Ok, so for this marketing course i'm taking, we have to create a whole marketing plan for a product; also, we have to choose a specific group we're targeting. Our group chose the Apple iPod targeted to females ages 18-35. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best choice, but we had to choose some segment that hasn't really been targeted by this product.

Basically i need any statistical information i can get about portable mp3 players. I've been looking through all sorts of university business databases and can't find anything. The main thing i'd like to know is what products own what share of the market. The marketing software we have can't get that specific. The closest i can get is "portable electronics".

Can anyone help?

Also, does anyone know of any women that have actually purchased an iPod, or at least a portable mp3 player of some sorts?

Ouch, you really haven't made this easy on yourself.

The only thing I can think of is to contact Apple's sales department directly and ask for someone in charge. Explain to this person that you're doing scientific research about the market penetration of their product and access to their sales records would be a big help. Tell him that you're NOT interrested in names, but solely on sales numbers and more specifically sales numbers correlated to sex. (I'm sure they keep records of this)
It might help if you can convince this person that the outcome of your research could be beneficial to both parties.

That's really the only think I can think of. The MP3 market is such a recently developped (and continuously developping) market that I don't believe you'll find much statistical data about it. (but I'm sure you've alreasy figured that part out for yourself)

Anyway hope this helps. And no, I don't know any woman that has ever bought any MP3 related devices, nor do I know a woman that is even remotely interested in doing so.

And no, I don't know any woman that has ever bought any MP3 related devices, nor do I know a woman that is even remotely interested in doing so.


Laura -- are you going to let him get away with that?

tanstaafl.

I can't post any specific market stats (as we spend a lot of money to get them) but I can say you will need an exceptional marketing plan to sell hard drive portables to females 18-35. The market is strongly weighted to males (which I guess is the point of your assignment).

Right now I believe Apple and Creative have the HDD market sewn up between them, with Rio, Archos and miscellaneous vendors making a dent also. Rio has #1 market share in Flash and CD and plans to address the shortcoming in HDD this year.

If you come up with a great plan to sell to a significant number of female consumers, let me know

Rob

Didn't Loren's GF buy a Riot ? I think I remember reading that.

Laura -- are you going to let him get away with that?

Ok, Ok, let me rephrase that :
I don't know any woman personally that has ever bought any MP3 related devices, nor do I know a woman personally that is even remotely interested in doing so.

Phew!

Didn't Loren's GF buy a Riot ? I think I remember reading that.

Yes, I remember reading that too. But the same comment as in my post above this one is valid for her too! (Kelly, wasn't it?)

I don’t have any figures or anything really useful, but it seems like and interesting idea to brainstorm about.

The first thing I’d ask is can you make suggestions on modifications to your product or do you have to market it the way it is? I don’t think the typical female in the 18-35 age group is going to buy any HD mp3 player I’ve seen. Most look very “teckie”, and looks are very important. My wife’s #1 criteria for anything she buys (clothing, cell phone, car, house) is that it must be “cute”. Of course she doesn’t claim that this is her #1 consideration, but I can tell you that it is. Look at the cell phone market and how “cute” many of the phones are. Redesign the mp3 player from this standpoint and you’ll definitely be #1 in the market (however small it is). Note that “cute” doesn’t mean “girly.” My wife’s current cell phone is “cute” even though it looks very sleek; I guess the reason is because it’s so small. I’ve seen other small phones that she doesn’t think are cute, though, so I’m clueless as to what really makes something “cute”.

The #2 factor she applies to everything is that it can’t be “annoying.” She’d rather have the absence of a feature rather than something that is confusing or she can’t get working without instructions. If I ever can find the money to buy her an Empeg, I’ll be setting up all of her playlists for her because (I fear) the process would be too “annoying.” Not that she couldn’t figure it out, but she simply wouldn’t see the benefits right away of going through the effort of dragging around and organizing her CD collection. If she were to buy a HD based mp3 player, she’d never recommend it to friends if she had misgivings about working with it.

