1. Executive Summary:
Over the course of the last few months four of us set out to conduct a research report for
Ride With GPS, a software cycling program based in Eugene, Oregon. We were asked to
focus our efforts in one of three areas: existing markets, expansion into new markets or
business-to-business licensing. Ride With GPS was founded with the cyclist in mind so
we chose to focus on the existing market. The Eugene community is cycling friendly and
provided a solid market to sample from. Our team was determined to find ways to grow
the Ride With GPS brand within the cycling community before expanding into new
markets.
We conducted secondary research that focused on the company and its competitors, the
cycling industry and growth within the market and the consumer with regards to social
media and mobile device usage. After establishing a better sense of the market we were
able to design and implement primary research to best answer our own research questions
about the target audience, the Ride With GPS service and the creation of a mobile
application to complement the web-based platform.
After collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data we were able to uncover insight
rooted in extensive research that can help guide our client and the growth of the business.
We were able to answer our initial research questions and accept our hypothesis about a
shift toward a mobile application.
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2. Our results have been compiled into the report below and were presented to Ride With
GPS executives on Monday June 11, 2012.
Introduction:
For the past few weeks our team has been conducting research on behalf of a local
company headquartered in Eugene, Oregon. Ride With GPS is a software service
designed for cyclists and runners to map and plan routes, measure performance and share
with friends. It began initially for the cyclist only but has since evolved into further
markets like running. It is an easy to use platform geared at riders of all skill levels and
riding purposes; however, competitive and sport riders benefit the most from the service.
The company’s Founder and CEO, Zack Ham, is at a crossroads about where to take the
company. He has begun expansion into new markets including business-to-business
licensing (b2b). We decided to focus our research efforts on the existing cyclist target
market, both potential users and current customers. Our goal is to explore the
development of the existing target market, first to better understand the consumer and
narrow down the target, and secondly to provide strategic suggestions to develop and
grow the existing consumer base. By investigating these points we can discover what
features are most successful and desired and what areas can be improved to remain
relevant to the user.
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3. Secondary Research:
To gain a better understanding of the cycling industry and the consumers within it,
we first began by examining secondary research. Exploring secondary data allowed us to
produce more precise, insightful questions to base our primary research around. We
began by getting better acquainted with Ride With GPS. Our team created a free account
to explore the options and features of the program. We mapped rides, evaluated the price
structure, toyed with the profile and studied the user interface of the site. By doing so our
team as a whole was much more informed about the service and more confident to
execute a research plan geared toward it.
Competitive Analysis
With a clearer picture about Ride With GPS, we conducted a competitive analysis of
Ride With GPS’s biggest competitors: Strava and MapMyRide. Both Strava and
MapMyRide are comparable to Ride With GPS in terms of general use. All three offer
services for cyclists and runners both. They all boast features that allow the user to
maintain training logs of performance metrics, social sharing and route planning.
Company Performance Route Mapping Social Sharing Free Premium
Analysis
Strava x x x x x
MapMyRide x x x x
Ride With GPS x x x x x
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4. The pricing structures are comparable between Ride With GPS and Strava. They both
offer free services and their basic upgraded package can both be purchased for $6/month
or $50/year for Ride With GPS, and $59/year for Strava. Ride With GPS has another
Premium level that runs $10/month or $80/year. MapMyRide is a free service. Ride With
GPS, Strava and MapMyRide are all compatible with Garmin GPS devices.
Company Basic Premium Mobile App
Strava N/A $6/month -- $59/year Free
MapMyRide Free N/A $2.99
Ride With GPS $6/month -- $50/year $10/month -- $80/year N/A
Strava and MapMyRide differ from Ride With GPS by offering their users a mobile
phone application. Strava is mobile optimized for both iPhone and Android while
MapMyRide offers an application on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms. The
Strava Cycling Android app has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 3,411
consumer reviews while MapMyRide’s Android app is rated 4.5 out 5 stars based on
8,150 consumer reviews. The Strava Cycling app for iPhone has a rating of 5 stars out of
5 based on 284 ratings while MapMyRide’s iPhone app is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars based
on 532 ratings. The Strava app is free while MapMyRide offers both a free app and a
premium app that costs $2.99.
