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Jim Spring
President
In 1989 Jim founded Leisure Trends, Inc. with Bill Danner. Since that time the company has acquired or started its retail tracking company, the National Skier and Boarder Survey and Customer's First. Today the Leisure Trends Group (LTG) is one of the fastest growing marketing services and research companies in North America serving the sports and leisure markets.
Jim is the founder of Smart, Inc. and served as its president and leader for 17 years before selling the marketing research division to NPD and its software technology division to a major Japanese computer company. Smart was instrumental in the development of the Universal Product Code, was the first company in the world to capture Point-Of-Sale information to be used by both retailers and manufacturers to understand market structure and product trends and movement.
Articles about Jim have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers including Sports Illustrated, Think, and the New York Times. Jim has written countless columns and articles on retailing, marketing research, and information systems for trade magazines in the United States, Asia and Europe. He penned three short booklets on various aspects of the sports and leisure information business.
Under Jim's guidance LTG has pioneered several new ways of conducting consumer research: creating a quarterly measure of how Americans spend their leisure time, the founding of its Most Active American Panel™ of upscale American households, the broadly used Leisure Motivators and the newly developed triangulation of POS and consumer information used in conjunction with how to target and effectively reach customers and consumers.
Jim's four articles that appeared in American Demographics Magazine on using the leisure motivators effectively have been used in college marketing texts and widely quoted.
Jim has been a featured speaker for numerous organizations and associations and served on numerous committees for the National Sporting Goods Association, National Retail Merchants Association (National Retail Federation) and Snowsport Industries America. Jim is currently chairman of the International Skiing History Association.
Jim attended Colgate University. He plays tennis, skis, hikes and has a constant affliction with golf courses.
Contact: jspring1@leisuretrends.com
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Joy Spring
Vice President and COO of Operations
Joy has worked in the ski and hospitality industries since 1985 and has worked with related businesses in developing marketing, sales and customer management and information programs. A research analyst herself, she was instrumental in the expansion of the National Skier/Boarder Opinion Survey (NSOS), a national snowsport study, and implementation of the first national customer satisfaction benchmark program for the ski industry. She has used her expertise in customer satisfaction measurement to develop a hospitality measurement tool (Guest Experience Measurement-GEM) used by several major resort hotel chains. Customer satisfaction and measurement is her passion, which she brings to all aspects of Leisure Trends’ services.
Prior to working for the Leisure Trends Group, Joy spent four years with the American Ski Association developing their benefits program and retail sales division.
Joy completed her MBA at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with an emphasis in marketing. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Illinois.
She is a current board member of the Colorado Ski Museum and was a founding member of Snow Sports Association for Women (SSAW). She spends her spare time on the golf course and is past president of the Denver Chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association.
Contact: jspring@leisuretrends.com
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Julia Clark Day
Director of Sales and Marketing
Julia began her career in the Florida radio business where she learned that research was the critical link to success. She moved from the radio business to become Advertising Manager for Salt Water Fly Fishing Magazine and shortly thereafter Fly Fishing in Saltwaters Magazine in Miami, Florida.
Following seven years in the magazine business with an understanding of the fly fishing consumer being essential to the publications’ success, Julia was lured by Leisure Trends to the mountains of Colorado. She has been an integral member of the retail tracking team and has been responsible for tremendous sales growth.
Julia graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and has an advanced degree in Japanese Language and Garden Design from Kansai Gaidai University in Japan where she was on the ski team. Julia is a champion saltwater fly fisherman, novice trout fisherman, a flashy skier, avid hiker, and every fall supplies the office with organically grown vegetables from her garden.
Contact: jday@leisuretrends.com
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Jason Gee
Director of Retail Sales Tracking
Jason leads the POS Retail Sales Tracking Division for Leisure Trends Group having joined the company in 2004 as the Retail Relations Manager. Prior to achieving the position of Director he was responsible for building and managing the LTG Retail Panel of over 2000 retail doors nationwide.
Before joining Leisure Trends Group, Jason spent over 10 years working in specialty retail as a Sales Associate, Manager, Category & Department Manager, and Hard & Soft Goods Buyer within the snow sports, outdoor, bike, and paddle sports industries. He has also worked as a certified PSIA/AASI ski and snowboard instructor.
Jason holds two BS Business degrees in Economics and Marketing from the University of Idaho, College of Business and Economics. He is a noted speaker at industry conferences and is considered an expert on retailing.
Contact: jgee@leisuretrends.com
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Scott Jaeger
Senior Retail Analyst
Scott, having moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota in August 1999, considers Boulder's winters "downright balmy" compared to the bitter cold he was used to. He is an avid rock and ice climber, humiliates himself in the moguls every chance he gets, loves cross-country skiing, trail running, inline skating, snowshoeing, and just about anything else an avid outdoor sports-minded individual might like to do.
Scott is never home on his days off and is most likely to be found on a nearby ski slope or somehow conquering a mountain. In 1996, Scott graduated from the U of M with a degree in European Area Studies. He is passionate about traveling the world and has been to Europe over a dozen times, as well as visiting Asia and Africa.
Market research was not unfamiliar to Scott before coming to Leisure Trends. His prior job experience includes working as the head writer for Sears' company-wide internal satisfaction survey. Scott was also a climbing instructor and sales associate for EMS for more than 4 years.
Scott considers Leisure Trends the perfect blend of market research and outdoor experience and has certainly found his niche. This is the guy who creates your customer reports, teaches you how to manipulate your data cubes and answers your questions on how to best grind your data. You can contact Scott anytime unless he's decided to go on a climbing or skiing expedition.
Contact: sjaeger@leisuretrends.com
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Bill Thomas
Director of Information Systems
Bill heads up the Leisure Trends professionals who keep the business ticking on all cylinders. He is responsible for all databases and the technology that makes our information so easy to use and actionable.
Before joining Leisure Trends, Bill was Vice President of Design Programming for Outdoor Nature’s Design, Inc. and Manager of Information Systems for Michael Ricker Pewter, Inc.
A native of Louisiana, Bill graduated from Bossier Community College and Southwestern College.
Bill spends his non-working time camping, skiing and cooking Cajun-style delicacies.
Contact: bthomas@leisuretrends.com
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Bill Danner
Partner and Advisor
Prior to starting Leisure Trends with Jim Spring in 1989, Bill Danner spent 18 years in the ski industry as the co-founder of Trak Incorporated - the company that invented the Nowax base for cross country skiing. The Nowax base is generally acknowledged as having been the impetus for the development of cross country skiing in North America and Europe.
Bill was also very active in ski industry trade association activities throughout the 18 years, culminating in his election to two terms as the Chairman of the Board of the Ski Industries America from 1985 to 1987.
A 1962 graduate of Harvard University, Bill spent 3 years as an officer in the Navy and 3 years in the marketing department of Procter & Gamble before going back to Harvard to get his MBA in 1970.
Contact: bdanner@leisuretrends.com
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