Ride With GPS Research Report

Lauren Brookhart Maggie Hilty Yi Hsuan Yang

Table of Contents

Executive Summary: Introduction: Secondary Research: Primary Research: Research Question: Method: Quantitative Survey: Qualitative Interview: Results: Discussion: Limitations: Conclusion:

Executive Summary Introduction Zack Ham, creator and founder of Ride With GPS approached us to conduct market research in order to learn how to correctly and efficiently target Ride With GPS consumer audience. In our research we sought to assist Ride With GPS in expanding their clientele of cyclists as well as expanding the resources available to them through the development of relationships with bike shops in Eugene, Oregon. Our research goal was to gain understanding about bike shops and cyclists and their relationship with Ride With GPS. We want to identify the key advantages that consumers believe Ride With GPS offers, rather than what the company claims. By knowing more about the consumers, we can then find ways to further the paying customer base. Through quantitative and qualitative data, we gained an understanding of West Coast cyclists and bike store employees in order to learn more about both their demographic and needs. We covered topics in our research from basic demographic questions to in-depth inquires into thoughts and feelings about local companies and consumerism and beneficial features of tracking systems. We are attracted to the idea of business growth from a small local company with a limited number of clientele into a larger, more diverse consumer base on a national and international level. We believe that increasing the awareness of Ride With GPS within the Eugene area community would be an ideal step in growing as a company. Eugene consumers can help foster the strength and loyalty of the customer base in the same city where the company and technology was created.

Secondary Research Ride With GPS is an interactive GPS tracking and online program that allows biker and cyclists across the world to not only plan out their rides, but also to track distance, pace, elevation and even compete against other riders who have taken the same route. Ride With GPS is proud to offer a complete solution for cyclists where riders are able to plan, ride, analyze and compete. (RidewithGPS.com). They are one of the first of their kind that offer all this and more on an online platform. Launched in 2007 by Zack Ham and Cullen King, Ride With GPS has evolved from volunteer support and having to license out business-to-business to having their sign-up income out producing all other forms of revenue today. Ride With GPS is proud to still have an advertising free site today, they believe that to keep their customers happy, it is important to keep their site solely about biking and their product. The biking industry is one that both Ham and King are familiar with. Both cyclists themselves, they know what it is that a cyclist would look for in an ideal route planning and tracking system. The biking industry is one that has a low season- winter, and a high seasonspring and summer. Ride with GPS has seen this through their new paid accounts peaking in the summer months and being dramatically lower during the winter months. Because of this fair weather peak, we believe that it would be beneficial for Ride With GPS to vastly increase their advertising and marketing during the spring and summer months to try and grow their paid accounts even more, while still trying to target key cyclists groups during the winter months.

Ride With GPS target audience is any cyclists who does or wants to be able to track their rides. In the past, Ride With GPS has seen growth through targeting different channels such as cycling clubs, racing teams and their coaches, bike shops, and biking events. By targeting each of these groups separately, Ride With GPS will be able to develop a better relationship with each group and allow them to see how beneficial Ride With GPS would be to their groups. There are a few other companies in the mix that offer similar services like Ride With GPS. Map My Ride is a favorite among some cyclists since it is a free app on iPhone and Android. Strava is also a very popular ride tracking system that can be used with a Garmin or a smartphone. While these programs may offer some numerous features for their users, individually they dont offer as many options as Ride With GPS. Ride With GPS not only offers the ability to plan, track and save their rides in one place, but is one of the only programs to facilitate an elevation tracking system. This enables their riders to track a completely different aspect than other competitor programs have the capability to. In the future Ride With GPS hopes to expand to a mobile platform as well, but for now lacks the necessary resources. Until then, Ride With GPS wants to expand their paid account services and more accurately market their target audience. They also hope to expand to other markets such as running, hiking, cross-country skiing, motorcyclist and biking tours using the same program systems that they offer to cyclists. To accurately market their program, more research needed to be done to discover what their exact target audience looks like in comparison to a broader