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5. Company Web iPhone Android Other
Strava x x x
MapMyRide x x x x
Ride With GPS x
With the rapid increase in social media usage, we felt it necessary to evaluate the social
media presence of the three aforementioned brands. All three are active on Facebook and
Twitter but Strava and MapMyRide took it further by integrating their service into a
Facebook application. The social media numbers are reflected in the table below.
Company Facebook Likes Twitter Followers Integrated Application
Strava 9,603 9,635 Yes
MapMyRide 13,399 7,047 Yes
Ride With GPS 1,826 597 No
Using secondary research to conduct a competitive analysis is vital for Ride With GPS.
Understanding the competition and what it offers is important for any company in any
industry. By studying the competition the researcher can discover trends, patterns and
consumer insight that provide a leg up in terms of strategic execution and growth of the
product or service. By looking at Strava and MapMyRide, Ride With GPS can learn a lot
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6. with little risk. The consumer that uses Strava is the same consumer that would
potentially use Ride With GPS, MapMyRide or any of the other cycling software
programs. By paying attention to the user experience, engagement and reviews of the
competition, Ride With GPS can better understand the consumer and purchasing
behavior.
Cycling Industry
A quick look into the National Bicycle Dealers Association 2010 report shows that the
cycling industry boasted $6 billion in sales that year – a number that has remained steady
since 2003. People involved in cycling do have to spend money and, as our primary
research will support later on, price is not always the main concern.
Social Media and Mobile Usage
After uncovering the mobile presence behind the biggest competitors we felt it important
to research consumer trends in terms of mobile usage and social networking. According
to Pew Research Center, as of February 2012 over 46 percent of American adults are
smartphone owners. This is an 11 percent increase from May 2011 where it stood at 35
percent. This number soars to 60 percent in smaller subgroups such as recent graduates
and people with an average household income above $75,000. More and more adults
everyday are adapting to the shift in the social media landscape and along with that
comes the use of mobile applications. Over 75 percent of these smartphone owners access
real-time location based information using GPS and other applications. The use of mobile
for social media is also growing rapidly. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all reported at
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7. least a 50 percent increase of mobile users, according to a 2011 report from comScore.
Over 72 million Americans accessed a social networking site from their mobile device
when the report was conducted. An estimated 14 percent of social media users connect
around a shared hobby or interest. This is very important for Ride With GPS to
acknowledge because their service is based around an interest shared by millions around
the world and social networking can be a great way to find them. It is crucial to
understand the media landscape when exploring new directions to engage consumers.
The numbers reflect a growth in both social media and access from mobile devices. Ride
With GPS’ competitors are actively engaged in social media and have converted their
services to a mobile application for ease of use and convenience. The reviews and ratings
of these applications show a high level of activity and adoption of the platform.
Conducting the secondary research explained above is vital to Ride With GPS. Secondary
research provides a wealth of information about the consumer, the competition and the
market for at a relatively low cost. Ride With GPS can use the secondary data to see what
is working within the industry and what is not. It can prevent them from making strategic
decisions that have already proven unsuccessful while also exposing new windows of
opportunity. Secondary data is valuable because it has already been conducted by
trustworthy sources; however, it can only do so much. Secondary data does not allow us
to explore any questions of our own nor does it give us any control over the research
methods. To explore Ride With GPS, its relationship with the consumers and potential
growth within the market, we had to conduct primary research.
