Over-Booked

Marketing 379 – Market Research Methods

Executive Summary

This service offered by us will allow current college students to have access to required textbooks through an electronic book service. This type of service will be different from our competitors as it will be available through kiosks placed on campus and students will have choices between renting only a portion or an entire book. Rent duration will be anywhere from just one day to an entire semester – all for a student to decide. Another characteristic that differentiates us from competitors is our ability to offer electronic books at a low price. Our product is user-friendly and developed specifically for college students who need quick and easy access to desirable textbooks and parts of textbooks without paying a large amount of money for them.
In order to move forward with our product, we first needed to estimate our potential customer demand. A survey was conducted on various college and university campuses and covered over 200 students. Questions required both qualitative and quantitative responses that allowed us to answer our research objectives. * What industry are we in? * What are the current industry trends for e textbooks? Growth or decline? Products offered? Consumer targets? Advertising and promotions? * Who are the competitors and what is their target and marketing mix? * What is the consumer behavior of students with regard to buying textbooks and e-textbooks? How much are they spending? Where are they buying? What factors contribute to their decision to buy a textbook or not? * How likely are students to rent our e-textbooks? * Who should we target? * What are the advantages and disadvantages of our e-book service? * Would students find any use in being able to rent the textbook for a day? A week? Do they prefer having it for a semester? * How should we design our marketing mix (product, place, promotion and price)? * Do the answers to the above quantitative objectives vary by demographics?
The quantitative and qualitative research conducted included the use of news articles, academic reports obtained through the campus library databases, on-line financial magazines, newspapers and actual face-to-face field surveys. We looked at data that described how much students were paying for textbooks and noticed that the prices of textbooks has risen at 4 times the rate of inflation and average $900 per year. Sources also suggested that sales of tablets rose by 98% since 2011 and students became it’s main target market. We saw that number of students owning a tablet and using electronic textbooks is rising and is showing great prospects of becoming a number one buyer.
Using the information gathered, we were able to make several key findings: * With the advancement of technology and growing number of e-readers, as well as the increased purchase and rental of e-textbooks, e-textbooks are becoming easily more accessible and easier to use. With being in the textbook purchase/rental industry, this is a new segment we need market too. * The advancement and increase in technology has created an increase and demand for all things electronic. 19% of adults own some type of tablet, and this number has been slowly increasing from recent years. With this type of technology still in its beginning stages, numbers can only grow from there. Through our research, 36.8% of students reported purchasing an e-book. With the growing number of purchases of electronic devices that can hold textbooks, and the growing number of students purchasing these types of books, this creates a specific and profit worthy market. * Among some of the more popular retailers that students use to rent or purchases electronic or physical textbooks are: Chegg, CourseSmart, CollegeTextbook, and Amazon. However, 37.7% of students continue to purchase their books in the on campus book store in person. * On average, 31.6% of students spend about $200-$299 per semester on books. They tend to purchase at the on campus bookstore in person, or shop online through various retailers. We found that price was the most important factor in making a decision to purchase or rent a textbook. * When asked what the likelihood of using this service is, it was rated on a scale from 1-8 with a 5.81 and 5.86 for males and females. * Our main focus would be college students, males or females at almost any age. * When asked what an advantage of this service would be, 88.5% of students agreed the cheap price would be the best advantage. When asked that a disadvantaged would be, 70.9% of students were afraid of technology issues of the kiosk or e-textbook, preventing them from using the service and not completing a project or being able to study for a test. * Through our research, we found that 42.5% of students would like kiosks to be placed near other vending machines due to convenience. It was also found that 24.7% of students would want to be notified of this service via email, and 16.6% by university site ads.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Research Objectives

3. Methodology

4. Sample

5. Detailed Findings

6. Conclusion and Recommendations

7. Appendices

Introduction
College textbook prices are increasing and are out of control. According to USA Today, the prices of textbooks have risen at 4 times the rate of inflation and average $900 per year. With the rising costs of college attendance and the growing need for students to work full time to pay tuition fees, a cheaper alternative towards completing class readings would flourish. With the rise of tablet sales, up 98% since 2011, we also see students being the main market for this new technology. Statistics show that 25% of students currently own a tablet and 48% of students utilize e-textbook. With these numbers rising, we feel that our service can capitalize on these trends.
This service will allow college students to rent quick and easy access to desired textbooks through an e-book service, which will enable students to buy only portions that they desire of the book or rent a book for a limited time. Charging a low rate will combat increasing textbook prices and the lack of textbook usage in many classes. Essentially, this service would install a kiosk, modeled after the popular Redbox kiosk, on college campuses as well as provide an online site where students can purchase access to their textbooks for small daily, weekly, or semester long fees. There are currently many competitors that allow access to textbook rentals such as CollegeTextbook Renter and Textbook Rentals; however these sites only allow physical rentals. Other stores do sell e-textbooks, however they are still upwards of $100 and are only available for semester-long rental periods.
One main direct competitor in this particular industry is CourseSmart, which is a giant in the industry of e-books; however they are missing a key market of students who don’t need access for a full year. Another competitor is Chegg, who offer a very robust online e-book rental system; however they offer physical books and purchase back books as well. We would be much more focused on an online environment. We also see students using the semester fees; however the modern student can get away with a more minimal use of book access.
If the service proves successful, a network can also be sought after to utilize student account information to add customized content and provide easy accessible study tools.

Research Objectives

1. What industry are we in?
2. What are the current industry trends for e textbooks? Growth or decline? Products offered? Consumer targets? Advertising and promotions? Etc.
3. Who are the competitors and what is their target and marketing mix?
4. What is the consumer behavior of students with regard to buying textbooks and e-textbooks? How much are they spending? Where are they buying? What factors contribute to their decision to buy a textbook or not?
5. How likely are students to rent our e-textbooks?
6. Who should we target?
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of our e-book service?
8. Would students find any use in being able to rent the textbook for a day? A week? Do they prefer having it for a semester?
9. How should we design our marketing mix (product, place, promotion and price)?
10. Do the answers to the above quantitative objectives vary by demographics?

Methodology
Secondary Research
Secondary research will consist of library database and Internet searches. This methodology was chosen because the information is already available at these sources. This methodology will be applied to Research Objectives 1 and 2.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research will consist of one-on-one interviews with consumers and research on competitors, including visits to their websites. This methodology was chosen because it is informative, fast, and convenient. This methodology will be applied to Research Objectives 3 and 4. For Objective 3, company websites and article databases were consulted. For Objective 4, interviews for this study were conducted by Team 5 members. For the purpose of this research, 10 interviews were conducted on a one by one basis with students who own a smartphone and buy textbooks (50%) and e-textbooks (50%). The interviews were done in person, and the environments of the interviews were done at school campus and school gym (familiar settings).

Quantitative Research
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Quantitative research will consist of a face-to-face survey. This methodology was chosen because it is quick, easy, and will allow us to quantify answers to key research objectives. This methodology will be applied to Research Objectives 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Sample
Qualitative: We would randomly select 12 students who own smartphones (i.e., tech-savvy) and have them do a face-to-face survey. This research would provide insight and understanding as to why people would want this service or why they would not utilize this service. This approach would also help gain knowledge into giving the consumer base the most attractive product/service.
Quantitative: We will survey a larger group of students. We will survey 320 students (who own smartphones). This research with our potential target will help us quantify the data. The respondents were asked if they purchase or rent textbooks, then further asked if they would be interested in a kiosk form of renting textbooks for various time periods.

Detailed Findings
Research Objective 1: What industry are we in?
We are focused in the textbook sales/rental industry with a firm emphasis on e-books to allow for students to purchase non print editions of textbooks for only limited times or portions that they desire. With the advancement of technology and the development of e-book readers such as the Kindle in 2007, the Nook in 2010, and tablets like the iPad in 2010, e-books are now more accessible than ever before. Because these devices are now more prevalent and make it easier to carry multiple books at once, e-books have become increasingly more popular.
Research Objective 2: What are the current industry trends for e textbooks? Growth or decline? Products offered? Consumer targets? Advertising and promotions? Etc.
(References available upon request)
Growth & Trends: E-Books

In March of 2011, e-book sales were $69 million, a 146% increase from the year before. Amazon which is one of the largest book retailers in the US announced in May 2011 that they sold 105 e-books for every 100 hardcover and paperback books they sold. They believe the surge in e-books sales is due to not only more to people owning tablet and e-readers, but also because Amazon had recently lowered the price of the Kindle.
The chart below shows the percent of adults who own a tablet or e-book reader. We can see that from December 2011 to December 2012 tablet and e-book reader ownership among adults almost doubled from to 10% to 19%. Overall 29% of adults own a tablet, an e-reader or both. This is largely due to the high demand for tablet computers over the 2011 holiday season. Amazon released the Kindle Fire in September 2011 and claims to have sold one million Kindles a week during the holiday season. The number of tablet owners has since increased to 25% of the adult population as of August 2012.

By looking at the chart above and the chart below of e-book sales we can see that one of the main driving factors in the sale of e-books is the sale of tablets and e-book readers. In January of each year shown on the chart you can see there is a large increase in sales of e-books due to the holiday season the month before when many people purchase tablets and e-book readers.

As the number of tablet and e-book reader owners increase, so do the monthly percentage of e-book purchases.

Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project published results to a series of surveys that examined the public’s changing and growing interest in e-books. These surveys were taken by Americans over 16 years of age between November and December of 2011 and January 2012. Results show that 21% of Americans read e-books and this number is growing, mainly following the Christmas season, when many of the tablets and e-book readers are being gifted.

We can see growth occurring across all demographics within the industry. E-Books are at the start of their product life cycle, and are most likely transitioning from the innovator to growth phase of the product life cycle. E-books are growing faster among some demographics and slower in others. The area e-books have grown the quickest over the past year is among the children’s and young adult e-books. Sales went from $3.9 million in January 2011 to an astonishing $22.5 million in January 2012. In January of this year e-books sales made up 26.7% of all book sales, but among the children and young adult category e-book sales made up 31.1%.

