, would you be willing to…
A.Travel Farther? How far? Up to an hour
B. Pay more? 10 bucks more
C. Play more often? Same
• How often do you visit an actual business licensed airsoft field?
Once or twice a month
• How much monthly do you spend on airsoft?
100.00
• Are you apart of a team?
Kinda
• Would you attend during special events, regular daily play or both?
Both
• Are you interested in State/League competition play?
Yes
• Do you enjoy teaching new players?
Yes