The last thing I’d say is to market the features, not the technology. My wife doesn’t care about mp3s, ripping, encoding, or anything else remotely technological. What she would be interested is not having to lug around CDs, having access to all of her music quickly, and (most importantly for a married woman with a messy husband) a way to keep those pesky CD covers from lying around on table tops and creating general chaos. Giver her a piece of software that does it all for her without asking questions (or straightforward ones if they must be asked) and she might actually be willing to give it a try.

Of course, I’m not a woman and these are just my observations from my wife and her friends; in reality the general population of women 18-35 could be totally different than this. Good luck on your project, and I hope you find some figures.

Most people I know, including all of the women I know, hate lugging CDs around, but their eyes totally glaze over when you try to explain the process of creating an MP3 library. They were momentarily interested, but the solution is worse than the problem for them. After they see my empeg or my home stereo connected to the linux mp3 server they "get it", but it is way too mad scientist for them to ever do. Let's face it: pretty much everyone on this group is a 5 sigma computer user. Look at the infrastructure you need to create a well managed mp3 collection. Its outrageous: large hard disk, fast CDROM, probably broadband internet connection, ethernet switch, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Most computer users I know don't fully comprehend directory structures. I'm not being sarcastic; it's really true. The average computer user was saving files in the application startup directory until "My Documents" came along, and now people just toss their files in there.

We all have a tendency to think that we are "average" or the center of the population. When it comes to computer usage, everyone on this board (if for no other reason that using this board!) is an "elite" computer user. Think about it.

I see this as the biggest obstacle to MP3 player adoption: the PC ripping/encoding/tagging/organization/transfer side is way too hard for a novice computer user. Since almost every computer owner is a novice computer user, you can see the problem. The world needs an "AOL" of mp3 creation and management. I realize that AOL sucks, but it is "usable" by total computer novices. iTunes seems to come pretty close to that (except it doesn't suck) and I think it is a huge reason why the iPod has done well. The device itself is important, but the front end process is what stymies most users, in my opinion.

Look at the empeg: we love the totally flexibile nature of the playlist functionality, but for a user who doesn't really understand directories that well, they are just never going to grasp the empeg playlist heirarchy and how to create it. Flexibility requires a better conceptual understanding. With the current state of the art of mp3, I think it requires more conceptual understanding than most computer owners have. Can you imagine telling your parents or grandparents to, "do an Advanced Search for 'refs=0'"? Come on. I need to tell my grandparents where they can find the "Control Panel" and walk them through every click. Probably an extreme example, but most computer owners are a hell of a lot closer to my grandparents than they are to Mark Lord (hey, wait a minute -- so am I!). :-)

Fix the UI on *both* sides and then you'll have something.

The gender bias is interesting, but I think it reflects this point. For some reason, most hackers and geeks are men. Some estimates I've seen put that at 100:1, some as little as 10:1. Either way, its a large bias. I don't know why that is, and perhaps it will change over time.

My point is that as long as that whole ripping/encoding/tagging/organizing/uploading/etc. process is something that appeals to hackers and geeks, it won't be something that appeals to the broader market. If only 1-10% of hackers and geeks are female, well, there you have it.

Rather than "geek" I suppose I could use the term "technology enthusiast", which is someone who *enjoys* learning and exploring technology. Most people don't. They want their technology to work like a light switch; turn it on and it works. They don't need to know anything about how the electricity gets made and they like it that way. CDs work that way. MP3s definitely do not.

Personally, I want to know how the electricity gets made. I also use an empeg.

Jim

My wife’s #1 criteria for anything she buys (clothing, cell phone, car, house) is that it must be “cute”.

Hmm, wonder if she'll like the Pearl, then? I thought it was "cute". But my idea of cute might be different than hers...

My wife’s #1 criteria for anything she buys (clothing, cell phone, car, house) is that it must be “cute”.

I bought a Nex II player for my girlfriend Katie last year for some sort of occasion so she could use it when she goes running. I gave it to her and showed her all the cool features..."look Hon, you can change the equalizer settings, set up playlists, and it even can take a 1Gb Microdrive!" "That's nice Matt, thanks" "Oh, Katie, it also comes with 9 different faceplate things that you can change when you want, I guess"

"WOW! Cool!"

And she actually does change the faceplate thing all the time to suit her outfit or mood. Unbelievable.