When we look at these different segments over a 3 year period we see that among those people who have a high school degree, their ownership rate has doubled in the past year. Studies showed that e-book readers go through an average of 24 books in one year compared to 15 books read by those who use physical copies.
E-Textbooks

The market for e-textbooks, although small, is quickly growing into a successful and profitable industry. It was reported that $4.5 billon worth of textbooks was sold in 2010. Even though e-textbooks only account or around 5% of total U.S textbook sales, these figures have skyrocketed 44.3% within this past year. This is a considerable when you compare it to the recent stagnancy of textbook print sales. In a recent report, Pearson, a major textbook publisher, derives 14% of its global book sales from e-books. E-book revenues for Pearson have been reported to double in 2011 compared to the previous year. Another major online textbook and service provider, Wiley, reported that for 2011, digital book revenue increased 74% and now accounts for 16% of the relevant business unit’s book sales. More evidence of this technological boom can be seen through the increase of sales by CourseSmart, one of the nations leading e-textbook seller, who reported a 400% increase in sales for 2011 from the year before. According to “OnCampus Research Student Watch 2011,” a 16,000-student survey revealed that 42% of students have either purchased or at least seen an e-textbook within the past year. It is speculated that the projections for the e-textbook market will grow at an annual rate of 49% through 2013, when e-textbooks will command about 11% of all textbook sales.

Types of Products Emerging from this Market

CourseSmart offers free applications for tablets and other mobile devices that include iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire and Android to access a wide variety of e-textbooks. CourseSmart was established in 2007 in San Mateo, CA and is privately owned. Chegg was founded in 2002 in Santa Clara, CA and is about 10 times bigger than CourseSmart. Chegg also offers e-textbooks for rent and is available for access on a wide variety of mobile devices. Barnes and Noble also entered a market of selling and renting e-textbooks. To get an e-textbook, an individual just needs to download a book on their PC or Mac and read it using the NOOKstudy eReader which is offered by Barnes and Noble and is free to download. Once an e-book is downloaded onto a computer, it is accessible offline, and can be copied and printed. However, if there is a CD that comes with a physical version of a textbook, it is not included with an e-textbook. Kindle also offers the renting of e-textbooks for a period of 30 to 360 days. The initial period consists of 30 days and if a student needs to extend renting period, he or she can do so to the maximum of 360 days and pay a set amount of each additional day of rent. Many other websites that sell textbooks are now offering an e-textbook version of the physical textbooks they sell. Though Chegg and CourseSmart are two of the more well known websites that offers this, others are catching on and incorporating this product as well not only to stay competitive in this market but also increase their sales. The ability to purchase and download an e-textbook to a tablet or other electronic device is becoming widely available through more and more portals as the demand for them increases. The idea and popularity of renting or purchasing e-books for a certain amount of time is becoming viciously popular as students are always looking for ways to save time and money. These two concepts are being dispersed through a variety of channels and being shaped based on the needs of students.

Who are the consumer targets and largest consumers of our type of product?

The consumers targeted by e-textbook publishers are college students who are looking for an innovative and technologically forward way of going about their coursework and textbook usage. These students will primarily be ones who are looking for bargains when it comes to their textbooks as well as the convenience factor. E-textbook publishers are also targeting students who posses tablet devices to be able to use the online book on the go or in class or wherever the student needs to access it.

According to the National Center of Education Statistics there are currently 21 million students enrolled in degree granting institutions. The majority of these students are between the ages of 18-24.

What types of promotions/advertising is done by these purveyors of our product?

Social media is an easy way to connect to large populations, especially the college student population. There are currently over one billion users on Facebook and growing numbers through other social media outlets such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Instragram, etc. Social media marketing reaches a large variety of our customer target and has proven successful in the past. It is a way many textbooks companies already use to promote and advertise their name. Many textbook stores such as Chegg, CourseSmart and numerous others advertise all over these social media sites. A lot of these social media sites cater to certain demographics, noticing for example which users are college students. Hence, when logged into Facebook, many ads are placed on the side of the page to grasp user’s attention based on information from their page. Advertising is also widely used through school magazines, flyers, newspapers, and universities websites or local textbooks stores which many students see and visit. Promotions are also used by these companies such as reduced or free shipping, discount if you buy a certain amount of books or a new user, extended rental periods, and easy returns to gain recognition and business. Word of mouth is also very efficient. SMS text, email and cell phone browser access are the surest way to make companies reachable to college students and the best form for advertising. This form of advertising works well among college students and a form of marketing that companies such as Chegg take advantage of.

Which cities have the greatest demand and are the most advanced in e-textbooks?
There were 4,216 degree-granting institutions in the United States during the 2004–05 school years. There are many large states that are home to numerous universities and college students. California was home to 399 degree-granting institutions, more than any other U.S. state. In second was New York (307), followed by Pennsylvania (260), Texas (208) and Ohio (194). This means that these states are going to have the highest demand for e-textbook services.
Research Objective 3: Who are the competitors and what is their target and marketing mix?
Coursesmart

Who is their target/customer?

It looks as if the target/ customer for this website seem to be higher education instructors and students. They have a wide range of textbooks and have many features that will help students, including on-line viewing off-line viewing and many other things.

What is their market/product positioning? Who do they go after as a customer and how do they do it?

Their market/product positioning is in the digital textbook arena for higher education and tending to focus on more technology savvy individuals focusing on having textbooks available for viewing online as well as on various mobile applications
Their selling message/image is that they are the largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials. They send the message that by using digital products you can cut down on the carbon footprint, more functional, and they can do more than just normal textbooks.

What products do they offer? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their products?

This company has many different features allowing you to also take a quick look at the book, and start a free trial of the book. Many of the strengths are featured on the features page which includes iPad reading, sending notes to classmates, and other various things. Some of the weaknesses include the ease of use of the apps which do not have high ratings for either IOS or android and also that fact that these textbooks can only be rented and not actually purchased.

In doing some basic research it seems as if there are only two options; books are set to be rented at 360 or 180 days.

What prices are their products?

Marketing, 11th Edition iSBN: 978-0-07-802889-2
Coursesmart: $94.50 rent 180 days
Amazon: $147.38 buy
MSRP: $180 buy

Accounting, 2nd Edition iSBN: 9780470017791
Coursesmart: $43.50 rent 360 days
Amazon: $85.00 buy
MSRP: $87.95 buy

Where do they sell their products? Are they only online or do they go through any brick and mortar retail channels?

All of their products are sold online with you having to visit their website to obtain your course materials. They also do provide services to university bookstores and others which may allow them to have some type of brick and mortar presence through course codes and other things sold within the actual bookstores.

What types of advertising and promotions do they undertake?

No real advertising Google ad does come up for the website at the top of the Google search

How are they performing (sales, share, financially)?

Total Assets $26,689,323
Total Liabilities $43,313,898
Sales $29,427,777
Operating Expense $43,320,714
Loss from Operations -12,892,937
Net Loss -12,888,376
They are not performing all too well financially. They seem to be in a heavy growth stage working on gaining partnerships and overall growth.

Chegg

Who is their target/customer?

Chegg is also targeting the college student demographic. They tend to focus on most facets of the college experience.

What is their market/product positioning? Who do they go after as a customer and how do they do it?

Their market/product positioning is in an all-inclusive college student website. While they do offer textbooks and eBooks they also allow you to set up your college schedule and planner, look for scholarships, and even all you to sell them your textbooks.
Their selling message/image is that they are a website where you can not only buy or rent textbooks but do a lot of other things as well. You can set up you class schedule and planner, you can look up scholarships, and you can even sell them back your textbooks once you are done with them.
What products do they offer? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their products?

This company offers you many different ways of obtaining textbooks. You can either rent the actual textbook until a specified date in which you must ship it back to them. You also have the options of buying a used, new, or even renting the e-textbook for 180 days which gives you a lot of flexibility in how you would like to obtain the textbook. Another service they have is that you can also find the solutions to some of your textbooks.

They also offer a 21 day satisfaction guarantee if which if for whatever reason you aren’t satisfied you can return it. And this is for paper textbooks and they offer a 14 day return for e-textbooks. They also allow you to pay via PayPal which is nice for some students who may not have a credit card and would like some added security with the transaction.

Some of their other services like the course scheduler and scholarship finder are nice. The weaknesses of these are that they are only useful if other people attending the school also use the service. Certain schools will have very little information about the courses, like reviews, - and unless a lot of people going to the school actually use this, there will not be a critical mass of information.

What prices are their products?

Intermediate Accounting 14th Edition
ISBN: 9780470587232

Rent till 12/21/12 $39.49
Buy: Used $165.99
Buy: New $177.99
E textbook 180 day $82.00 125 day $67.00 90 day $60.50

Amazon buy $186.12

Marketing 11th Edition
ISBN: 9780078028892 Rent till 12/21/12 $82.99 Buy: Used $136.99 Buy: New $151.99 E textbook- 180 day $85.25 Buy $109.00 Amazon Buy $149.17

Where do they sell their products? Are they only online or do they go through any brick and mortar retail channels?

All of their products are sold online with you having to visit their website to obtain your course materials. It seems as if they use UPS stating that when returning rented textbooks if needs to be returned by a certain date to them.

What types of advertising and promotions do they undertake?

Chegg has a lot of advertisement. They seem to be heavily focused in social media having Facebook and Twitter. They also have short commercials which also offer a coupon code. They also have good ads which they pop up at the top of your search.

How are they performing (sales, share, financially)?

They are not a publicly traded company so it is hard to get their financial information. They are mostly funded through venture capital but they have been called the Netflix of textbooks. They are seeing good growth in sales and there are a couple of articles that talk about how they are doing financially but no specific numbers.

Below are the frequencies of the student’s surveyed who purchase their e-textbooks and from which retailer. Purchased from Chegg | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
6.8% of students who purchase e-textbooks, purchase from Chegg, while 93.2% do not.

Purchased from CourseSmart | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 19 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.1 | | No | 215 | 91.9 | 91.9 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
8.1% of students who purchase e-textbooks, purchase from Coursesmart, while 91.9% do not.

Purchased from eCampus | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 18 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 | | No | 216 | 92.3 | 92.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
7.7% of students who purchase e-textbooks, purchase from e-campus, while 92.3% do not. Purchased from a retail publisher | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 12 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.1 | | No | 222 | 94.9 | 94.9 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
5.1% of students who purchase e-textbooks, purchase from a publisher site, while 94.9% do not. Purchased from Barnes & Noble | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 10 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3 | | No | 224 | 95.7 | 95.7 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
4.3% of students who purchase their e-textbooks, purchase from Barnes & Noble, while 95.7% do not.

Purchased from Amazon | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 21 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | | No | 213 | 91.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
9.0% of students who purchase e-textbooks purchase from Amazon, while 91.0% do not.