spectrum of people who ride bicycles. We wanted to find out exactly who would be interested in a ride planning and tracking system. We also wanted to uncover exactly how it is that Ride With GPS has done advertising and marketing in the past and how we could more accurately use the mediums they have been utilizing. Ride With GPS has tried reaching different audiences through different online media platforms. Currently they have a Twitter account, a YouTube channel, Facebook and a blog. From these online platforms we believe that by developing a more local feel to their posts and updates, as well as targeting separate groups of cyclists individually, Ride With GPS will be able to grow their paid account subscriptions as well as create a more local name for themselves that they can thrive off of nationally. Through some more secondary research we found that online consumers expect brands to interact with them on social media sites, whether this be through deals, promotion, special offers or even information on events. We feel that Ride With GPS would benefit from interacting more with their followers and subscribers on their social media sites as well as posting more regularly. In a study by Localeze conducted by comScore it was found that online consumers expect brands to interact on social media. Consumers believe social media is about he conversation, no matter whatever marketing campaign youre trying to run. (Barone, et al.) The study says that companies should always be encouraging customers to get active in social media about the brand. Along with

that, 74% of consumers value regular posts about products and 72% of online consumers value regular posts about the company itself (15 miles, et al.). Local search of companies continues to get bigger, with 144% growth since 2007. This fact requires marketers to expand their traditional marketing plan to include online and social media sources or risk a reduction in the volume of sales (15miles, et al.). Locally listing a company has become the most relevant and trusted search results for consumers. Ride With GPS is a locally started company, and by stating that on their different sites and social media accounts, they would become a more trusted source to their online consumers. Online consumers expect the companies to interact with them, and through this they are able to trust and see that the company is willing to work with them. Since 2009, search engines have become the #1 primary source for local business searches, and most of this growth was seen through social media sites (15 miles, et al). As these local searches continue to get bigger, with a 144% growth since 2007, Ride With GPS stating themselves as a locally started company would allow them to join in on the exponential growth. Ride With GPS has stated that in the future they hope to move to a mobile platform as well. In the comScore study, it was found that 61% of smartphone users search for local info on-the-go with their devices. By Ride With GPS listing themselves in a local setting, they would not only become more searchable to people of the Northwest, but would also give themselves the local feeling that consumers are more likely to trust and search for again.

We feel that this research done has brought to light the fact that it would be valuable to Ride With GPS to not only advertise to their target audience, but to also take advantage of the social media sites they have joined. By updating more regularly and interacting more with consumers online, especially since a majority of what Ride With GPS does is online. By being more involved with their consumers and people interested in the company, and by appearing and stating themselves as a locally based company, Ride With GPS will be able to expand their paid subscription users as well as grow across the nation.

Research Questions Through our research, we wish to identify our target audiences demographic and life style. We posed questions about their age, gender, how often they ride, if they ride in groups or solo, if they use a tracking system, etc. in order to collect key insight on the potential consumers of Ride With GPS. Most importantly, we wanted to know the target audiences opinion on the top advantages of a tracking system and whether they would be inclined to support a local business. In the conclusion of our research we wish to gain knowledge on how to market to potential Ride With GPS customers effectively.

Method In our research we chose to conduct both primary quantitative and qualitative research in order to gain the knowledge that was otherwise nonexistent as well as research secondary data on both the company and outside information.