Hmm, wonder if she'll like the Pearl, then? I thought it was "cute". But my idea of cute might be different than hers...

Actually based on the pictures I've seen I would think she would like it a lot (although I'm not 100% on discerning her tastes). However she rarely listens to music outside of the car unless I am around (and thus the Empeg is available), so she has no real need for a Pearl. Still, there are probably many women in her age group that don't have husbands with Empegs.

Still, there are probably many women in her age group that don't have husbands with Empegs.

Further proof that she chose wisely, no?

And she actually does change the faceplate thing all the time to suit her outfit or mood. Unbelievable.

What makes me really laugh about this is thinking about the engineers sitting around brainstorming and one guy pipes up with "You know what would be the killer feature! Removable faceplates!"

My wife’s #1 criteria for anything she buys (clothing, cell phone, car, house) is that it must be “cute”.

Husbands?

Further proof that she chose wisely, no?

Luckily she thinks so.

I ever can find the money to buy her an Empeg, I’ll be setting up all of her playlists for her because (I fear) the process would be too “annoying.” Not that she couldn’t figure it out, but she simply wouldn’t see the benefits right away of going through the effort of dragging around and organizing her CD collection.

Yeah, see, I got some of this backlash. But there was gaping hole in the dash, and no CD player. So either she deals with the empeg, or the silence. Makes no difference to me, really.

She thought the TiVo was a horrible idea when I got it. Some friends of mine gave me flak when I picked on her for it when we were squabbling over recording something, because they said she'd come around to the technology, and wasn't she allowed to change her mind? Sure. So instead I filter anti-technology bias at a low level now.

This is the kind of product necessary to get women to buy MP3 players.

I'm struggling to come up with an image of what my wife would do if she opened up a box at Christmas and found that! I don't think she'd know what to say.

To ask where the go go boots are?

Or this.

Oh my.

This is the kind of product necessary to get women to buy MP3 players.

That purse is so incredibly ugly I can't find the words for it. I wouldn't be caught dead carrying that.

I will have a more elaborate response later when I can get away from my tards for a bit.

I by no means understand women, not even the ones I know... but I have a feeling for tech gadgets to appeal to average women they need to look untechie.

So if the iPod doesn't appeal, nothing is going to!

I will have a more elaborate response later when I can get away from my tards for a bit.

Gee, you must be busy, you didn't even have time to call them fucktards this time. Must be a good month for VW's.

the PC ripping/encoding/tagging/organization/transfer side is way too hard for a novice computer user

This post meshes perfectly with a post I made a year or so ago.

Since your position agrees so closely with mine, it is obvious that you are a person of vast knowledge and intelligence!

tanstaafl.

Also, does anyone know of any women that have actually purchased an iPod, or at least a portable mp3 player of some sorts?

The resident girly girl speaks.

I've purchased a few. I bought (and still have) the Rio PMP300 when it first came out. I've had a few different in dash MP3 players as well.

However, my social contact with other women is generally limited to my friend's girlfriends, other women usually hate me.

I can not offer you any of the statistical information you need, however, if you need marketing ideas, feel free to ask. If it isn't needed, you'll wind up with a really long post of no real use to you.

I can't share any specific data either for the same reason, but one area to look at is the price point. Market research we have on similar audio products (albeit ones with less "techy" knowledge required up front than the iPod), shows that about half as many women as men are interested in the product concepts. Those women that like it seem more committed, as the total numbers drop off as soon as you put a price on it - but as that price goes up, the men drop away much quicker and soon there is no real difference between male and female interest levels.

Men it seems don't have the staying power or the urge to spend!

but as that price goes up, the men drop away much quicker and soon there is no real difference between male and female interest levels.

Wow, this comes as a total surprise to me. I would have assumed the opposite. I even considered postulating that idea in this thread but didn't get around to it.

Presumably (just guessing - not my area), there is a similar sized core of male and female buyers who just want the tech at any price. The rest is made up of predominantly males who are interested but not as committed, and they drop away as the price rises. I think the majority behave as generally expected, but that core is surprisingly gender independent. Of course, it may be that I haven't a clue what all these charts mean!!

Perhaps women just like stuff that is expensive