Purchased from Kno.com | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 1 | .4 | .4 | .4 | | No | 233 | 99.6 | 99.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
.4% of students who purchase e-textbooks, purchases from kno.com, while 99.6% do not.

Purchased from CollegeTextbook | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | | No | 227 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
3% of students who purchase e-textbooks, purchase from College Textbooks, while 97.0% do not.

Purchased from another retailer | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | | | | | | | |
6.8% of students purchase their e-textbooks from another course, while 93.2% do not.

The next set of charts shows the different textbooks retailers, and how frequent students chose to rent from them.

Rented from Chegg | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 6.8% rent from Chegg, while 93.2% do not.

Rented from CourseSmart | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 13 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.6 | | No | 221 | 94.4 | 94.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 5.6% rent from CourseSmart, while 94.4% do not.

Rented from eCampus | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | | No | 227 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 3% rent from eCampus, while 97.0% do not.

Rented from publisher retailer | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | | No | 227 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 3% rent from a publisher site, while 97.0% do not.

Rented from Barnes & Noble | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | No | 230 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 1.7% rent from Barnes & Noble, while 98.3% do not.

Rented from Amazon | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | No | 230 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 1.7% rent from Amazon, while 98.3% do not. Rented from CollegeTextbook | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 9 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.8 | | No | 225 | 96.2 | 96.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the students who rent e-textbooks, 3.8% rent from College Textbook, while 98.3% do not.

Rented from Kno.com | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | No | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
No students reportedly rent from kno.com Rented-Other | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | No | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | No students reportedly rent from any other retailers. |
Research Objective 4: What is the consumer behavior of students with regard to buying textbooks and e-textbooks? How much are they spending? Where are they buying? What factors contribute to their decision to buy a textbook or not?
Overall (Both e-textbook users & physical textbook users)

The number of textbooks the respondents have bought for the past year (All semesters they were enrolled) range from 5-12 textbooks. Due to the differences between the numbers of textbooks they purchased, the amount they spent ranges from $45 - $1200.

The places they bought their textbooks were Amazon.com, Ebay, Half.com, Barnes and Noble (nook app), school bookstore and Kno bookstore. Even one of the respondents purchased their textbook from an overseas location (India). Amazon.com sells textbooks at competitive price and offers free shipping.

The biggest and most important factor that was taken into consideration when choosing a textbook was the price of textbooks. The second important factor was availability of textbooks, in text, and resale value. Besides availability, the topic of the textbook assigned, importance of having the newest version, highlighter marks, ease of retaining information, compact ability (how many books can be carried around) and accessibility (whether e-textbooks are offered on multiple devices) were the main factors that lead to contribute to their textbook buying decision.

E-textbook Users

Majority of the respondents who have used e-textbook, purchase their textbooks mainly at Barnes & Noble Nook and secondly at Amazon.com or Kno Bookstore. The remainders of the books not available as e-textbooks are purchased through either Amazon.com or campus Bookstore. E-textbook users mainly concern compact availability (how many books can be carried around) because e-textbooks are more portable due to the fact that they are much lighter than physical textbooks. On the other hand, e-textbook users also consider that the price of e-textbooks are not really reasonable although they are slightly cheaper than physical textbooks since they cannot be returned and sold after using it (One-time use).

Physical Textbook Users

Majority of the respondents whom have never used e-textbook purchase their textbooks mainly through online mediaries such as Amazon.com and Half.com since they offer textbooks at a competitive price and ship them for free. Their main factor that contributes to their purchase decision making is the price of textbooks, so they usually first look for textbooks online sold at cheaper price and buy the rest of the missing textbooks with the campus bookstore.
Students were asked whether they rent or purchase their e-textbooks and then from which retailer. The next few charts show this.
Question 1 on the questionnaire asked students if they have purchased an e-textbook. Purchased and E-Textbook Last Year | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 86 | 36.8 | 36.8 | 36.8 | | No | 148 | 63.2 | 63.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Of the 234 students surveyed, 36.8% said they have purchased an e-textbook in the past year, while 63.2% did not purchase an e-textbook. From the previous charts of students choice of retailers whom they purchased from, Amazon with 9.0%, CourseSmart with 8.1%, E-campus with 7.7% and Chegg with 6.8% were the top four most popular retailers used by students. Students were then asked if they have rented an e-textbook in the past year, and then from which retailer. Rented an E-Textbook Last Year | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 50 | 21.4 | 21.4 | 21.4 | | No | 184 | 78.6 | 78.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Of the 234 students who were surveyed, 21.4% said they have rented an e-textbook from a retailer in the past year, while 78.6% did not rent. From the previous charts that show the frequent rental behaviors of students of various retailers, Chegg with 6.8%, CourseSmart with 5.6%, College Textbook with 3.8% and E-Campus with 3% were the top four most popular retailers used by students.
Students were then asked how many hours per week they use their textbooks, whether it was a hard or e-copy, rental or purchased. Descriptive Statistics – Average Number of Hours Students Used Their Textbooks | | N | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation | Hours used/week | 234 | 0 | 30 | 5.40 | 4.875 | Valid N (listwise) | 234 | | | | |
The table above shows the average number hours of week students use their books. The average of 234 respondents was 5.4 hours.
Question 6 on the questionnaire asked students their preference on the type of textbook they used. Did they prefer a physical or electronic copy? From the chart below we can see that only 20.9% of students surveyed prefer electronic books. A staggering 79.1% of the students preferred physical copies of the textbooks. It can be assumed that many students prefer a physical copy to actually be able to flip through the book more easily, highlight, make notes, and also easier use because technical issues could arise when trying to use an electronic copy. Electronic/Physical Preference of Textbook | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Electronic | 49 | 20.9 | 20.9 | 20.9 | | Physical | 185 | 79.1 | 79.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
The respondents were then asked the rank the important of the price, retailer, and condition of the textbook that would determine if they purchased or rented a physical copy of a textbook or not.
Below are the averages for each category students were asked to rank. Price was ranked the highest with an average of 7.36. This mean that not only is price the main determinant in decided to rent or purchase a text book, but was also ranked the highest out of all three categories. Condition of the textbook was the next highest determinant with an average of 5.15 and the location/retailer with a mean of 4.76. It is obvious that students first look at price, and when they find some prices that are the same or barely vary, they then make a decision on the condition of the book. Descriptive Statistics – Average Rating from Students of Criteria Used to Make Purchasing/Renting Decision | | N | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation | Imp.-price | 234 | 1 | 8 | 7.36 | 1.257 | Imp.-location | 234 | 1 | 8 | 4.76 | 2.004 | Imp.-condition | 234 | 1 | 8 | 5.15 | 1.853 | Valid N (listwise) | 234 | | | | |
Of the 234 students, 68.4% rated an 8 (very important) when it came to text price. From there it slowly decreased with 14.1% rated a 7, then 12.0% rating a 6. It is known that college students are short on money, so pricing is the most important and key decision when purchasing or renting a textbook. Important of Price | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | 2 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 2.1 | | 4 | 2 | .9 | .9 | 3.0 | | 5 | 6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 5.6 | | 6 | 28 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 17.5 | | 7 | 33 | 14.1 | 14.1 | 31.6 | | 8 | 160 | 68.4 | 68.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Students then had to rate the important of the retailer when deciding to rent or purchase a textbook. From the chart below, 22.6% of students rated a 6 on the scale, meaning the retailer is more on the important side. This could be because some retailers are cheaper than others, and because price is extremely important to students, this then also affects which retailer they will purchase or rent from. Students tend to go back to the same retailers that constantly offer lower prices than the competitors. Students want the cheapest, best price to save money. Some students ranked this factor lower though as well. 14.5% of students ranked importance of or retailer a 3, which means slightly more unimportant. Some students really do not have a preference or loyalty to a certain retailer. Even price becomes a factor in this. Students once again will search for many different types of retailers and simply make a decision based on price from there, so the retailer does not matter to them. Importance of Location | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | 2 | 21 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 15.8 | | 3 | 34 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 30.3 | | 4 | 25 | 10.7 | 10.7 | 41.0 | | 5 | 40 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 58.1 | | 6 | 53 | 22.6 | 22.6 | 80.8 | | 7 | 23 | 9.8 | 9.8 | 90.6 | | 8 | 22 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Students were then asked to lastly rate if the condition of the textbook was important when deciding to buy or rent a book. From the chart below we can see that 21.8% of students ranked a 6. 17.% of students then ranked a 5 and a 7 on the scale as a determinant to buy or rent a textbook. From the rank of a 5, the frequency slowly decreases. We can see that the condition of the book is somewhat important to the student when making a decision. It can be said that a student may want to purchase or rent for a book at a very cheap price, however does not want a beat up book, with lots of notes and highlighting, or water stains. Compared to price, the condition of the book is second when determining whether to buy or rent. Importance of Condition | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 8 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | | 2 | 14 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 9.4 | | 3 | 28 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 21.4 | | 4 | 31 | 13.2 | 13.2 | 34.6 | | 5 | 40 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 51.7 | | 6 | 51 | 21.8 | 21.8 | 73.5 | | 7 | 40 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 90.6 | | 8 | 22 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Question 8 of the questionnaire asked students approximately how much money they spent on all textbooks, physical or electronic during one semester of school. Most students answered spending about $200-$299 dollars with 31.6% The second biggest group of 26.9% spent on average $300-$399 on books. The third largest group of 15.4% spend about $100-$199 on textbooks per semester. The last three groups had frequencies of 10.3% for spending $400-$499, 8.5% for spending $500+ and then 7.3% for spending $99 and less. Amount Spent Last Semester | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | $0-$99 | 17 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 7.3 | | $100-$199 | 36 | 15.4 | 15.4 | 22.6 | | $200-$299 | 74 | 31.6 | 31.6 | 54.3 | | $300-$399 | 63 | 26.9 | 26.9 | 81.2 | | $400-$499 | 24 | 10.3 | 10.3 | 91.5 | | $500+ | 20 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Students then had to answer the question of where they currently purchase or rent their textbooks. From the charts below, the most common way students purchase or rent their books is from school and in person. We can see this because 66.2% of students chose this answer choice. This makes sense because the bookstore at school is close and convenient for many students. Prices are that bookstore vary, but are reasonable. The bookstore is also very well organized by major, class and teacher making it quick and easy to find books. The second most common was for student to purchase or rent books are through an off-campus book store. 57.3% of students purchase their books this way. We can assume that many students go online and compare prices between the many different retailers and have the books shipped to their house. Once again this is convenient, and allows the students to search for the best price and condition of the book. 23.1% of students go to an off-campus bookstore to find their books, and lastly 29.1% of students just order their books through the online bookstore. This service gives students the choice to order their books and simply pick them up at the bookstore next time they are on campus. Where textbooks are purchased/rented | | Responses | Percent of Cases | | N | Percent | | Q9 Freqa | School in person | 155 | 37.7% | 67.4% | | School online | 68 | 16.5% | 29.6% | | Off-campus person | 54 | 13.1% | 23.5% | | Off-campus online | 134 | 32.6% | 58.3% | Total | 411 | 100.0% | 178.7% |

Research Objective 5: How likely are students to rent our e-textbooks?