We chose our methods because we felt they could accurately obtain the data we wished to analyze. The quantitative research we conducted was in the form of an online Qualtrics survey that we then sent out to roughly 100 different bike clubs, shops and teams from California to Washington. With the quantitative research we sought to gather raw data that we then could interpret through analysis. We utilized indices in our online survey to accurately track their true feelings and thoughts on issues discussed in the survey. The survey was professionally produced and displayed in order to present ourselves as professionally as possible to our surveyees. The survey consisted of questions from demographic to the use of GPS tracking systems. With the survey we sought to learn more about our target market in terms of demographic and lifestyle. We wanted to learn about their cycling habits, how often they ride, if it is in groups or solo and if they plan out their rides out ahead of time. We chose to target cyclists clubs rather than the general public in order to have participants that we were certain were avid cyclists the kind of consumers Ride With GPS is seeking. The population that we surveyed had the kind of characteristics that make them potential customers for Ride With GPS, cyclists who were the most likely in our opinion to utilize GPS tracking systems. The qualitative research was organized in the form of in-depth interviews that were conducted with 12 Eugene bike store employees. The interviews allowed us to delve into points and issues of GPS tracking systems and hear more in-depth answers and opinions that were not possible in a structured online survey.

When conducting the interviews we gathered basic demographic data but focused more on the advantages of a tracking system, consumption from local companies and support of small businesses. The goal of the qualitative research was to find a niche that Ride With GPS could position itself in that would be supported and promoted by local bike shops. To highlight possible brand ambassadors and promotional prospects we interviewed bike store employees, gauging their interest in Ride With GPS with questions asking about their level of support in local businesses and interest in GPS tracking devices and technologies. The quantitative research was conducted to learn more about our target markets lifestyle and demographic while the qualitative research allowed for insight into possible marketing schemes and windows of opportunity for brand promotion in local Eugene bike stores, a location where the target consumer frequents and seeks opinions. We conducted our primary research because the specific data we sought was nonexistent but we also utilized secondary research for expert opinion and differential insight. Our secondary research consisted of background information on Ride With GPS. We gained knowledge of all aspects of the company and their industry in order to better understand their product and target market. Also found in our secondary research was a five-year study conducted by comScore that discusses local businesses and consumers interactions when utilizing social media and other technologies. Through the secondary research, we found that by developing the local feel of a company, it will then foster more trust in future customers.

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The secondary research we conducted was useful in assimilating ourselves in Ride With GPS market and industry. The comScore study provided further information on the potential Ride With GPS social media interactions and well as a guideline for future expansions as the company grows accordingly.

Quantitative Survey Welcome to the Journalism 495 survey! Thank you for participating. This survey should take less than 10 minutes of your time. This survey was designed by three University of Oregon students seeking to identify the types of cyclists in terms of demographic and lifestyle in order to generate a successful customer base for a new technology for biking. All answers are anonymous. Many of the questions are designed to help us separate your responses into separate demographic groups, but we will never know what exactly you answered. Thank you again for participating. 1. What is your gender? a. Male b. Female 2. What is your age group? a. 16-24 b. 25-30 c. 31-35 d. 36-42 e. 43-50 f. 40-65 g. 66+ 3. Household Income a. Less than $20,000 b. $21,000 to $50,000 c. $51,000 to $75,000 d. $76,000 to $100,000 e. $101,000 to $150,000 f. $151,000+ 4. What is your ethnicity? a. White or Caucasian b. Black or African American c. Asian d. Hispanic or Latino e. American Indian or Alaska Native f. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 5. Are you a frequent bike rider? 11

a. Yes b. No 6. How many times a week do you ride your bike? a. 1-2 times b. 3-4 times c. 5-6 times d. Daily 7. What is your main purpose for riding your bike? a. For Exercise b. For Transportation c. Club Sport or Group Cycling Team d. Recreation e. Bike Club 8. Do you bike more in group or solo settings? a. Group (2 or more people) b. Solo c. It varies 9. Do you ever track the length and times of your rides? a. Yes b. No 10. Do you own a ride tracking system? A ride tracking system is an electronic device used to monitor and plan your ride distances and times. Some are even able to monitor heart rate, elevation, and past times you have completed. a. Yes b. No 11. Would being able to track your rides accurately through distance, elevation, times, and pace per mile be something that you would be interested in? a. Yes b. No 12. To you, what is the most appealing part of a ride tracking system? a. Being able to plan out my rides before I take them b. Knowing exactly how far Ive gone c. Having one place to be able to store my ride paces and lengths d. Being able to track my calories burned e. Knowing what elevations Ive traveled between 13. Have you ever heard of Ride With GPS? a. Yes b. No 14. What is the most appealing part of Ride With GPS to you? a. Being able to plan out my rides before I take them b. Being able to keep all my previous and current rides and times in one place c. Being able to track my elevation d. Being able to time my rides in a competitive nature e. Having a system I can access from any computer 12