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8. Secondary Sources
comScore. “Social Networking On-The-Go: U.S. Mobile Social Media Audience Grows
37 Percent in the Past Year.” comScore. 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 June 2012.
<http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/10/Social_Netwo
rking_On-The
Go_U.S._Mobile_Social_Media_Audience_Grows_37_Percent_in_the_Past_Yea
r>
National Bicycle Dealers Association. “Industry Overview 2010: A Look at the Bicycle
Industry’s Vital Statistics.” National Bicycle Dealers Association. n.d. Web. 5
June 2012. <http://nbda.com/articles/industry-overview-2010-pg34.htm>
MapMyRide. “MapMyRide GPS Cycling.” iTunes. n.d. Web. 6 June 2012.
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mapmyride-gps-cycling/id292223170?mt=8>
MapMyRide. “MapMyRide GPS Cycling Riding.” Google. n.d. Web. 6 June 2012.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapmyride.android2&feature
=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5tYXBteXJpZGUuYW5kcm9
pZDIiXQ..>
Pew Research Center. “Nearly Half of American Adults Are Smartphone Owners.”
Pew Research Center. 1 March 2012. Web. 5 June 2012.
<http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2206/smartphones-cell-phones-blackberry-android-
iphone>
Pew Research Center. “Three-Quarters of Smartphone Owners Use Location-Based
Services.” Pew Research Center. 11 May 2012. Web. 5 June 2012.
<http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2256/location-based-services-smartphones-
foursquare-geosocial-gowalla>
Strava, Inc. “Strava Cycling.” iTunes. n.d. Web. 6 June 2012.
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/strava-cycling/id426826309?mt=8>
Strava, Inc. “Strava Cycling.” Google. n.d. Web. 6 June, 2012.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.strava&hl=en>
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9. Primary Research:
Our main goals of collecting primary research are to better understand the target market
and potential new users, the relationship between current users and the Ride With GPS
service, and ways to grow within the existing target market of cyclists. Our team mission
was to give the consumers a voice and connect them with the client. By doing so, Ride
With GPS can truly focus their brand on remaining relevant to the user it was made for
while exploring new opportunities for growth. By engaging with the market, we planned
to discover what would lead a cyclist to use a software program like Ride With GPS. We
wanted to understand the benefits of using the service as well as what can be done to
improve it. What are people saying about Ride With GPS? Do they find the program
useful, or even motivational? How do they compare with the competition? What can be
done to separate them and create brand differentiation? We believe Ride With GPS
would benefit from a mobile application and conducted research to support or reject the
hypothesis. All of these questions can help Ride With GPS grow as a business and
connect with their audience.
Prior to conducting primary research it was crucial to determine the methods of how to
do so. Our team decided to utilize surveys for quantitative research, and personal
interviews for qualitative research.
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10. Operationalization and Details
With access to the Qualtrics program, creating a survey provided us an inexpensive way
to connect with the cycling community. A survey isn’t restricted to geographic
boundaries or time limitations and online distribution allows for a quick turnaround time
with little overhead costs. We wrote an initial survey designed for cyclists of all types
that was unspecific to Ride With GPS. It touched on demographics, relationship to
cycling, mobile application usage and technology incorporation into fitness routines. The
survey included 15 questions and the average response time was approximately 3
minutes. We distributed it across numerous channels including Facebook, Twitter and
class list serves. Our team also took to the streets with paper copies and approached
cyclists, encouraging them to take our survey. The survey garnered 67 responses. The
various respondents replied at random and were not targeted individually. This helped to
better ensure a more representative sample of the population.
After reviewing responses and gathering data we realized there was another group of
people we hadn’t yet reached out to: existing Ride With GPS users. The current users are
closest to the program and can give us the best, most actionable insight. If we didn’t talk
to them, we didn’t do our job. We designed another survey specifically for current users
and distributed it among the Ride With GPS social media outlets. This survey included
17 questions with an average response time of 4.5 minutes. It garnered 38 responses and
provided meaningful insight into the feelings about Ride With GPS and the target
audience.