Through previous charts we can see that 36.8% of students purchased e-textbooks last year and 21.4% rented e-textbooks. Amazon with 9%, CourseSmart with 8.1% and E-Campus with 7.7% were the top three retailers students chose to purchase from. Then Chegg with 6.8%, CourseSmart with 5.6% and CollegeTextbook with 3.8% were the top three retailers students chose to rent from. These are the dominant and more popular retailers in the textbook industry due to their competitive prices and extra services they offer such as free shipping and different lengths of rental periods. We can be competitive with these retailers if we offer special services such as them, as well as extremely low prices. We would have the advantage of location and for students to students to download or pick up a portion of a textbook or an entire book at any time and be able to instantly access it.
It can be seen that on average students only use their textbooks for about 5.4 hours per week.

Descriptive Statistics – Average Amount of Hours Students Use Their Textbooks | | N | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation | Hours used/week | 234 | 0 | 30 | 5.40 | 4.875 | Valid N (listwise) | 234 | | | | |

As previously stated, 79.1% of students prefer a physical copy of a textbook versus and electronic. When students were asked the likeliness of them using our service, they had to rate on a scale of 1-8 (1=least likely, 8=most likely). Students answered with an average of 5.84. Descriptive Statistics – Average of Likeliness of Students Using Our Service | | N | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. Deviation | Likeliness of using our service | 234 | 1 | 8 | 5.84 | 1.925 | Valid N (listwise) | 234 | | | | |

We can remain competitive with other retailers because we have the advantage of offering even lower prices and more specific lengths of rental periods. Most retailers offer 30, 60, 90 day, and semester long rental or purchase periods. Students will have a variety of options to choose from, and will be able to customize this service to their busy lifestyle. Though most students prefer a physical copy of a textbook, students on average agreed that they would likely use this service. With the increase of technology and booming popularity of e-readers, this trend will soon catch on. With the availability to rent the book for a day, week, month or semester, students can actually save a lot more money depending on how much they use their textbooks.

Research Objective 6: Who should we target?
When asked how likely the respondent would be to use our service on a scale of 1 to 8 (1 = very unlikely, 8 = very likely) responses were very similar across both genders with males average response being 5.81 and females 5.86. There also was no significant difference between responses of males and females when they were asked "Have you purchased an e-textbook within the last year?" and "Have you rented an e-textbook within the last year." Therefore both genders should be marketed to equally.

The table below is the result of testing the hypothesis:
H0: There is no difference between males and females in likeliness to use our service.
H1: There is a difference between males and females in likeliness to use our service.
P value (.850) > level of significance (.05)
H1: False, meaning there is no difference between males and female in the likeliness to use our service.

Descriptives | Likeliness of using our service | | N | Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error | 95% Confidence Interval for Mean | Minimum | Maximum | | | | | | Lower Bound | Upper Bound | | | Male | 106 | 5.81 | 2.019 | .196 | 5.42 | 6.20 | 1 | 8 | Female | 128 | 5.86 | 1.852 | .164 | 5.54 | 6.18 | 1 | 8 | Total | 234 | 5.84 | 1.925 | .126 | 5.59 | 6.09 | 1 | 8 |

ANOVA | Likeliness of using our service | | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | Between Groups | .134 | 1 | .134 | .036 | .850 | Within Groups | 863.695 | 232 | 3.723 | | | Total | 863.829 | 233 | | | |
When we compare the answers to the first question about the likeliness to use our service across age we get a similar result with all age groups answering about the same. The table below represents the results of this comparison.
H0: There is no difference across age groups in likeliness to use our service.
H1: There is a difference across age groups in likeliness to use our service.
P value (.192) > level of significance (.05)
H1: False, meaning there is no relationship across age groups in likeliness to use our service.

Descriptives | Likeliness of using our service | | N | Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error | 95% Confidence Interval for Mean | Minimum | Maximum | | | | | | Lower Bound | Upper Bound | | | <18 | 7 | 5.86 | 1.952 | .738 | 4.05 | 7.66 | 2 | 8 | 19-25 | 168 | 5.97 | 1.790 | .138 | 5.70 | 6.24 | 1 | 8 | 26-30 | 36 | 5.53 | 2.236 | .373 | 4.77 | 6.28 | 1 | 8 | 31-35 | 12 | 6.00 | 1.758 | .508 | 4.88 | 7.12 | 2 | 8 | >35 | 11 | 4.64 | 2.730 | .823 | 2.80 | 6.47 | 1 | 8 | Total | 234 | 5.84 | 1.925 | .126 | 5.59 | 6.09 | 1 | 8 |

ANOVA | Likeliness of using our service | | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | Between Groups | 22.603 | 4 | 5.651 | 1.538 | .192 | Within Groups | 841.226 | 229 | 3.673 | | | Total | 863.829 | 233 | | | |

However, 68.6% of respondents who purchased an e-textbook within the last year are between the ages of 19-25, and 68% of respondents who rented an e-textbook last year are in that same age range. This age range should be targeted because they are most likely to rent or purchase an e-textbook again and should be the focus of our marketing plan.

Crosstab | | Purchased E-textbook Last Year | Total | | Yes | No | | Age | <18 | Count | 0 | 7 | 7 | | | % within Age | 0.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | | | % within Purchased E-textbook Last Year | 0.0% | 4.7% | 3.0% | | 19-25 | Count | 59 | 109 | 168 | | | % within Age | 35.1% | 64.9% | 100.0% | | | % within Purchased E-textbook Last Year | 68.6% | 73.6% | 71.8% | | 26-30 | Count | 17 | 19 | 36 | | | % within Age | 47.2% | 52.8% | 100.0% | | | % within Purchased E-textbook Last Year | 19.8% | 12.8% | 15.4% | | 31-35 | Count | 4 | 8 | 12 | | | % within Age | 33.3% | 66.7% | 100.0% | | | % within Purchased E-textbook Last Year | 4.7% | 5.4% | 5.1% | | >35 | Count | 6 | 5 | 11 | | | % within Age | 54.5% | 45.5% | 100.0% | | | % within Purchased E-textbook Last Year | 7.0% | 3.4% | 4.7% | Total | Count | 86 | 148 | 234 | | % within Age | 36.8% | 63.2% | 100.0% | | % within Purchased E-textbook Last Year | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |

Crosstab | | Rented E-textbook Last Year | Total | | Yes | No | | Age | <18 | Count | 0 | 7 | 7 | | | % within Age | 0.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | | | % within Rented E-textbook Last Year | 0.0% | 3.8% | 3.0% | | 19-25 | Count | 34 | 134 | 168 | | | % within Age | 20.2% | 79.8% | 100.0% | | | % within Rented E-textbook Last Year | 68.0% | 72.8% | 71.8% | | 26-30 | Count | 9 | 27 | 36 | | | % within Age | 25.0% | 75.0% | 100.0% | | | % within Rented E-textbook Last Year | 18.0% | 14.7% | 15.4% | | 31-35 | Count | 2 | 10 | 12 | | | % within Age | 16.7% | 83.3% | 100.0% | | | % within Rented E-textbook Last Year | 4.0% | 5.4% | 5.1% | | >35 | Count | 5 | 6 | 11 | | | % within Age | 45.5% | 54.5% | 100.0% | | | % within Rented E-textbook Last Year | 10.0% | 3.3% | 4.7% | Total | Count | 50 | 184 | 234 | | % within Age | 21.4% | 78.6% | 100.0% | | % within Rented E-textbook Last Year | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
Research Objective 7: What are the advantages and disadvantages of our e-textbooks?
The e-book company is all about an effective service that will allow students the ability to rent textbooks, depending on which method of renting provided by e-book is more beneficial for each individual student. Some advantages of our e-book service we provide would be the low affordable prices offered. Students tend to have lower income jobs while attending school full time and it is difficult to pay for some of the overpriced books required for the course. Given that textbooks are so expensive and often times they are not being used throughout the entire course, being able to rent your textbook for a short time period and or being able to rent only portions of the textbook, as opposed to the entire book, will make sure students are receiving a good deal and not feel like their money is being wasted away in a textbook that is only partially being used. Always having the option to have an e-book near you on campus makes the product readily available to you at all times especially in the convenience of your personal Ipad, computer, or Kindle. Given that technology has had such a large impact on our generation, it makes sense to offer a reliable service for obtaining your schoolbooks at your own expediency. Simply being able to walk up to a kiosk and get the information you need is as easy as buying a snack from the vending machine; suitable and expedient for the everyday student attending classes. E-books makes storage more convenient than carrying those heavy books from one class to the next. For those students who spend less time on campus and prefer to take more online classes, e-book services offers its online website available to you 24/7. Having an e-book service available to you at any time needed ensures that you will be able to access any book you need at any time you need it, whether it be weeks in advance or last minute.

Some disadvantages e-book rental services may have would around exam periods. If you are attending classes on campus and waited last minute to order your book or portion of the book, you may encounter some long waiting lines at the kiosks. If a student is impatient and has waited last minute being able to take advantage of the convenient kiosks e-books may leave you without a book available for the times you have not rented. It will be frustrating trying to prepare for a test without having the required book to study and do research. Since e-books are dependent on other equipments, certain hardware or software may affect it. As much as we love technology, that often tends to fail and have issues as well. Technology issue can cause books to not properly download or open. These technology issues can affect our e-books website and or our e-books kiosks resulting in the “temporarily out of order” signs. For those students that like to purchase the entire hard copy of their books and sell them once they have finished the course, they may not like the e-books service. Some students may feel reading from a computer or device lacks the familiarity and comfort of reading from a book. Paper has much more lifespan than most digital forms of storage. The e-book service requires you to return the book after purchased therefore you will not have a book to sell back or keep forever.