f. Being able to track my progress 15. Do you use any other type of ride tracking system? Such as: May my Ride, Garmin, etc. a. Yes b. No 16. Would you ever be interested in buying a ride tracking system? a. Yes b. No 17. When you do ride your bike are you interested in being able to keep you lengths, routes, and times all in one easy to access online site? a. Yes b. No 18. Are you more willing to participate in a company beneficial to you that you know was locally established? a. Yes, I like to support locally established companies b. No, I dont care either way if its a company that was established locally or globally c. I am more concerned with cost then supporting local companies 19. Are you more wiling to support a locally established company regardless of cost? a. Yes b. No 20. Do you think using a new technology that is able to plan out your routes ahead of time, keep your times and paces in one area online, and compare your times to others that have take the same route is something that you are interested in? a. Yes b. No Through the Qualtrics online survey, we were able to separate answers and the flow that survey takers were asked questions depending on their previous answer. This way we made sure that the questions asked to each surveyed were reflecting on their previous answers. Qualitative Interview Name: Age: Profession: 1. How often do you ride you bike? 13

2. What is your main reason for riding? (ie Transportation, Cycling team, etc) 3. When you ride do you usually ride in groups or solo? 4. Do you like to track your rides? Such as: time, elevation, length, speed, route 5. Do you plan out your rides ahead of time? 6. Do you use a tracking system (GPS) system when you ride you bike? If no: Would you be interested in using a system that allows you to track your rides, as well as plan them out in advance? -What has deterred you from using a tracking system in the past? If yes: What type of system? -What is your favorite part of your tracking/GPS system? (such as: being able to plan routes in advance, tracking lengths and times all in one place, etc.) 7. Have you ever heard of Ride With GPS? If yes: -What do you think about it? -How do you think they could better themselves? If no: -How wiling are you to accept new brands into your field of interest? (aka biking) 8. Are you more likely to consume or participate with local businesses? Data Results: For the quantitative portion of our research project we had our survey focus very much on what different biking consumers think about ride tracking systems like Ride With GPS.

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We really wanted to learn more about the target demographic of people who would be interested in a product like Ride With GPS. As previously stated, we sent our survey to over a hundred bike shops, clubs, and team across the West Coast instead of just mass emailing a group of students here on campus. All in all we had over 350 cyclists take our biking survey. We also wanted to make sure that our results were those that reflected someone who is actually a frequent biker versus someone who just has a bike sitting in the back of their garage, and 97% of our survey takers agree that they do frequently ride their bikes. Of these 59% were male and 41% female. The ages ranged from 16 to 66 and older, with 47% of our survey takers, being between the ages of 50-65, with over 91% of them being over 35. This really showed us that a large group of people who are bikers are of an older age group, meaning that advertising and marketing to this group would differ from one who was more of a younger crowd. We were also curious as to how often people were actually taking their bikes out a week and for what reason.

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It was easy to see that a large portion of bikers were riding their bikes over 3 times a week. Overall people were riding their bikes for various reasons, but for exercise and recreation were definitely the most common reasons with transportation coming up next.

Bikers were also riding in different settings, such as in groups or riding solo. Around 40% of the surveyees said it varies with each ride they do.

