Marketing Final Project:Go National Geographic!

Group Name: Safari 張芸慎 9631045 彭郁舲 9531010 陳宣妏 9631035 莊苡婷 9631026

鄧乙敦 9631003Instructor: Professor Trappey

Introduction

In our recognition, National Geographic Magazine has always been an educational publication that has contributed a lot for our future generations. However, at this day and time, while the magazine and newspapers industries are at stake, National Geographic Magazine’s efforts to promote itself seems not sufficient enough. The side benefits are not as what consumers desired; the willingness for consumers to subscribe is still diminishing.

IntroductionWith the concepts we learned from our marketing

class, what can we possibly do to improve the current promotion strategies for this magazine? After some wild brainstorming, we have come up with several ideas. Such as different covers, huge public conventions, or hire famous spokespersons…etc. Nevertheless, none of the above can really be practiced or implemented efficiently. So we decided to go back to ground zero, to come up with new, improved promotion plan presenting better side benefits rather than those fancy ideas.

(Continued)

Literature Review

About National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic Magazine is founded by the National Geographic Society, whose goal is “Inspiring People to Care about the Planet.”

The key mission of National Geographic Society is promoting exploration and conservation of our planet Earth.

Literature Review

FIGURE 1: National Geographic Magazines

Literature ReviewAbout PromotionFrom our observation, promotions for

magazine subscription often contain Sweepstakes, Giveaways, and Discounts.

According to Chou (2004), there are different degrees of responses towards different types of premiums. Also, there are several previous researches stressing on different factors: Montgomery (1971) found out the age of housewives affect preferences; while Jolson, Wiener and Rosecky’s researches (1987) showed that income is the key factor in the equation.

Literature Review

Research ObjectivesWith the view to the references above, we

discovered that different groups of consumers tend to have various buying behaviors. Therefore, our research focuses on the relationships between consumers’ various personal statuses and their preferences towards various promotions we handpicked: sweepstakes, giveaways and discounts.

HypothesesHypothesis 1: Marital status affects preferences.1-1: Single1-2: Married

Hypothesis 2: Personal income affects preferences.2-1: Below NT$25,0002-2: NT$25,000~NT$50,0002-3: NT$50,000~NT$75,000

Hypothesis 3: Education level affects preferences.3-1: University, college, or under3-2: Graduate school

HypothesesHypothesis 4: Age affects preferences.4-1: Under 204-2: 20-404-3: 40-60

Hypothesis 5: Gender affects preferences.5-1: Male5-2: Female

Hypothesis 6: In general, discount is the most favorable side benefit.

Methodology

Collect secondary data↓

Literature review↓

Set up the goals of research

↓Construct research

models↓

The whole process of our research is shown below:

Decide analytic methodology

↓Choose sampling

methodology↓

Design, distribute and recollect questionnaire

↓Results and conclusion

Methodology Sampling of firsthand dataIn order to find out the relationships between

consumers’ various personal statuses and their preferences towards various promotions we handpicked: sweepstakes, giveaways and discounts, we decide to give out questionnaires to gather firsthand data from consumers.

We assume that the targeted consumers are the ones who buy books habitually in their daily lives. Thus our sampling of data took place in where we expect the mentioned targeted consumers would usually hang out: such as bookstores, schools, and our neighborhoods.

Methodology

Construction of questionnaireOur main goal of this questionnaire is to figure

out which factors affect the preferences of promotion plans more, therefore what we’re trying to collect from questionnaire answerers are their Age, Gender, Marital Status, Education Level, Personal Income and their favorite kind of promotion plans, cross-reference such data and do the statistic tests. In addition, we set up an open question for consumers to state their ideal promotion plans.

Questionnaire

Age□Under 20 □20~40 □40~60 □Above60Gender□Male □FemaleMarital Status□Single □MarriedEducation Level□Junior high school □Senior high school□University/College□Graduate School

QuestionnairePersonal Income(per month)□Below $25,000 □$25,000~50,000□$50,000~75,000 □$75,000~100,000□Above $100,000Which of the following types of giveaways seem more

appealing for your subscription of National Geographic Magazine?

□Experiences; e.g. Win a sweepstake award of Traveling, Camps or Lectures if subscribe a year.

□Physical giveaways; e.g. Choose from: an illustrated handbook, a model, or a binocular.

□Discounts; e.g. Get additional 6 months free if subscribe a year, or get 15% off for a year.

What specific benefits you’d like to receive for subscription?

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Research Analysis and ResultsHypotheses 1: Marital status affects preferences.

Research Analysis and Results

Hypotheses 2: Personal income affects preferences.

Research Analysis and Results

Research Analysis and Results

Research Analysis and ResultsHypotheses 3: Education level affects preferences.

Research Analysis and Results

Research Analysis and ResultsHypotheses 4: Ages affects preferences.

Research Analysis and Results

Research Analysis and ResultsHypothesis 5: Genders affects preferences.

Research Analysis and Results

Research Analysis and ResultsHypothesis 6: In general, discount is the most favorable

side benefit.

Research Analysis and Results

Research Analysis and Results

ConclusionThe results of the compiled statistics show that among

our research interests, only marital status affect preference towards different side benefits for subscribing NGM; the others like education level, personal income, gender, and age all play little roles in determining the preference. In addition, the sixth hypothesis is proved true, which yields the conclusion that the general public, regardless of their backgrounds, would prefer receiving a discount for their subscriptions. The open question also supports this conclusion.

Conclusion

Therefore, if National Geographic Magazine wishes to stimulate subscriptions by providing side benefits to customers, it can segment its customers according to their marital statuses and provide different side benefits. Or, it can just provide discounts on the magazines; that should work for the whole market.

References • 張士峰，「消費者對不同促銷方法偏好之研究： A Study of

Consumer's Preferences Toward Various Promotion Programs 」，國立交通大學管理科學研究所碩士論文 (1996) 。

• 周欣穎，「贈品促銷型式對消費者知覺價值及購買意願影響之研究 : The study of the effects of premium promotion types on the perceived value and purchase intention of consumers 」，國立交通大學經營管理研究所碩士論文 (2004) 。

• Jolson Marvin A., J. L. Wiener and R.B. Rosecky, (1987), “Correlates of Rebate Proneness,” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 27, pp.33-44.

• Montgomery, David, (1971), “Consumer Characteristics Associated with Dealing : An Empirical Example,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol.8, Feb, pp.118-120.

The End