Question 6 asks students if they prefer a physical or electronic cop of the book. From the chart below we can see that 79.1% preferred having a physical copy of the textbook as opposed to the 20.9% that preferred having an electronic version. E/P preference | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Electronic | 49 | 20.9 | 20.9 | 20.9 | | Physical | 185 | 79.1 | 79.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
In question 11, students were given a list of some advantages of our service and were asked to choose three advantages in which they saw the most important. 88.5% of students agree that the e-textbooks low prices would be an advantage. 52.6% of students agreed then that having the e-textbook service available 24.7 would be a great advantage as well. Students are always on crazy schedules and are studying at all times of the days, being able to go and rent at absolutely any time is a great advantage. 41.5% of students believed being about to rent the e-textbook for a short amount of time would be a good advantage. Students do not like paying high prices for text books, so being able to pay a very small price, and use the book for exactly what you need and then return is beneficial, especially to the students bank account. 39.7% felt that being able to only rent portions of the textbook would be an advantage. Once again this would be cheaper because you only need small sections, not the whole textbook. Low Price Advantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 207 | 88.5 | 88.5 | 88.5 | | No | 27 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Being Able to Rent for Short Times Advantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 97 | 41.5 | 41.5 | 41.5 | | No | 137 | 58.5 | 58.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Being Able to Only Rent Portions of Book Advantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 93 | 39.7 | 39.7 | 39.7 | | No | 141 | 60.3 | 60.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Having Convenient Location on Campus Advantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 77 | 32.9 | 32.9 | 32.9 | | No | 157 | 67.1 | 67.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Having Just to Walk to Kiosk or Go Online Advantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 41 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 17.5 | | No | 193 | 82.5 | 82.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Having E-Textbook Available 24/7 Advantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 123 | 52.6 | 52.6 | 52.6 | | No | 111 | 47.4 | 47.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Other Advantages | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | No | 230 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
After choosing what they thought were some advantages to our service, students were then asked to choose some disadvantages from a list provided in question 12. The main disadvantage found by students with 70.9% was the possibility that technology issues such as books not being able to download and open properly, or the kiosk being out of order. 61.5% of students also said that not having the book available for the times they do not rent would be a disadvantage. Though many students tend to not use their books, just the fact of having available whenever they need it in physical form is comforting to know. Another 50.4% of students also found that waiting in long lines around exam periods would be a disadvantage. Many students are on tight schedules and do not have time for waiting in long lines. Long Waiting Lines Around Exam Periods Disadvantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 118 | 50.4 | 50.4 | 50.4 | | No | 116 | 49.6 | 49.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Not Having Book Available During Times Students Do Not Rent Disadvantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 144 | 61.5 | 61.5 | 61.5 | | No | 90 | 38.5 | 38.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Technology Issue Disadvantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 166 | 70.9 | 70.9 | 70.9 | | No | 68 | 29.1 | 29.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Not Being Able to Resell Disadvantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 59 | 25.2 | 25.2 | 25.2 | | No | 175 | 74.8 | 74.8 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Not Being Able to Keep Disadvantage | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 79 | 33.8 | 33.8 | 33.8 | | No | 155 | 66.2 | 66.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Other Disadvantages | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Research Objective 8: Would students find any use in being able to rent the textbook for a day? A week? Do they prefer having it for a semester?
Students were asked on average how many hours per week they use their textbooks. Through an analysis test the average number of hours students use their books weekly was 5.4 hours. We had also found that price was the most important factor for students when deciding to purchase or rent a textbook, and then condition of the book and finally the location. Students are all about saving money, time, and convenience. The cheaper the book the more it draws them in. Books are the last thing students want to purchase and do not want to go far or wait long to get their books. Students also like to spend the least amount of time possible study, however when they do, they really use out their books. It was also found that most students on average spend about $200-$299 per semester on books. The questionnaire then students if they were to use our service, how long they would want to rent for. The chart below shows this: Length Desired for Textbook Rental | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Less than a day | 10 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3 | | One day | 8 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 7.7 | | 2-3 days | 48 | 20.5 | 20.5 | 28.2 | | One week | 34 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 42.7 | | One month | 13 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 48.3 | | Entire semester | 121 | 51.7 | 51.7 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

From the chart we can see that with 51.7% students would prefer to rent a textbook for an entire semester. Students probably want to rent for an entire semester because of the convenience to use the book absolutely whenever they needed for a paper, project or tests. They would not need to worry about waiting in long lines to rent during exam periods, or worrying about having to go and rent it. They would just download once and use it multiple times per semester. 20.5% of students then said they would prefer to rent for only 2-3 days at a time. For many this would be convenient because it would save them more money because they are not renting for long periods. With how many hours’ students use their books weekly, and how price is the most important factor for them in deciding to rent or purchase, students definitely prefer being able to rent for a semester, however we should offer the option to rent for a few days as well.

We then ran an ANOVA test of question 13, how long students wish to rent for, against gender and age to see if there was any relationship.

ANOVA: Gender and Length Desired for Rental * H0: There is not relationship between Gender and Length Desired for Rental * H1: There is a relationship between Gender and Length Desired for Rental * A level of significance of .05 is less than .205 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-Square. Therefore H0 is true and there is no relationship between gender and length desired for rental

Descriptives | Length desired | | N | Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error | 95% Confidence Interval for Mean | Minimum | Maximum | | | | | | Lower Bound | Upper Bound | | | Male | 106 | 4.55 | 1.580 | .154 | 4.24 | 4.85 | 1 | 6 | Female | 128 | 4.80 | 1.511 | .134 | 4.54 | 5.07 | 1 | 6 | Total | 234 | 4.69 | 1.545 | .101 | 4.49 | 4.89 | 1 | 6 |

ANOVA | Length desired | | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | Between Groups | 3.845 | 1 | 3.845 | 1.615 | .205 | Within Groups | 552.381 | 232 | 2.381 | | | Total | 556.226 | 233 | | | |

ANOVA: Age and Length Desired for Rental * H0: There is no relationship between Age and Length Desired for Rental * H1: There is a relationship between Age and Length Desired for Rental * A level of significance of .05 is less than .711 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-Square. Therefore H0 is true and there is no relationship between Age and Length Desired for Rental.

Descriptives | Length desired | | N | Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error | 95% Confidence Interval for Mean | Minimum | Maximum | | | | | | Lower Bound | Upper Bound | | | <18 | 7 | 4.43 | 1.272 | .481 | 3.25 | 5.61 | 3 | 6 | 19-25 | 168 | 4.65 | 1.548 | .119 | 4.41 | 4.88 | 1 | 6 | 26-30 | 36 | 4.67 | 1.690 | .282 | 4.09 | 5.24 | 1 | 6 | 31-35 | 12 | 4.92 | 1.505 | .434 | 3.96 | 5.87 | 2 | 6 | >35 | 11 | 5.27 | 1.272 | .384 | 4.42 | 6.13 | 3 | 6 | Total | 234 | 4.69 | 1.545 | .101 | 4.49 | 4.89 | 1 | 6 |

ANOVA | Length desired | | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | Between Groups | 5.134 | 4 | 1.283 | .533 | .711 | Within Groups | 551.093 | 229 | 2.407 | | | Total | 556.226 | 233 | | | |

Research Objective 9: How should we design our marketing mix (product, place, promotion, price)?

Product
The product that we are selling or better put, renting are electronic books. As we discussed early and shown in the graph below in January 2012 about 19% of adults in the US owned a tablet. We can see from the chart below tablets and e-readers are still in the beginning phases of the product life cycle, as the popularity if tablets and e-readers grow so will the popularity of e-books as a direct result.

When we asked the respondents if they purchased an e-book in the past year 36.8% responded that they have. Seeing that only 19% of the population has a tablet or e-reader this shows that the respondents would be much more likely to use e-textbooks. 21.4% of respondents have also reported to have rented and e-book in the past year. However, only 20.9% of respondents say they prefer the electronic copy over a physical copy of the book.
As tablets and e-readers become more common and a higher percentage of the population owns one or the other, the numbers for those who have purchased/renter an e-book in the past year will continue to rise as well as those who prefer e-books over a physical book.

Price
When we asked the respondents to rank the following items on a scale of 1 to 8, 8 being the most important, how important it is for them to find text books at the lowest price, location of retailer, or condition of textbook, we found that the single most important factor to the respondents is finding the lowest price. Mean | | Price | Location | Condition | N | Valid | 234 | 234 | 234 | | Missing | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mean | 7.36 | 4.76 | 5.15 |

Frequency | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | 2 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 2.1 | | 4 | 2 | .9 | .9 | 3.0 | | 5 | 6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 5.6 | | 6 | 28 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 17.5 | | 7 | 33 | 14.1 | 14.1 | 31.6 | | 8 | 160 | 68.4 | 68.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

68.4% of respondents said finding the lowest price was the most important factor. The mean, for the importance of finding the lowest price is a very 7.36. It is important that our service is competitively priced so that we can provide the best value at the lowest costs.
We found that last semester, the average respondent spent between $200-$299 on textbooks and they would be willing to pay $5.17 in order to rent an e-textbook for a day. Based on that information, if we were to charge $5 per day to rent an e-textbook and the average fulltime student with 12 units were to rent a book 10 times for each class that would be a total of 40 rentals during the semester, for a total expense of $200. Even though they would be spending the same amount of money per semester, but because they would not have to spend that amount all at once, but instead spend a little here and a little there over a 4 month period they would not feel as though they are spending as much of money on textbooks each semester. We could also sell prepaid book rentals where the student would pay $45 for ten 1 day rentals that can be redeemed at any time to rent a book. Thus making it cheaper for the students to rent books and we can better gage how much repeat business we will receive.
Place
When asked where the respondents currently purchase/rent their text books we found that the 67.4% of the people interviewed bought them at school in person while 58.3% bought them off-campus online. Together those two categories make up over 70% of all respondents.

Where Students Currently Rent/Purchase Textbooks | | Responses | Percent of Cases | | N | Percent | | Q9 Freqa | School in person | 155 | 37.7% | 67.4% | | School online | 68 | 16.5% | 29.6% | | Off-campus person | 54 | 13.1% | 23.5% | | Off-campus online | 134 | 32.6% | 58.3% | Total | 411 | 100.0% | 178.7% | a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1. |
However when asked, assuming you would rent from this service, which way would you be most likely to rent an e-textbook? We found that a large majority, 67.1% of people would prefer to rent e-textbooks online. Therefore it would be important for us to have a strong online presence in order for us to better target our audience.

