Marketing Case Study: Market Research Techniques (Case Study Sample)

Read the following case study and then answer the question which follows:
Kiki magazine is a quarterly publication established in the fall of 2007 for tween girls. With approximately 10 million females between the ages of 10 and 14 in the United States, the founders saw an opportunity to capture a niche market of girls who wanted a magazine that looked like the glossy newsstand magazines geared to older girls but featured design-based content, rather than pop-culture based content.
Magazines, newspapers, and books are the three major forms of print media in the publishing industry. In 2007, the publishing market had a market value of $157.9 billion, with magazines representing 9.4 percent of the total. There were approximately 6,800 consumer magazines and 12,725 business magazines produced in the United States. Magazines generate income via advertising and circulation revenue, with advertising accounting for an average of about 55 percent of revenue. Circulation revenue is derived from both subscriptions and single copy sales. The top 300 magazines in 2006 generated $34.4 billion in revenue. Of this revenue, the 10 largest consumer titles had combined circulation and advertising revenues of $7.7 billion.
There are approximately 250 magazines in the United States targeted exclusively to children (8 years and younger), youth (9 to 12 years), and teens (13 to 19 years). Kiki competes in the youth and early teen segment of the magazine marketplace, which has a magazine readership of about 48 percent of the segment. There are three major types of magazines in this age range: sexualized girls' magazines, kids/fun magazines for both boys and girls, and educational magazines for girls.
There were two major magazines in the sexualized girls category--CosmoGirl! with 1.5 million in circulation and Teen Vogue with a circulation of almost 1 million. Content in both magazines includes fashion, celebrity interviews and gossip, dating/relationship advice, and beauty tips. Advertising is comprised largely of ads for perfume, makeup, and clothing. Despite its high circulation, however, CosmoGirl! printed its final issue in December of 2008.
Popular titles in the kids/fun product segment are: Highlights for Children, Nickelodeon Magazine, and National Geographic Kids. All three magazines contain games, cartoons, and very short articles. Highlights for Children does not contain advertising, though both Nickelodeon Magazine and National Geographic Kids do. Nickelodeon Magazine printed its final issue in 2009.
Two prominent girls' magazines in the educational product segment are American Girl and New Moon. American Girl, with a circulation of around 700,000 does not contain any advertising and encourages girls to be creative. New Moon, with a tagline of "The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams," attempts to empower females as they transition from girls to women. In existence for 15 years, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000. There are two girls' magazines that fall between the sexualized and educational content segments. Discovery Girls, with a circulation of approximately 186,000, and Girl's Life, with a circulation of 367,000, focus on school, growing up, beauty, fashion, and self-esteem. Both have content related to dating and relationships.
Kiki is a quarterly magazine and interactive "creativity" journal targeted to the 9- to 14-year-old female market segment. Kiki is designed to appeal to girls with style and substance and follows the fashion design curriculum used in colleges as its springboard to topics such as finance, geography, entrepreneurship, history, and fine arts. Its goal is to demonstrate that having fun with style and artistry is compatible with intelligence and creativity. The driving philosophy behind the magazine is the promotion of self-confidence among young girls. Currently, Kiki does not accept advertisements. The Kiki team has an overall discomfort with exposing young girls to commercialism and is concerned that outside influences might force Kiki to compromise on its philosophy. Kiki has a goal of showing a profit in year five, with a circulation of 30,000 magazines.
QUESTION
The Kiki magazine case deals with analyzing marketing opportunities. You have been hired by Kiki magazine to analyze the strategy for marketing to the 9 to 14 year old girl niche market. Your analysis should address the following questions:
1. What types of market research should Kiki employ to determine the market potential for magazine?
2. By targeting the 9 to 14 year old market, Kiki will need to attract new 9 year old girls each year and will lose readership as they age. What are the challenges that this presents to Kiki?
Develop a response that includes examples and evidence to support your ideas, and which clearly communicates the required message to your audience. Organize your response in a clear and logical manner as appropriate for the genre of writing. Use well-structured sentences, audience-appropriate language, and correct conventions of standard American English.