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11. With the quantitative aspect of our research charging ahead, we were able to focus our
attention on probing deeper into the thoughts and emotions of cyclists by conducting
personal interviews. Speaking to cyclists in general would have been too broad so we
outlined 4 groups of people to target for interviews: Casual Riders, Competitive/Sport
Riders, Cycling Organizations/Clubs and Current Ride With GPS users. As a team we
didn’t have a formal interview guide but discussed the goals of the interview before
conducting them. The individuals on our team took the responsibility to locate, secure
and interview two or more people from each of the outlined categories mentioned above.
To accommodate the interview subjects, we used a variety of methods to complete the
process. We interviewed our participants face-to-face, over the telephone and through
email. Email interviews were sent to the participants with an agreement of at least 3
exchanges to complete the interview. Attached are copies of both surveys as well as
transcribed interviews.
Results: General Cycling Survey
Our main goal of the general cyclist survey was to gauge the desire to use a product like
Ride With GPS among different levels of riders: casual, commuter and competitive. Our
results showed that competitive sport riders are most likely to use a service like Ride
With GPS, compared to commuters and recreational riders. The following charts will
better explain these figures.
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12. Likelihood to Integrate Technology to Measure Workout Performance by Rider
Level
12
10 11
10
8
8 8
6 7
6 6
4
4 4
2
0 0 0 0 1 1
0
Very Undecide Very
Unlikely Likely
Unlikely d Likely
Casual/Recreational 8 11 4 8 0
Commuter/Everyday 6 10 6 7 1
Competitive/Sport 0 0 0 4 1
We have also been exploring the idea of Ride With GPS shifting toward a mobile
application and integrated this thought into our research plans. We cross-tabulated the
survey questions to discover if those who are likely to use the service are likely to use a
mobile application of it. Out of the 21 participants that are likely to use a cycling utility
program like Ride With GPS, 18 of them would be willing to use a mobile application
(85 percent).
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13. Willingness to Use a Mobile Application among Smartphone Owners
15%
Yes
No
85%
Results: Current User Survey
The goals of the current user survey were to better understand the target consumer and
what drives him or her to use the service. We wanted to discover their favorite features,
their thoughts about the program and their pain points or areas of suggested
improvement. Again, we focused a portion of our research on determining whether or not
Ride With GPS should go mobile and again, included it in our current user survey.
Ninety-seven percent of our subjects were male and 66 percent of them were between the
ages of 31 and 50 years old. The majority of current users in our research have an average
household income over $100,000.
Fifty-three percent of the respondents have been using Ride With GPS for over one year.
Twenty-four percent have been using it between six months and one year while another
24 percent have had it for less than six months. Forty-four percent of respondents pay for
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14. the service, 15 percent basic and 29 percent premium, while the remaining 56 percent are
currently using the free version. The participant rider types are broken down in the figure
below.
Type of Riders
3% Casual/Recreational
38% Commuter/Everyday
50% Competitive/Sport
9% Other
We wanted to understand the users feelings about the service itself. When asked to rate
the most useful features, the mapping portion reigned supreme, followed closely by route
planning, performance tracking and competition respectively. Other favorite features
included the OSM map, GPX export and the social sharing capabilities through
Facebook.
Those who have the service already can best help us determine if a mobile application
would be useful for Ride With GPS. Of the 38 surveyed, 68 percent owned a smartphone.
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15. 60 53
50
40
33
30
20
10
6 8
0
iPhone
Android
BlackBerry
Other
Smartphone Platform (% used)
Of these smartphone owners, 59 percent use an iPhone, 32 percent use an Android, 5
percent use a BlackBerry and the remaining 5 percent use another smartphone platform.
Our goal was to gauge the likelihood and willingness of using a mobile application of
Ride With GPS among smartphone owners. We cross-tabulated those who own a
smartphone with their willingness to use a mobile application. Out of the smartphone
owners, 91 percent are willing or enthused about the creation of a mobile application.