Method of Rent | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Kiosks | 34 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 14.5 | | Online website | 157 | 67.1 | 67.1 | 81.6 | | Phone app | 43 | 18.4 | 18.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

We found that the best place to have electronic kiosks on college campuses would be near vending machines because they are typically located in convenient, easy to access locations on campus. Because vending machines are located in many locations all over campus, the kiosks should be as well to make the renting of the e-textbook as convenient as possible for the students to get the book they need. Kiosk placement | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Near vending machines | 31 | 13.2 | 42.5 | 42.5 | | Near elevators | 17 | 7.3 | 23.3 | 65.8 | | Student Union | 21 | 9.0 | 28.8 | 94.5 | | Other | 4 | 1.7 | 5.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 73 | 31.2 | 100.0 | | Missing | System | 161 | 68.8 | | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | | |

Promotion
Respondents were asked which would be the best method to reach and inform them about the e-textbook service. Approximately 67.9% of respondents preferred email, 50.4% preferred Facebook or social media ads, and 45.7% of respondents preferred university site ads.

Best Media | | Responses | Percent of Cases | | N | Percent | | Best Media | University site ads | 107 | 16.6% | 45.7% | | Flyers | 83 | 12.9% | 35.5% | | Ad at orientation | 72 | 11.2% | 30.8% | | Email ads | 159 | 24.7% | 67.9% | | TV ads | 26 | 4.0% | 11.1% | | Radio ads | 4 | 0.6% | 1.7% | | Online news ads | 6 | 0.9% | 2.6% | | H-Copy newspaper ads | 6 | 0.9% | 2.6% | | Online magazine ads | 4 | 0.6% | 1.7% | | H-Copy magazine ads | 2 | 0.3% | 0.9% | | Student web ads | 56 | 8.7% | 23.9% | | Facebook ads | 118 | 18.3% | 50.4% | | Other ads | 1 | 0.2% | 0.4% | Total | 644 | 100.0% | 275.2% | |
Most of the prospective students preferred to be reached via the internet in forms of ads or email. The most effective way to reach them would be via email because such a large number of them choose that to be there preferred method. Emails should be sent to them starting 3 weeks before each semester begins, showing the student how much money they can save using Overbooked versus the buying or renting the book for a semester. We will also have a feature on our website in which each student can upload his or her schedule for the semester and our system will automatically find them the correct book they need for their classes.
Even though it seems most students would prefer to rent the e-textbook online, it is important to also have kiosks on campus so all students can see that we have a presence on campus. By creating an online presence through emails and ads, by having the kiosks on campus we will have a larger exposure than we would have otherwise.
Research Objective 10: Do the answers to the above quantitative objectives vary by demographics?
Below we compared a variety of variables to see if there were any relationships that could be considered to determine our target market. Two of the following were considered significant relationships (Age and Electronic or Physical preference), and (Gender and Electronic or Physical preference). The rest were considered insignificant.
Crosstab: Gender & Rented e-textbooks last year * H0: There is no relationship between Gender and Renting an e-textbook last year. * H1: There is a relationship between Gender and Renting an e-textbook last year. * A level of significance of .05 is less than a .597 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-square. Therefore, H0 is true and there is no relationship between Gender and Renting an e-textbook last year. Gender * Rented-last year Crosstabulation | Count | | Rented-last year | Total | | Yes | No | | Gender | Male | 21 | 85 | 106 | | Female | 29 | 99 | 128 | Total | 50 | 184 | 234 |

Chi-Square Tests | | Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | Exact Sig. (2-sided) | Exact Sig. (1-sided) | Pearson Chi-Square | .279a | 1 | .597 | | | Continuity Correctionb | .136 | 1 | .713 | | | Likelihood Ratio | .280 | 1 | .596 | | | Fisher's Exact Test | | | | .634 | .357 | Linear-by-Linear Association | .278 | 1 | .598 | | | N of Valid Cases | 234 | | | | | a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 22.65. | b. Computed only for a 2x2 table |
Crosstab: Current Employment & Rented Ebook last year * H0: There is no relationship between Employment status and Renting an e-textbook last year. * H1: There is a relationship between Employment status and Renting an e-textbook last year. * A level of significance of .05 is less than a .676 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-square. Therefore, H0 is true and there is no relationship between Employment status and Renting an e-textbook last year. Rented-last year * Current employment Crosstabulation | Count | | Current employment | Total | | Part-time | Full-time | Unemployed | | Rented-last year | Yes | 27 | 12 | 11 | 50 | | No | 88 | 55 | 41 | 184 | Total | 115 | 67 | 52 | 234 |

Chi-Square Tests | | Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | Pearson Chi-Square | .783a | 2 | .676 | Likelihood Ratio | .797 | 2 | .671 | Linear-by-Linear Association | .255 | 1 | .614 | N of Valid Cases | 234 | | | |
ANOVA: Age and E/P Preference * H0: There is no relationship between Age and E/P Preference * H1: There is a relationship between Age and E/P Preference * A level of significance of .05 is greater than a .032 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-square. Therefore, H1 is true and there is a relationship between age and E/P Preference.

ANOVA | Age | | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | Between Groups | 3.119 | 1 | 3.119 | 4.660 | .032 | Within Groups | 155.275 | 232 | .669 | | | Total | 158.393 | 233 | | | |

ANOVA: Age & Purchased E-Textbooks Last year * H0: There is no relationship between Age and Purchasing an e-textbook last year. * H1: There is a relationship between Age and Purchasing an e-textbook last year. * A level of significance of .05 is less than a .061 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-square. Therefore, H0 is true and there is no relationship between Age and Purchasing an e-textbook last year. ANOVA | Age | | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. | Between Groups | 2.386 | 1 | 2.386 | 3.549 | .061 | Within Groups | 156.007 | 232 | .672 | | | Total | 158.393 | 233 | | | |

Crosstab: Current Employment & E/P Preference * H0: There is no relationship between Employment and E/P Preference. * H1: There is a relationship between Employment and E/P Preference. * A level of significance of .05 is less than a .157 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-square. Therefore, H0 is true and there is no relationship between Employment and E/P Preference.

Electronic/Physical preference * Current employment Crosstabulation | Count | | Current employment | Total | | Part-time | Full-time | Unemployed | | E/P preference | Electronic | 26 | 17 | 6 | 49 | | Physical | 89 | 50 | 46 | 185 | Total | 115 | 67 | 52 | 234 |

Chi-Square Tests | | Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | Pearson Chi-Square | 3.765a | 2 | .152 | Likelihood Ratio | 4.134 | 2 | .127 | Linear-by-Linear Association | 1.858 | 1 | .173 | N of Valid Cases | 234 | | | |
Crosstab: Gender & E/P Preference * H0: There is no relationship between gender and E/P Preference * H1: There is a relationship between gender and E/P Preference * A level of significance of .05 is greater than a .012 p-value for Pearson’s Chi-square. Therefore, H1 is true and there is a relationship between gender and E/P Preference. * Males prefer electronic copies (30 to 76) while Females prefer electronic copies (19 to 109).

Electronic/Physical preference * Gender Crosstabulation | Count | | Gender | Total | | Male | Female | | E/P preference | Electronic | 30 | 19 | 49 | | Physical | 76 | 109 | 185 | Total | 106 | 128 | 234 |

Chi-Square Tests | | Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | Exact Sig. (2-sided) | Exact Sig. (1-sided) | Pearson Chi-Square | 6.344a | 1 | .012 | | | Continuity Correctionb | 5.557 | 1 | .018 | | | Likelihood Ratio | 6.337 | 1 | .012 | | | Fisher's Exact Test | | | | .015 | .009 | Linear-by-Linear Association | 6.316 | 1 | .012 | | | N of Valid Cases | 234 | | | | | a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 22.20. | b. Computed only for a 2x2 table |

Conclusion
Based on the research conducted, we have decided to launch the Over-Booked e-textbook service and develop a detailed marketing strategy. From the data, there has proven to be many successful factors of this service, however there are some obstacles that we need to overcome through effective marketing strategies. The marketing strategy will be based on bringing in students/consumers and get them to start using this new service and way to rent e-textbooks. This service will allow students to rent and download e-textbooks onto any electronic device almost instantly and at any time the student desires. The student will have a choice of renting either an entire textbook or only certain portions. The student will also have the option to rent a book for an entire semester or for only a few days. Students will be able to download this via internet or through kiosks strategically placed around the campus. The above detailed findings allowed us to determine a target market, if students purchase or rent e-textbooks, if they would be interested in a service like this, as well as other beneficial information to help us in effectively launching this new service at university campuses.
The Over-Booked e-textbook service offers many advantages that we can focus on during our marketing campaign. Students are short on time and money and are always looking for ways to save money and make things easier for themselves. This service would price these rentals against the competitors, as well as offer rental periods that fit the student’s needs. This would gain the attention of student’s for they can save more money and access the textbook at times convenient for them or when they need it most. This service would be available 24/7 due to the fact that you can download it via internet or kiosks placed around campus. Once again this makes it more convenient and easier for students to gain access to information they need right away. Though more students prefer a physical copy of the book versus an electronic copy, if we offer incentives such as those listed above, students may be more inclined to rent e-textbooks. They would not need to pay or wait for shipping or physical books. According to our findings, there is an increase in electronic devices that are able to host e-textbooks and this trend is slowly climbing. We see this trend through the rentals and purchases of e-textbooks through online retailers such as Chegg and Amazon. These numbers are low but are growing. We have the chance to cater to this niche market and need to do so effectively if we want our service to be successful. With most students on average spending $200-$299 on books per semester, we have the opportunity to save them money and draw in more students with reduced prices. Price is the most important factor to students when decided to purchase or rent a book. This is a factor we will also need to concentrate on during our marketing campaign and stress the fact that our service saves the student money.
There are several obstacles that need to be addressed when launching this service. Many students prefer physical textbooks versus an electronic copy. Our efforts need to focus on the fact that this service actually saves the student time and money, and is actually more convenient for them during their busy and hectic schedules. Many students also do not own electronic devices that hold e-textbooks. This is an obstacle we need to consider as well. The number of owners for electronics devices such as e-readers is growing; however it is for people in an older age group. When asked the likeliness of using our service, students above a 5 likeliness for using our service. This is good, but need a stronger number before launch. We will need to do a lot of marketing before launching to gain people’s attention. Many students also just go to the on campus book store or order their books from a popular online retailer. We need to market ourselves in a way and promote our service and options that students will favor.
This new textbook service will over all benefit the busy college student. It gives student’s more options when it comes to their study habits and most importantly allows them to save money. Basically, this service will cater to the needs of college students when it comes to the hard pressed issue of purchasing or renting textbooks. We will need to focus our marketing efforts through email and university sites to be successful. The success of this service will not only benefit college students but create more profits for the school and book retailers.

