A couple weeks ago, I and my “teammates” presented our DSport marketing research project.. during the question and answer part, a fellow classmate asked me, “what’s the deal with drifting?”.. I simply responded that it was entertaining to watch.. he countered with “why???”.. on the spot, I didn’t know what to say.. I mean, its entertaining, period.. I thought about it afterwards.. and I was thinking, “what does he mean ‘why?’.. its just.. just.. its just fun to watch..”..

This past Saturday, I went to Irwindale, CA again for the D1 Grand Prix : USA vs. Japan drift event.. I and my friend were shooting pics for DSport for fun and for free entry to the event.. I couldn’t stay for the whole event.. so I was only able to capture the practice session (700 pics in 1.5 hours through the magic of a Kingston CF Ultimate 2GB card,a Canon 20D, and a Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS zoom lens).. afterwards, I thought again about the question posed to me 2 weeks earlier.. why is drifting entertaining to watch.. and I have an answer..

Everyone should be able to agree that “drifting” a car (or driving sideways) is not particularly easy.. sure, its easy to get the rear loose around a corner or in a parking lot.. I’ve put my RX7 on a curb and spun my MR2 a couple of times back in the day.. but to actually execute a controlled drift at high speeds around a track is an entirely different matter.. also, we’re not talking about ‘drifting’ your dad’s 1978 Oldsmobile with a small block V8 and some skinny whitewall tires.. we’re talking high horsepower (the Takakaira Subaru made 650 whp, I heard), highly tuned racecars.. so to answer the question, I’d say that drifting is entertaining because I know drifting is not easy.. so to be able to watch 32 guys driving around in cars I like, smoking tires like they were free, and to do it all without slamming the wall and killing themselves, is fun to watch.. I’m amazed by the level of talnet involved in hitting a banked turn at 90+MPH with the rear bumper inches from the wall.. maybe I’m not doing such a good job of communicating my “answer”.. but think about this.. MOST people would say watching golf is boring.. there’s not much action, no threat of injury to the participants, and one round lasts a long ass time.. so why do people watch, much less attend these events and stand along the course? I’d say its because the people who enjoy watching golf are the same ones who understand the level of skill required to perform at that level.. same thing with drifting.. if you’ve ever tried to drift your car, or even inadvertently drifted your car, you would know that its not just something you jump into a car a do.. so to see what these guys can do in a car at those speeds, is, for lack of a better word, entertaining..

Anyway, here’s one of my favorite pics from the 700 pics I took.. I’ll put some more up later after I sort them out and after DSport picks the ones they want to use for the next issue..

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Well, we finally finished our paper and presented our project to the class tonight on my last day of the Fall 2005 quarter.. just 6 more months to go.. anyway, since no one showed any interest in my results, I’ll post some of the more interesting ones.. but first, a little background.. DSport Magazine has pretty strong sales on the newsstand.. however, their subscription base is very low.. its a ratio of about 10 issues sold on the newsstand to 1 subscriber.. to give you an idea, Import Tuner, Super Street, Sport Compact Car all have about a 2:1 ratio (yeah, thats 2 issues sold on the newsstand for each subscriber.. with a monthly circulation of about 120k+, you’re looking at a lot of subscribers).. so obviously, DSport Magazine would like to know why they lack a decent subscriber base.. the objectives of our research was as follows:

1. Find out if DSport consumers are price sensitive (in general and specifically to the subscription price)
2. Find out what makes DSport appealing to subscribers and non-subscribers
3. Find out DSport’s target market and their automotive interests
4. Find out why a non-subscriber is willing to purchase in stores for $6.99, yet not subscribe

In regards to price sensitivity, we found that:
- Non-subscribers are not very sensitive to single copy price ($6.99). In fact, on average, they didnt really seem to care about the price at all. Not surprising since about 58% of the responding non-subscribers said they purchased 4 or more issues of DSport in the past 12 months..
- Subscribers were more sensitive to single copy price and less sensitive to subscription price.. which is to be expected since they are subscribers
- 80.56% of the non-subscribers responded that they would subscribe at a annual price that is lower than the current price of $29.99.. this was pretty surprising

In regards to DSport’s appeal:
- On average, non-subscribers AND subscribers rated DSport PACKAGING/APPEARANCE and ARTICLES/CONTENT the highest out of SCC, SS, Turbo, IT, and Modified
- Non-subscribers and subscribers both responded that TECHNICAL ARTICLES are important

In regards to DSport’s target market interests:
- DSport’s readership is 98% Male, 2% Female
- Non-subscribers rated Road Racing/Autocross/Time Attack the highest (1.64), then Drifting (1.66), followed by Drag Racing (2.28) and then Car shows (2.42)
- Subscribers rated Drag Racing the highest by a huge margin (1.2), then Road Racing/Autocross/Time Attack tied with Drifting (2.4), followed by Car Shows at a measly 2.8
- These scores are on a scale of 1-5 where 1=Very Interested to 5=Not Interested
- Cover Models meant more to non-subscribers than subscribers (2.72 versus 3.00), although not by much

And lastly, in regards to why a consumer would pay $6.99 yet not subscribe:
- 33% said that “not every issue is worth owning”.. however, since 58.3% purchased 4 or more magazines, its not immediately apparent to me why someone would spend about $30 (with tax) on 4 issues when they could’ve had all 12 for $30
- Non-subscribers and subscribers both purchased, on average, 3 different magazine titles in the past 12 months, not including DSport..
- 44.4% of the non-subscribers purchased 7 or more other automotive enthusiast magazines in the past 12 months
- 91.7% of the non-subscribers purchased at least 1-2 other automotive enthusiast magazines in the past 12 months
- 100% of the subscribers purchased at least 5-6 other autmotive enthusiast magazines in the past 12 months
- So why would a consumer pay $6.99 on the newsstand yet not subscribe? I’d have to say that its because they simply dont mind paying $7 an issue if the content interests them. In more academic terms, the demand for automotive enthusiast magazines is highly inelastic in terms of price

These results were based on the first 75 responses. Ideally, we needed a sample of about 384 for our results to have a confidence level of 95% with a confidence interval of +/- 5%. The survey is now the responsibility of DSport.. I’m still hosting the survey for them.. but not to worry, I’m on the board of directors.. not that it really means anything.. but me and Mike (the publisher) have known each other for about half of our lives..

Anyway, thats about all I got to say.. I dont want to say too much in case Mike gets tight.. but there’s something to chew on, I guess.. if you’re into data and research, that is..

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