Those who do not own a smartphone were less likely to use a Ride With GPS mobile
application.
The last part of our primary research was designed to capture the thoughts and opinions
about the service. Out of 32 current user responses, 25 of them (78 percent) rated Ride
With GPS’ Customer Support above average or excellent. Fifty percent of the paying
users surveyed felt the pricing structure was on par while 43 percent found it above
average. Eighty-eight percent of current users researched found the user experience of the
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16. site to be above average or excellent while 94 percent regarded it as useful.
By conducting these surveys as primary research we were better able to answer the
majority of our research questions. These results, coupled with the answers from the
personal interviews, helped us uncover insights from the data to better direct our client in
the right direction.
Insight and Discussion:
After collecting and analyzing the data from both surveys and our personal interviews,
we were able to answer our initial research questions and uncover insights to better serve
Ride With GPS.
Target Market:
After detailing the surveys and interviews we were better able to understand the
consumer and narrow down the target market. Our research led us to the conclusion that
the typical user is between 31 and 50 years of age, makes somewhere between $50,000 -
$100,000 annually and doesn’t put price at the forefront of their purchasing decisions. To
best reflect this we created a two person representative of the ideal Ride With GPS user:
Kathy and John.
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17. Kathy:
Kathy is a 32-year-old single white female who recently moved into the city from the
suburbs. She just accepted a new job and moved into an apartment less than 2 miles away
from her office. Parking is costly and extremely difficult to find so she looked to
alternative transportation as a means of commuting to work. Kathy invested in a modest
bike set-up and now uses it has her primary means of transportation. Being unfamiliar
with the new surroundings, Kathy uses her commute to and from work as a chance to
explore. She recently found Ride With GPS and is constantly exploring new routes to
travel. She uses the Facebook feature to keep her friends and family updated on how she
is settling in. Kathy doesn’t utilize all the features of Ride With GPS so she is content
using the Basic program for Custom Routes and Cue Printing. The service has been an
enormous help in her new adjustment.
John:
John is a 44-year-old white male living on the outskirts of a major metropolitan city. He
has worked extremely hard over the last 15 years to provide a comfortable setting for his
wife and two kids. John found success in the financial sector and makes over $100,000 a
year. John considers himself an early adopter of new technology and his iPhone is hardly
ever out of reach. In his early years he was a gifted athlete but gave up sports to focus on
a career to support his family. Although he maintains his fitness by working out at the
local health club, John recently found cycling as a workout routine after a neighbor
introduced him to the sport aspect of it. He found it to be an exhilarating new method that
provides new opportunities around every corner. Right away John invested heavily into
his cycling set-up to ensure he has the best gear possible. John can now ride comfortably
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18. with his neighbor and their weekend warrior cycling bunch. This reinvigorated his
competitive side that is usually reserved for the office. If he thinks it will improve his
performance or best his times, John will invest in it – including services like Ride With
GPS Premium service. The performance tracking motivates him to work harder each time
and the competition section drives him to best his friends for bragging rights.
Social Presence
After completing a competitive analysis through secondary research it has become quite
clear that Ride With GPS needs to keep growing their social media presence. The more
engaged with consumers they become, the more Ride With GPS is shared among social
circles. The “About Ride With GPS” user-generated video has garnered over 1,000 views
– more so than any of the other tutorial type videos. Ride With GPS should create more
user-generated content to balance out the instructional feel of their YouTube channel.
User-generated content puts a voice to the brand and is much more likely to be shared.
Another area of focus on the social aspect lies within the service itself. Ride With GPS
should stay focused on expanding the integration of Facebook and Twitter with the
service to boost sharing and social presence. One research participant stated that the area
that can be most improved upon is the “social component” where he or she “would like to
have a forum or chat built in.” Another person involved in the study suggested adding a
“more innovative interfacing with Facebook.” Other companies like Strava and
MapMyRide have seen high levels of activity and peer review just through social media
outlets alone. The more avenues given to the consumer to interact with the brand, the
more activity and increased visits it will receive.