Appendices
Frequency Distributions 1. In the past year have you purchased an e-textbook? (Please check one)

Pchd.-last year | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 86 | 36.8 | 36.8 | 36.8 | | No | 148 | 63.2 | 63.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

2. If you purchased one or more e-textbooks, which retailer(s) did you use? (Please check all that apply) Pchd.-Chegg | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-Coursesmart | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 19 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.1 | | No | 215 | 91.9 | 91.9 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-Chegg | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-eCampus | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 18 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 | | No | 216 | 92.3 | 92.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-publisher | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 12 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.1 | | No | 222 | 94.9 | 94.9 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-B&N | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 10 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3 | | No | 224 | 95.7 | 95.7 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-Amazon | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 21 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | | No | 213 | 91.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-Kno | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 1 | .4 | .4 | .4 | | No | 233 | 99.6 | 99.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-CollegeTextbook | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | | No | 227 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Pchd.-other | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | | | | | | | |

3. In the past year, have you rented an e-textbook? (Please check one) Rented-last year | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 50 | 21.4 | 21.4 | 21.4 | | No | 184 | 78.6 | 78.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

4. If you rented an e-textbook, which retailer did you use? (Please check all that apply) Rented-Chegg | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-CourseSmart | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 13 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.6 | | No | 221 | 94.4 | 94.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-eCampus | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | | No | 227 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-publisher | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | | No | 227 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-B&N | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | No | 230 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-Amazon | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | No | 230 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-Kno.com | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | No | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |

Rented-College Textbook | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 9 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.8 | | No | 225 | 96.2 | 96.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Rented-Other | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | No | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |

5. Upon purchase or rental of any textbooks (hard copy or e-copy),on average, how many hours a week do you normally use it? Hours used/week | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 0 | 6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | | 1 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 3.0 | | 1 | 25 | 10.7 | 10.7 | 13.7 | | 2 | 41 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 31.2 | | 3 | 28 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 43.2 | | 4 | 33 | 14.1 | 14.1 | 57.3 | | 5 | 22 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 66.7 | | 6 | 18 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 74.4 | | 7 | 3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 75.6 | | 8 | 11 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 80.3 | | 9 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 80.8 | | 10 | 23 | 9.8 | 9.8 | 90.6 | | 11 | 2 | .9 | .9 | 91.5 | | 12 | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 93.2 | | 13 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 93.6 | | 15 | 6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 96.2 | | 20 | 5 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 98.3 | | 22 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 98.7 | | 25 | 2 | .9 | .9 | 99.6 | | 30 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | | | | | | | |

6. Do you prefer to have a physical copy of a textbook or an electronic version? (Please check one) E/P preference | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Electronic | 49 | 20.9 | 20.9 | 20.9 | | Physical | 185 | 79.1 | 79.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

7. For this next question, please rate, on the scale from 1 to8, how important each factor is in your decision to rent or purchase textbooks (Hardcopy). Imp.-price | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | 2 | 1 | .4 | .4 | 2.1 | | 4 | 2 | .9 | .9 | 3.0 | | 5 | 6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 5.6 | | 6 | 28 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 17.5 | | 7 | 33 | 14.1 | 14.1 | 31.6 | | 8 | 160 | 68.4 | 68.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Imp.-location | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | 2 | 21 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 15.8 | | 3 | 34 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 30.3 | | 4 | 25 | 10.7 | 10.7 | 41.0 | | 5 | 40 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 58.1 | | 6 | 53 | 22.6 | 22.6 | 80.8 | | 7 | 23 | 9.8 | 9.8 | 90.6 | | 8 | 22 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Imp.-condition | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 8 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | | 2 | 14 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 9.4 | | 3 | 28 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 21.4 | | 4 | 31 | 13.2 | 13.2 | 34.6 | | 5 | 40 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 51.7 | | 6 | 51 | 21.8 | 21.8 | 73.5 | | 7 | 40 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 90.6 | | 8 | 22 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

8. In the past semester, approximately how much money did you spend on all textbooks (e-textbooks and/or hard copy textbooks)? (Please check one) Amount Spent Last Semester | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | $0-$99 | 17 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 7.3 | | $100-$199 | 36 | 15.4 | 15.4 | 22.6 | | $200-$299 | 74 | 31.6 | 31.6 | 54.3 | | $300-$399 | 63 | 26.9 | 26.9 | 81.2 | | $400-$499 | 24 | 10.3 | 10.3 | 91.5 | | $500+ | 20 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

9. Where do you currently purchase/rent your hard copy textbooks?(Please check all that apply) School in person | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 155 | 66.2 | 66.2 | 66.2 | | No | 79 | 33.8 | 33.8 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

School online | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 68 | 29.1 | 29.1 | 29.1 | | No | 166 | 70.9 | 70.9 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Off-campus person | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 54 | 23.1 | 23.1 | 23.1 | | No | 180 | 76.9 | 76.9 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Off-campus online | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 134 | 57.3 | 57.3 | 57.3 | | No | 100 | 42.7 | 42.7 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

10. For the following questions, please first read this paragraph:
A company is developing a service that allows students to rent quick and easy access to desired textbooks through an e-textbook service. Students may rent portions, or whole copies of e-textbooks, for limited timeframes for viewing on smartphones, tablets, and computers, thus reducing the overall price and eliminating the need for physical copies. This service would install a kiosk near your school, similar to current RedBox kiosks, as well as provide an online site and app for renting and downloading to your computer, phone or tablet.

If this service was available, how likely would you be to use it? Please circle a number that corresponds to your level of likelihood. Likeliness of using our service | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | 1 | 9 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.8 | | 2 | 13 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 9.4 | | 3 | 9 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 13.2 | | 4 | 17 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 20.5 | | 5 | 31 | 13.2 | 13.2 | 33.8 | | 6 | 57 | 24.4 | 24.4 | 58.1 | | 7 | 45 | 19.2 | 19.2 | 77.4 | | 8 | 53 | 22.6 | 22.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

11. Regardless of your answer above, what do you see as some advantages of this service? (Please check up to 3) Price adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 207 | 88.5 | 88.5 | 88.5 | | No | 27 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Short time adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 97 | 41.5 | 41.5 | 41.5 | | No | 137 | 58.5 | 58.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Portions adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 93 | 39.7 | 39.7 | 39.7 | | No | 141 | 60.3 | 60.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Location adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 77 | 32.9 | 32.9 | 32.9 | | No | 157 | 67.1 | 67.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Walk adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 41 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 17.5 | | No | 193 | 82.5 | 82.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Availability adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 123 | 52.6 | 52.6 | 52.6 | | No | 111 | 47.4 | 47.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Other adv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | | No | 230 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

12. Regardless of your answer above, what do you see as some of the disadvantages of this e-book rental service? (Please check up to 3) Peak time disadv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 118 | 50.4 | 50.4 | 50.4 | | No | 116 | 49.6 | 49.6 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Avail. disadv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 144 | 61.5 | 61.5 | 61.5 | | No | 90 | 38.5 | 38.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Tech disadv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 166 | 70.9 | 70.9 | 70.9 | | No | 68 | 29.1 | 29.1 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

No resell disadv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 59 | 25.2 | 25.2 | 25.2 | | No | 175 | 74.8 | 74.8 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Not keep disadv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 79 | 33.8 | 33.8 | 33.8 | | No | 155 | 66.2 | 66.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

Other disadv | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Yes | 16 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.8 | | No | 218 | 93.2 | 93.2 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

13. Assuming you rented from this service, for how long would you want to rent an e-textbook? (Check one) Length desired | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Less than a day | 10 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.3 | | One day | 8 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 7.7 | | 2-3 days | 48 | 20.5 | 20.5 | 28.2 | | One week | 34 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 42.7 | | One month | 13 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 48.3 | | Entire semester | 121 | 51.7 | 51.7 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

14. Assuming you rented from this service, which would you be most likely to use to rent e-textbooks?
(Please check one) Method of rent | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Kiosks | 34 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 14.5 | | Online website | 157 | 67.1 | 67.1 | 81.6 | | Phone app | 43 | 18.4 | 18.4 | 100.0 | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |

15. Where would be the best placement for the e-textbook kiosks? (Please check one). Kiosk placement | | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | Valid | Near vending machines | 31 | 13.2 | 42.5 | 42.5 | | Near elevators | 17 | 7.3 | 23.3 | 65.8 | | Student Union | 21 | 9.0 | 28.8 | 94.5 | | Other | 4 | 1.7 | 5.5 | 100.0 | | Total | 73 | 31.2 | 100.0 | | Missing | System | 161 | 68.8 | | | Total | 234 | 100.0 | | |

16. In terms of informing you about this e-textbook service, which of the following would be the best way to reach you? (Please check up to 3)

Best Media | | Responses | Percent of Cases | | N | Percent | | Best Media | University site ads | 107 | 16.6% | 45.7% | | Flyers | 83 | 12.9% | 35.5% | | Ad at orientation | 72 | 11.2% | 30.8% | | Email ads | 159 | 24.7% | 67.9% | | TV ads | 26 | 4.0% | 11.1% | | Radio ads | 4 | 0.6% | 1.7% | | Online news ads | 6 | 0.9% | 2.6% | | H-Copy newspaper ads | 6 | 0.9% | 2.6% | | Online magazine ads | 4 | 0.6% | 1.7% | | H-Copy magazine ads | 2 | 0.3% | 0.9% | | Student web ads | 56 | 8.7% | 23.9% | | Facebook ads | 118 | 18.3% | 50.4% | | Other ads | 1 | 0.2% | 0.4% | Total | 644 | 100.0% | 275.2% |

Over-Booked Questionnaire: Instructions for Administrators

Administrator: Please read the Intro and Screener on this page, if they pass the Intro and Screener, please hand them the questionnaire to fill out.

