Business case study: ReadyMade
Grace Hawthorne, Publisher and CEO of ReadyMade, which targeted the lifestyle trends of the under-40-year-old market, described the creation of the magazine as a “Passion Project.” As ReadyMade was launched, in order to build a business case to explain the growth strategy for investors and other interested parties to understand the underpinnings and demographic information related to the subscribers and readership of the magazine, the founders conducted what they called the GenNest study.
In the early days of ReadyMade interns were assigned to perform third party research. The third party researchers gathered information on the habits and demographics of their target audience. This information included home ownership statistics, income and spending habits, marriage rates, census data, etc.; basically any information they could find via the web, LexisNexis searches and library sources. They also conducted surveys with their print and online customers; many times enticing them with contests and rewards. Since sixty percent of the projects published in ReadyMade came from their readers, ReadyMade had a built in research pool of readers and contributors who liked to share their opinions with the publication.
Because of this research and the continuing interaction with their readers, Hawthorne and Shoshana Berger, the Editor in Chief of ReadyMade, became experts on this newly defined demographic segment which was also their target audience. They presented at industry forums and sales meetings; and in June 2005, the duo presented their research findings on Gen Nesters to Gen X and Gen Y home buyers aged 25-39 at a meeting of the National Association of Home Builders.
“The younger generations of Gen Nest home buyers are having as large an impact on the economy and home building as the multicultural market,” said Grace Hawthorne, “this market represents about 46% of the U.S. population ― almost 120 million people, and they spend nearly $300 billion annually.” (Nations Building News, 2005).
Hawthorne and Berger also made presentations about their readership group to large commercial enterprises including Volkswagen of America and Toyota. Toyota was interested in information that would help them develop a marketing program for a newly introduced vehicle.
Success was all around them, and soon after, the small bimonthly magazine was acquired by Meredith Corporation. As they grew and increased market share, they utilized new technology to gain further information about their readers. Because of their market segment, ReadyMade had a highly-functioning interactive relationship with its readers, who were savvy on modern technology and communication mediums and embraced sharing any and all information.
In 2008 there were six blogs affiliated with ReadyMade. In addition to the already existing “in-magazine” surveys, they expanded into web surveys to gain further feedback from their readership. Since ReadyMade had 10,000 users participating in their existing online forums they tapped into that forum to find readers who wanted to participate in information exchange and blog development. The forums were similar to town hall meetings and the participants were very willing to assist with sharing information with each other and the magazine. In 2009 the parent company relocated ReadyMade to Des Moines, Iowa, however none of the original creative staff chose to leave their home state of California and continue working with the magazine.
ReadyMade packaged much of their market research in media kits developed as sales tools for increasing their advertising revenue. ReadyMade’s 2011 media kit was a 38 page document that communicated the demographics of its reader base to advertisers who wanted to see specific statistics. http://www.readymade.com/file_uploads/2011mediakit.pdf published June 25, published June 25 2010.
Many reading this story may be thinking at this point that the flywheel of success for this company is turning with great momentum. Unfortunately, only one year later, the ReadyMade magazine was discontinued. The harbinger of concern must have been apparent to the founders in 2009 when the creative staff remained in California. In summary, this is a case of a parent company that lost the mojo that the founders had assembled, and in so doing, also lost the ability to make the net income numbers required for continued operations.
1. Nation’s Building News. 2005. Young and Minority Households[:] Forces to Watch. Retrieved April 2011 from http://www.nbnnews.com/NBN/issues/2005-06-13/Sales/index.html
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