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19. Mobile Application:
Prior to starting any research for Ride With GPS, our team hypothesized that in order to
remain relevant in the shifting digital landscape, a mobile application would be
necessary. We encompassed this thought into our research without bias to get true
feelings on the subject. Our results were in our favor and allowed us to accept our
hypothesis: Ride With GPS should explore integrating a mobile application to the service
as well. Of the 34 current users asked about using a mobile application, 18 said yes (32
percent) while another 7 said maybe (21 percent). Based on our research, 91 percent of
current users who own a smartphone either own an iPhone or an Android. Developing an
application to integrate with those two platforms would be ideal. An application could
also be used to ease consumers into the use of GPS and potentially invest in a full GPS
set-up.
General Feelings about the Product
After analyzing and interviewing those who use Ride With GPS it was clear to see that
this is a useful service that is in demand within the cycling community, especially those
who ride for sport or competition. Consumers find the program not only useful and
valuable but also motivational. The user experience of the site is praised as is the support
provided to customers. Users feel that Ride With GPS stands among the best in the
market at route mapping and exportation for GPS.
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20. Limitations:
As with any research project, our team faced challenges and limitations that affected the
accuracy of our findings.
Time was not on our side; we were briefed once in the beginning of the term about the
project and came back to it weeks later. Being short on time affected the depths of the
survey and interview. Time also affected our research participants, as we had to
accommodate our schedules with the participants and the client. More time would have
allowed a deeper research approach, but we feel confident in our results based on the time
we had.
Having little to no budget to conduct research greatly affected the overall effort of the
project. Without having an incentive to offer research participants we had to rely on
goodwill and willingness among participants to join us. A budget would have allowed us
to distribute the survey in masses and gain a more representative population of the
cycling sample. It also would have made it possible to conduct in-depth focus groups in
the proper setting however we chose interviews to avoid the obstacle.
Participation was also a limiting factor while conducting research. While we had a 100
percent completion rate on the general cyclist survey, only 86 percent of those who
started the current user survey completed it. The general cyclist survey majority were
university students outside of our target market. While they helped us better understand
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21. who isn’t suited for this product it used up a lot of our time that could have been focused
elsewhere.
Conclusion:
Our team was tasked with creating a research report for a local cycling software company
located in Eugene, Oregon. Our goals were to narrow down a target market, better
understand the consumer, find ways to develop and grow the brand within the current
cyclist audience and connect the voice of the users to the Ride With GPS team. We began
with secondary research about the company, the competitors, trends and figures within
the industry and market growth.
We designed two separate surveys to conduct primary research: one geared at cyclists in
general and another specifically for current users of Ride With GPS. We distributed it
among social media outlets, email list serves and face-to-face interaction. We collected
our data through Qualtrics survey software and analyzed it through Qualtrics Data Center
and SPSS statistical software.
Our team used these findings to create relevant interview questions to probe further into
topics of discussion. We targeted four groups within the cycling community to interview:
casual riders, competitive riders, cycling organizations and current Ride With GPS users.
We conducted interviews with two or more people from each of the four areas to get a
balanced understanding of how we can grow the product within the cycling community
before expanding into new markets.
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22. After collecting and interpreting the data from both the secondary and primary research
methods we were able to answer our initial research goals. We narrowed down the target
market and found ways for the brand to engage with them. One of our research goals was
to find out whether or not a mobile application would suit Ride With GPS and its
consumers. Our hypothesis suggested that Ride With GPS should indeed create a mobile
application to better serve users and our results confirmed this. Through research we
discovered a trend in the increase of mobile usage and social networking and used this
provide insight about how to grow the social media presence of the company and ways to
use it as an engagement tool. Overall we got to the heart of the consumer and gave him or
her a voice to be heard by Ride With GPS.
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