Apple report survey results: go for it, but don't neglect regular readers either

I promised I'd report the results of the survey we conducted last week, so here they are, in rough order of questions asked:

• More than half -- 54% -- of Blackfriars Marketing readers read the blog more than once a week. Another 18% read it more than once a day -- that surprised me.


• About half -- 52% -- also believe our Apple coverage is about right, but 47% want more. Less than 1% want less.


• Apple financial analysis interest is huge. 82% of respondents said they wanted all the Apple research they could get, while only 17% said that they were interested in product projections, but didn't really care about the business numbers.


• More than a third of readers -- 38% -- want an Apple financial analysis publication six times a year. The second largest population were the 28% who want me to surprise them whenever I have something to say. Another 23% would like to see a monthly publication.


• 53% said they would pay for a Blackfriars Financial Analysis Publication, but 47% said they wouldn't. That's roughly 50%, which is more than I had expected.


• Readers said that they would pay $95 a year on average. There was a lot of variation in these numbers, ranging from a lot of zeros up to hundreds of dollars. I threw out the high responses (those of you who want to pay $15,000 should contact Blackfriars directly and we'll work something out. For that price, I'd be happy to do a couple of strategy days with you in person.), and the average of all the rest came in at $95.


• 61% of respondents said they would pay the price they said was a fair price. This was an interesting result -- we got nearly 8% more respondents saying they'd buy our analysis at the price they suggested. I have to think about that one more.

So those are the numbers, but what I really found interesting were the open ended comments. I can't summarize all of them, but here's the gist of what I gleaned from reading through these responses from about a quarter of readers.

Point one was that most readers really liked our existing Apple coverage. Thank you to all of you who said that -- it really helps when I'm sitting here in the office trying to make sense out of three contradicting articles about iPods, music, and the future of everything.

Point two was a bit more complicated; but my distillation is, "We understand you need to make a living, but we also need to 1) get a clear sample of what we'd be buying before we buy it, and 2) don't all want to be left out of your analysis if we don't buy it." That made me do some serious thinking about what type of model would please the most people.

What I'm leaning toward is this. First, I'll put together the Q1 analysis and post it for free prior to earnings next week on April 25. That should help everyone get an idea of the type of product we're trying to create.

Secondly, I'm thinking of having two-tiered pricing for these reports. Price one is for getting the report in advance of earnings announcements. This should satisfy those who really want the information and opinion as a guide to trading Apple stock in advance of news. I don't yet know what the price will be for the report, but my guess is that it will be somewhere between $25 and $50. Price two will be that once earnings announcements go by, the report will become free to any reader who wants it. That way the data I've spent weeks compiling still gets out to everyone who wants to see it.

With all that said, I'm now going to turn my attention to report #1, since I only have about a week to pull all my spreadsheets, graphics, and words together into a coherent and publishable product. Please leave a comment if you have more thoughts about the survey and report strategy. I'd like to please as many people as possible, so don't be shy.

Thanks for taking the time to fill out the survey, and above all, thanks to everyone for reading the blog. It's a delight to work with so many sharp, creative, and thoughtful people, and I'm looking forward to doing more with the ever-larger community of Apple users, creators, and investors.

Best,
Carl

Technorati Tags: Analysis, Apple, Blackfriars, Financial analysis, Surveys