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Of all the people that took our survey 88% said they do track their rides when they go out, but only 59% already have a ride tracking system. When asked if being able to track their rides accurately through distances, elevation, time and pace per mile would be something that they would be interested in, 53% said yes. Of the riders who didnt already own a tracking system, 44% said they would be interested in purchasing one. This is a huge open market that we believe Ride With GPS would be able to get themselves into with the right advertising and marketing campaign. One thing that was very important for us to know was what people who had a ride tracking system already thought was the most appealing part of their system, 55% of our survey takers said that knowing how far they had traveled was the most beneficial part. The second most popular answer, with 24%, was having one place to store all of their ride paces and lengths. Knowing what elevations they had traveled between, 10%, planning out their rides before they took them, 7%, and being able to track their calories burned, 5%, brought up the rear end of the question. We were also curious to see how many people had heard of Ride With GPS, and only 37% had. This really showed us how much more Ride With GPS is going to be able to grow and expand. Of those that had heard of Ride With GPS, 53% thought that the most appealing part was being able to plan out their rides before they took them, with the next most popular response being that they are able to keep all their previous and current rides and times in one place. One of the last things we wanted to determine was how much more a consumer would be interested in a company if it was locally established or had a

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local feel to it. 75% of our survey takers said that they like to support locally established companies, as long as they were not charging exceptionally high prices.

All of our responses really let us uncover what we wanted to know about the biking demographic, was well as what they thought was the most important part of the GPS systems they use or plan to use in the future. For the qualitative portion of our research we conducted twelve interviews at bike shops around Eugene: Pauls Bicycle Way of Life, Life Cycle Bike Shop, Collins Cycle shop, Hutchs Bicycle Shop, Simply Cycle, Blue Heron and UO Outdoor Program barn. A majority of the interviewees were bicycle mechanics and bike shop employees whose ages ranged from 19 to 48. Through the interviews, we wanted to investigate in more depth whether cyclists have the habit of tracking their rides, planning their rides ahead of time, and using a ride tracking system, and if so, what they thought was most advantageous about the systems they used. We also examined whether they have heard of Ride

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With GPS, especially since they are all cyclists in the city it was established. When mentioning more to them about how Ride With GPS was started locally, they were interested in learning more about the program. Most of our interviewees ride their bike multiple times a week, but the frequency for some of our interviewees depended on the seasons and the weather. All of them fell into the same categories that our quantitative surveryees did, where they ride mostly for exercise and transportation, as well as because its a cheap and fun way to get outside. Most of our interviewees plan their rides out ahead of time. Generally, they plan when they going to go out on a longer ride. One bike shop manager pointed out that he always plans his ride ahead of time because he works full-time and is a dad, and by planning he is able to fit biking into his busy schedule. For those interviewed who dont use a tracking system, they all agree on two reasons that deterred them from using one. First, they dont have a smartphone that most tracking systems are available on. Secondly, they didnt want to have to pay for services. Surprisingly, one person interviewed did not even know there were such high-tech systems available for their bikes. Some of those interviewed used competitor systems such as Google Maps, Map My Ride, Strava and just Garmin on its own, yet when hearing more about Ride With GPS agree that is has beneficial features that other systems dont offer them, such as tracking elevation or being able to compete with others times online. After hearing more about Ride With GPS, they were willing to accept it as a new system into their field, as long as it continues to stay easy to use and relatively inexpensive.

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Discussion Through our qualitative and quantitative research, as well as the secondary research studies we discovered, weve come up with various ways that Ride With GPS could more accurately and efficiently market and advertise to their target audience. We found that a majority of those that do bike frequently and are interested in ride tacking are between the ages of 35 and 65. This accounted for over 91% of all who completed our online survey. The younger crowd is also important to the future growth of Ride With GPS. Those under the age of 35 are going to be the ones using the program in the future, so its important to foster a relationship with them now that will carry on through the years. We separate these two groups because we feel that to accurately market to them, it is important to do it separately. We feel a good way to do this would be to utilize online communities throughout the biking world. One example is EugeneGears.org. Eugene Gears is an online forum and organization that all the bike shops, clubs, and teams throughout the Eugene area are able to communicate with each other about upcoming events, meetings and community rides happening around the area. Most large cities and states have an online group such as this, and by utilizing the different features of it, Ride With GPS would be able to get involved with different groups and events around the area, especially those that cater to different demographic groups. Throughout our research we discovered how important social media interaction is with consumers. 70% of online consumers first go online to search for local business information (Barone, et al.). While Ride With GPS does have a website

