Action Item 4 (pg. 198)

Take a Marketing Approach.
Before developing R&R programs, establish clearly defined goals and commit those goals to writing. There are several paths to maintaining and increasing hunting and shooting participation and increasing hunting license sales in the U.S., and each path necessarily dictates different target markets, with tailored products, programs, services, and messages for each target market. In short, each goal dictates different strategies. It is important to identify these goals up-front.

Best Practices:

Ch 2 Plan Ahead

• Clearly define the program's goals and objectives
• Plan for program evaluation in the initial planning
• Use a needs assessment or logic model (WB, p. 31)
• Provide adequate support, resources and staffing to be sustainable over time
• Provide opportunities that are frequent and sustained
• Involve stakeholders and partnerships at all levels of program development.

Ch 15 Marketing and Promotion

• Understand what marketing is - and isn't
• Find and hire staff/contractors with marketing experience
• Incorporate research-based marketing plans & techniques
• Identify specific target audiences
• Establish relationships with local media
• Establish liaisons with local conservation organizations
• Evaluate marketing efforts.

Ch 14 Outreach and Awareness

• Provide timely forecasts of game populations (or announcements of shooting competitions, etc.)
• Provide information about opportunities beyond the program
• Consider specific needs of ethnic groups
• Communicate economic impacts of hunting and shooting to the larger public