Tippman Paintball Background

Tippman, one of the biggest paintball marker and equipment manufacturers in the world, has struggled with sales lately due to the lack of interest in paintball. They find that there are new players playing the game and its becoming harder and harder to get groups to go out and play. Paintball usually requires around six players per team and it is difficult for individuals to go to a course and start playing. During free play time, when anyone can go play at the course, there usually isn't any rating scale which leads to beginners being teamed with experienced players. This makes it a less enjoyable situation for everyone involved. A bad first experience can very well be that persons last paintball trip, and Tippman wants to try and solve these issues that the sport faces.

Aside from the difficulties with getting a game started, the sport is becoming very expensive. Nowadays, guns are firing paint at a rate of 15 balls per second, causing paint to become one of the most expensive components of the game. Before the newer technologies a marker would only fire a few balls per second, but with the newer markers more paint is needed. This causes players to have to pay for more paint, on top of course fees and rental fees, when needed. A first time player might have to spend $60 on a paint, plus an additional $60 to rent equipment and play. Clearly, the sport is becoming very expensive and less and less people are taking it up due to the cost and difficulty of getting a game together.

The process of finding people to participate in our focus group was limited by several variables; the amount of time we had to find them, the geographical limitations that come with being a college student and most importantly, the number of times the participants must have played paintball. Given that our focus group was required to find people who have played the game 11 or more times, we initially thought we were going to have a considerable trouble.