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(www.RideWithGPS.com) Twitter account (@RideWithGPS), a facebook account (www.facebook.com/ridewithgps), a YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/ridewithgps) and different videos and blogs, we feel it is important for them to not only try and interact with their consumers more, but to also state that they are a Eugene, Oregon established company. As of now the only social media account that they mention where they were started on is their Twitter account, and we believe that by making it known on all their media sites that they will not only become more searchable, but also more trustworthy to consumers. 69% of consumers are more likely to use a company if it has its local business information available on its social media sites (Barone, et al.). By doing this simple task, we believe that Ride With GPS will not only foster a more local feel to the company, but by this increase their paid subscription users across the nation, and hopefully further than that. Another idea we had was to foster better relationships with Eugene bike shops and clubs. When interviewing different bike shop employees, managers, and owners they were very adamant on wanting Ride With GPS to interact with them so that they could not only know more about the company, but also work with it to promote both the company and different events. They are all willing and able to support local businesses, and wish to do so with Ride With GPS. When conducting our survey and interviews we also came up with the idea of bike sponsorship and brand ambassadors. While money may sometimes be an issue, supporting local teams, such as the Disciples of Dirt Mountain biking team, Ride With GPS will not only show that they are willing to support other local teams and

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businesses, but also get their name out there in the community. Through doing this Ride With GPS would be able to gain the support of the community, and from there expand their company even more. During one of our interviews a triathlon coach for the Eugene area mentioned how he thinks brand ambassadors are huge in todays market. Looking into it a little more we found that Brand Ambassadors are a great way for companies to spread the word about their online site or product without having to spend exorbitant amounts of money. Allowing people to become a brand ambassador and spread the word about Ride With GPS at different events, races, meets, and meetings you will build relationships with those people who are willing to support new and upcoming companies. One of the main things that Zack pointed out when he first introduced us to Ride With GPS was that biking truly is a fair weather sport. Ride With GPS sees most of its paid subscription growth during the spring and summer months, and so we feel that it is important for Ride With GPS to really come down hard with advertising and marketing during these upcoming summer months. There are many biking events going on in accessible areas, and Ride With GPS having a presence there would not only allow people who are interested to meet with the founders (and possibly their new brand ambassadors) and learn more about the company, but be able to see that it is a company that is not only beneficial to them, but can also be trusted. The results led us to see very insightful ways that Ride With GPS could better target those that would be interested in such a product. Allowing the public to see

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and interact with Ride With GPS on different social media platforms as well as in person will help Ride With GPS grow even more in the upcoming months and years.

Limitations For our research, we saw that there may be many obstacles that we were going to have to overcome to get a good set of relevant data that would be able to help us understand the biking industry and its consumers, as well as how Ride with GPS could more accurately market its target audience. The first obstacle that we saw is that none of us were frequent bikers. While we may sometimes use a bike to get from one place to another, in no way would we consider ourselves cyclists. This meant that we would have to familiarize ourselves with not only the consumers that would be interested in a company and product like Ride with GPS, but also the biking industry as a whole. To overcome this we set out to learn through secondary research about biking companies, products, and their consumers. By familiarizing ourselves with the industry as a whole we were able to more accurately survey and discuss what would need to be done to better market Ride with GPS. Another limitation we saw ahead of ourselves was the fact that we are students and not professionals. Some people, groups, and companies are more skeptical when talking and discussing with students of a certain age. To overcome this we always tried to present ourselves in the most professional matter we could, while still allowing those we were communicating with to know that we are students doing a research project for a class at the university. By being honest with