Intro

Hello, My name is _______________________________. I am a student at Cal State Fullerton. We are currently conducting a survey on textbooks and I would like to hear a few of your ideas. It will take about 5-10 minutes to complete. Would you like to participate?

___Yes Please continue.
___No Thank them for their time and move on

Screener
a) Are you currently a college or university student?
___Yes Please continue
___No Thank them for their time and move on

b) Do you have access to a computer or tablet? (Please check one)
___Yes Please hand them the questionnaire
___No Thank them for their time and move on

Questionnaire

1. In the past year, have you purchased an e-textbook? (Please check one)
___Yes-------Please continue
___No-------Please skip to Question 3

2. If you purchased one or more e-textbooks, which retailer(s) did you use? (Please check all that apply)
___Chegg ___Barnes & Noble (.com)
___CourseSmart ___Amazon.com
___eCampus.com ___Kno.com
___Publisher site ___College Textbook Rentals
___Other, please state:________________________

3. In the past year, have you rented an e-textbook? (Please check one)
___Yes-------Please continue
___No--------Please skip to Question 5

4. If you rented an e-textbook, which retailer did you use? (Please check all that apply)
___Chegg ___Barnes & Noble (.com)
___CourseSmart ___Amazon.com
___eCampus.com ___Kno.com
___Publisher site ___College Textbook Rentals
___Other, please state:________________________

5. Upon purchase or rental of any textbooks (hard copy or e-copy), on average, how many hours a week do you normally use it?
Please fill in number: _________ hours per week

6. Do you prefer to have a physical copy of a textbook or an electronic version? (Please check one)
___Electronic (Digital)
___Physical (Hard Copy)

7. For this next question, please rate, on the scale from 1 to 8, how important each factor is in your decision to rent or purchase textbooks (Hardcopy).

Lowest price I can find:
Very unimportant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very Important

Location of retailer:
Very unimportant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very Important

Condition of textbook:
Very unimportant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very Important

8. In the past semester, approximately how much money did you spend on all textbooks (e-textbooks and/or hard copy textbooks)? (Please check one)

___$0- $99 ___$100-$199 ___$200-$299 ___$300-$399 ___$400-$499 ___$500+

9. From where do you currently purchase/rent your hard copy textbooks? (Please check all that apply)
___School bookstore (In person)
___School bookstore (Online)
___Off-campus store (In Person)
___Off-campus store (Online)

10. For the following questions, please first read this paragraph:
A company is developing a service that allows students to rent quick and easy access to desired textbooks through an e-textbook service. Students may rent portions, or whole copies of e-textbooks, for limited timeframes for viewing on smartphones, tablets, and computers, thus reducing the overall price and eliminating the need for physical copies. This service would install a kiosk near your school, similar to current Red Box kiosks, as well as provide an online site and app for renting and downloading to your computer, phone or tablet.

If this service was available, how likely would you be to use it? Please circle a number that corresponds to your level of likelihood.

Very Unlikely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very Likely
11. Regardless of your answer above, what do you see as some advantages of this service? (Please check up to 3)
____Low price.
____Being able to rent for short time periods.
____Being able to rent only portions of the textbook (instead of whole book).
____Always having the option to have an e-book near you on campus.
___ Having to just walk to a portable machine or go to website rather than stand in long bookstore lines.
___ Having an e-book service available 24/7.
___Others, please state:______________________________

12. Regardless of your answer above, what do you see as some of the disadvantages of this e-book rental service? (Please check up to 3)
___ Long waiting lines around exam periods.
___ Not having a book available for the times I don’t rent.
___Technology issues – books don’t download and open properly/kiosk out of order.
___ Not having a book to resell.
___Not having a book to keep forever.
___Others, please state:______________________________

13. Assuming you rented from this service, for how long would you want to rent an e-textbook? (Check one)
___Less than a day ( a few hours) ___One day at a time
___ 2-3 days at a time ___ One week
___ One month ___ The entire semester

14. Assuming you rented from this service, which would you be most likely to use to rent e-textbooks?
(Please check one)
___Kiosks ___Online website ___Phone app

***If you chose Kiosks above, please continue. If not, please skip to Questions 16***

15. Where would be the best placement for the e-textbook kiosks? (Please check one).
___Near vending machines @ school
___Located next to each building’s floor elevators
___In the Student Union
___Other, please state:__________________________
16. In terms of informing you about this e-textbook service, which of the following would be the best way to reach you? (Please check up to 3)
___ University web page ad
___ Flyers promoting the new service posted up in each building
___ Advertising it at orientation for new students
___ Emailing students about it
___ Television ads ___Radio ads
___Newspaper (online) ads ___Newspaper (hard copy) ads
___Magazine (online) ads ___Magazine (hard copy) ads
___ Internet ads on websites that cater to students
___Facebook and Twitter ads
___Other (Please specify):______________________

17. What is a realistic price that you would be willing to pay for a one day e-textbook rental? Please fill in number _______

18. What is your Gender? (Please check one)
___Male ___Female

19. What is your current age group? (Please check one)
___<18
___19-25
___26-30
___31-35
___>35

20. How many units do you currently take in school?
Please fill in number________

21. What is your current employment status? (Please check one)
___Part-time
___Full-time
___I currently do not work

22. What is your current household income, before taxes? (Please check one)
___<$10,000
___<$10,000-$19,999
___$20,000-$29,999
___$30,000-$39,999
___$40,000-$49,999
___>$50,000

23. Do you live on campus or commute?(Please check one)
___ On campus----Please skip Question 24
___ Commute------Please continue

24. If you commute, approximately what is the one-way distance you live from campus?
Please fill in number:______ miles

Our professor may want to verify some information on this questionnaire. Can we please have your first name and phone number or e-mail? We assure you that this will not be used for any purpose except verification.

First Name:______________ Phone or e-mail:____________________________

Thank you for your time and help.

Over-Booked
Background:
College textbook prices are increasing and are out of control. According to USA Today, the prices of textbooks has risen at 4 times the rate of inflation and average $900 per year. With the rising costs of college attendance and the growing need for students to work full time to pay tuition fees, a cheaper alternative towards completing class readings would flourish. With the rise of tablet sales, up 98% since 2011, we also see students being the main market for this new technology. Statistics show that 25% of students currently own a tablet and 48% of students utilize e-textbooks. With these numbers rising, we feel that our service can capitalize on these trends.

This service will allow college students to rent quick and easy access to desired textbooks through an e-book service, which will enable students to buy only portions that they desire of the book or rent a book for a limited time. Charging a low rate will combat increasing textbook prices and the lack of textbook usage in many classes. Essentially, this service would install a kiosk, modeled after the popular Redbox kiosk, on college campuses as well as provide an online site where students can purchase access to their textbooks for small daily, weekly, or semester long fees. There are currently many competitors that allow access to textbook rentals such as CollegeTextbook Renter and Textbook Rentals; however these sites only allow physical rentals. Other stores do sell e-textbooks, however they are still upwards of $100 and are only available for semester-long rental periods.

One main direct competitor in this particular industry is CourseSmart, which is a giant in the industry of e-books; however they are missing a key market of students who don’t need access for a full year. Another competitor is Chegg, who offer a very robust online e-book rental system; however they offer physical books and purchase back books as well. We would be much more focused on an online environment. We also see students using the semester fees; however the modern student can get away with a more minimal use of book access.
If the service proves successful, a network can also be sought after to utilize student account information to add customized content and provide easy accessible study tools.

Marketing Problem:
We want to know if an affordable and immediate short-term e-book rental service will prove valuable to the college population. If so, who is most likely to use it and how should the marketing mix be configured?

Research Objectives:
1. What industry are we in?

2. What are the current industry trends for e textbooks? Growth or decline? Products offered? Consumer targets? Advertising and promotions? Etc.

3. Who are the competitors and what is their target and marketing mix?

4. What is the consumer behavior of students with regard to buying textbooks and e-textbooks?
How much are they spending? Where are they buying? What factors contribute to their decision to buy a textbook or not?

5. How likely are students to rent our e-textbooks?

6. Who should we target?

8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of our e-book service? 9.
8. Would students find any use in being able to rent the textbook for a day? A week? Do they prefer having it for a semester?

10. How should we design our marketing mix (product, place, promotion and price)? 11.
10. Do the answers to the above quantitative objectives vary by demographics?

Methodology
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Secondary research will consist of library database and Internet searches. This methodology was chosen because the information is already available at these sources. This methodology will be applied to Research Objectives: 1, 2.

Qualitative research will consist of one-on-one interviews with consumers and research on competitors, including visits to their websites. This methodology was chosen because it is informative, fast, and convenient. This methodology will be applied to Research Objectives: 3, 4.
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Quantitative research will consist of a face-to-face survey. This methodology was chosen because it is quick, easy, and will allow us to quantify answers to key research objectives. This methodology will be applied to Research Objectives: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

Sampling
For qualitative research, we would randomly select 12 students who own smartphones (i.e., tech-savvy) and have them do a face-to-face survey. This research would provide insight and understanding as to why people would want this service or why they would not utilize this service. This approach would also help gain knowledge into giving the consumer base the most attractive product/service.

For the quantitative research, we will survey a larger group of students. We will survey 320 students (who own smartphones). This research with our potential target will help us quantify the data.
.

Schedule

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10/8: Questionnaire due
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10/19: Qualitative research and final questionnaire due
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10/22: Secondary data due
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10/29: Collected questionnaires due
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11/5: Data input due
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12/10: Final paper and presentation due

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[ 1 ]. www.coursesmart.com/ourproducts
[ 2 ]. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coursesmart.android.coursesmart&hl=en, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/etextbooks-for-the-ipad/id364903557?mt=8
[ 3 ]. www.coursesmart.com/ourproducts
[ 4 ]. http://www.coursesmart.com/institutions
[ 5 ]. http://www.thomsonedu.com/investor/pdf/CouseSmart_LLC_December_2011_and_2010.pdf
[ 6 ]. Bruno, Laura. "Get College Textbooks for Less by Renting Instead of Buying." USA Today. Gannett, 17 Aug. 2010. .
[ 7 ]. Price, Gary. "Gartner Says Worldwide Media Tablets Sales to Reach 119 Million Units in 2012." Library Journal INFOdocket. InfoDOCKET, 10 Apr. 2012. .
[ 8 ]. Daly, Jimmy. "Goodbye Textbooks! Students Are Embracing the Move to Digital Learning [Infographic]." Goodbye Textbooks! Students Are Embracing the Move to Digital Learning. EdTech, 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. .