Results from MBA Study (Buying behavior of kiteboarders)

[davewsail]

OK, several asked for me to post this so here you go. The paper I just turned in for my class is attached. WARNING- the paper is very technical so read it at your own risk of falling asleep. If anyone makes it through and has feedback, I'd love to hear it.

[Emofish]

Excellent Job, I pretty much read the whole thing. I now have a label for myself "Local, Mature Lower Middle Class Weekend Warrior" or LMLMCWW for short.

I give the paper an overall B+ due to some grammer errors my version of Word picked up, but hell, I'm no english teacher (or was a good student for that matter) so take that as you wish.

It was a very good read though, and I love techie stat stuff like that.

[gumball]

93% read kite related web forums weekly or more.
Only 40% subscribe to kite magazines.

Damn, I should have started a Web-based kite company...

Nice job.

[tungsten222]

Original message expired.

[BizB]

... B+ due to some grammer errors...

indeed! An internet classic.

[davewsail]

Yeah, my mom (who is an English teacher) would definitely not be proud about the grammar. Hey, I had to do this whole thing over a weekend while working so when it's late at night, grammar suffers. Maybe she would let me slide given that-- I'll ask her.

Seriously though, thanks for the feedback and of course for the participation. I'm always open to constructive feedback-- part of learning. This study was fun and I couldn't have done it without this community. I'm just glad I didn't include anything about foils vs. LEIs in the study else I'd have gotten way more feedback than I wanted I'm sure.

[BWD]

Got your grade yet?
Best luck

[davewsail]

I haven't got the grade yet, but have you heard about grade inflation? I'm sure I got an A. In grad school a B is equivalent to a C in undergrad. A C is equal to a D and an A is well, indeterminate. Basically an A means you don't suck.

[tungsten222]

Original message expired.

[tautologies]

93% read kite related web forums weekly or more.
Only 40% subscribe to kite magazines.

Damn, I should have started a Web-based kite company...

Nice job.

LOL, I wonder why this can be:
"a short marketing survey was submitted to online kiteboarding forums".

You've got to look at the selection. The above is like saying 93% car owners that wanted to answer (ie. are more than a little interested in cars) drive once a week or more and only 43% takes the bus.

The actually numbers might be quite different because of the sampling techniques employed and since the strata really only retains ONLINE USERS. People who have access to resources for free. There are a lot of people who doesn't own a car.

The study does make a note of it, but I think it is better to limit the scope to 1) to understand different market segments among kiteboarding retail consumers ** that are active online ** (or something to that effect).

The greatest weakness of this study is the sampling method. It only a term paper though so it should be fine. Self selection might skew the results as people are more interested in kiteboarding are more probable to answer and thus might also spend more money. The study clearly makes note of it, which is great. It is not irrelevant, but how much a self selected group actually represents the overall population can be debated.

Again I know this is an academic exercise and the assignment definitely is good at using tools available. Depending on how much of the term grade this represents I'd probably give my students an A for this. Though I only have undergrads.

Good job anyways.