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those we were talking to and emailing, we found that they were willing and able to offer information and insights into the biking industry and what exactly consumers are looking for. While we may not be professional mediators or survey instructors, we did try our best under the circumstances presented before us. A factor that really limited our research was our actual area. Since we are students and have a limited amount of resources to conduct our data, most of what we find was going to come from around the Eugene area, rather than the nation at large. We decided to try and expand our research a little further. Rather than just sending out emails to random groups on campus, we dug a little deeper and sent our survey out to over a hundred different biking groups, clubs and shops across the West, from Seattle to Portland and all the way through California. We even went as far as to email all the college biking teams across the west asking them to take our survey. From this larger group, we were able to gather over 340 people to complete our survey, giving us a larger group to study and analyze. While this group still doesnt cover the nation at large, the key characteristics of those that would use a tracking system and be interested in a company like Ride With GPS would be pretty similar across the board. While we tried to overcome all of the obstacles and limitation we saw before us, our research my be imperfect in some ways. When doing an anonymous survey, especially one conducted through email, there is always the problem of people not being honest. For the most part we believe that our survey takers would not lie on our survey, being that it is extremely straightforward, but there is always that

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chance that people were dishonest and so we tried to keep that in mind when analyzing our data. We tried to cover every aspect to complete our research as completely as possible, yet there may be some unanswered questions. With more time we would have like to have discussed with more actual Ride With GPS users about what they thought could improve the program overall. Some of the bicyclists that took our survey were familiar with Ride With GPS, but we would have liked to have sampled a larger group of them. For the most part we are very happy with the data we collected and believe that it will be beneficial to Ride With GPSs future marketing strategies.

Conclusion Once approached by Zack Ham, founder of Ride With GPS to solve his issue of a obtaining a better understanding of his target market, we set out to collect both primary and secondary data to analyze and lead us to a marketing plan. We conducted primary research in order to collect data that otherwise was nonexistent. Utilizing both a quantitative and qualitative approach, we conducted primary research with our potential consumers. We targeted actual cyclists rather then the general public, aware that they would be more knowledgeable and more inclined to use a GPS tracking system over the average bike owner. For our quantitative research we surveyed over 100 bike clubs, shops and teams in California, Oregon and Washington. Through this research we learned more about our target markets demographic and lifestyle. Our results led us to a

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defined target consumer that is slightly made up of more males than females and an older population that do wish to plan and track their systems and see that the advantage of a GPS system is being able to track distance and mileage. When conducting our qualitative research we interviewed Eugene bike store employees to learn more about their support of other local businesses and their opinions and consumption of GPS tracking systems. We learned that Eugene area bike shops and employees are willing and wanting to support and promote a fellow local business and learn more about what Ride With GPS has to offer. Brand ambassadors and promotional events and products would be a beneficial method to further consumer interest in Ride With GPS. Secondary research was also used to gain a differential insight into the present and future local market and their relationship with social media and technology. The secondary research led us to the conclusion that Ride With GPS would prosper from interacting with their social media followers and subscribers. Listing the company as local, originating from Eugene, Oregon, online users would be aware that Ride With GPS is a community-based company that would led to fostering trust and loyalty. FINAL POINT ON FUTURE PLAN

Bibliography 15miles, Localeze, and ComScore. 5th Annual 15miles/Localeze Local Search Usage Study Conducted by ComScore. Rep. ComScore, 2012. Web. 8 June 2012. <http://www.localsearchstudy.com/>.

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Barone, Lisa. "Key Takeaways From the 2010 Local Search Usage Study." Small Business Trends. N.p., 12 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 June 2012. <www.smallbiztrends.com>. ComScore, Localeze, and 15miles. The United States of Local Search. Digital image. ComScore, Dec. 2011. Web. 8 June 2012. <http://localeze.com/files/Images/infographic_Localeze_Search_Study.jpg>. "GEARs: Greater Eugene Area Riders." GEARs. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://eugenegears.org/>. Special thanks to Eugene bike store employees for allowing us to interview them.

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