Buxton's College Game Day Fan Matchup: Hawkeyes-Cyclones

FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Buxton, the leading provider of customer analytics, used encrypted location data from mobile devices to show the fallacy of presuming that groups of people who share a common attribute also have the same lifestyle and consumption habits.

In the first of a series of regular analyses branded the College Game Day Fan Matchup, a riff on ESPN's popular College GameDay Saturday morning show that highlights the game of the week, Buxton's Live Mobile Insights platform used anonymized foot traffic data for fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones, who meet on Sept. 14, to illustrate the stark variations in dining, shopping and hotel choices of two supposedly similar groups.

For example, there is no overlap in the top restaurant choices of each. While Hawkeyes gravitate toward larger brands such as Noodles & Company, Subway, A&W Restaurants, Papa Murphy's, Caribou Coffee and Culver's, Cyclones supporters prefer locally owned eateries such as Indian Palace, The Cafe, The Other Place and El Mariachi, or small chains like Baker's Square, which has 32 outlets in the Midwest, including one in Iowa.

The distinctions extend to other categories.

Women account for about 44% of college football fans and five of the top seven apparel choices for Hawkeyes fans are women's retailers — Dressbarn (which is due to close all its roughly 650 outlets this year), Maurice's, Francesca's, Claire's and Christopher & Banks. 

But only Christopher & Banks and Claire's appear among the top apparel choices of Iowa State supporters. Instead, that list is dominated by baby, toddler and kids' outfitters Chico's, buybuy Baby, OshKosh B'Gosh and Carter's, along with Justice and Hot Topic, which target tweens and teenagers, a slight skew toward young families that Buxton confirmed using its unique household level segmentation data.

The only apparel brand in each top 10 is Buckle and it's a similar story in lodging, where only Drury Hotels appears in both lists. Each set of fans favor budget hotels, with Red Roof Inn the No. 1 choice of Hawkeyes and Motel 6 the top preference for State followers.

"Applying our Live Mobile Insights platform to the college football fan universe has allowed us to identify major insights and brand preferences that are immensely valuable for universities aligning themselves with sponsors and fan programs, as well as the brands that seek such opportunities and support the sport and its fan base," said Buxton Senior Vice President Phillip Crow. "It also makes for some fun banter between fans."

So while the conventional wisdom says treat college football fans as one homogenous cohort, mobile location data shows significant variances in the preferences of fans — even those who follow teams in close proximity to each other. Rather than assuming that those who share one trait also have similar consumption habits, companies should make more informed investment decisions by utilizing Live Mobile Insights powered by Buxton to gain a more accurate picture of their true customers.

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For an infographic illustrating the findings, click here. 
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SOURCE Buxton

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