Evaluating the Marketing Strategy of Geocaching.com

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Introduction

This investigation is about the marketing of popular geocaching website geocaching.com. Geocaching is defined by Garmin, a producer of GPS devices as ‘A high-tech version of hide-and-seek. Geocachers seek out hidden treasures utilizing GPS coordinates posted on the Internet by those hiding the cache.’ With U.S cities such as Seattle, New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix and European capitals being at the forefront, geocaching has begun to gain gained notoriety in the U.S and Europe. With a growing customer base and increasing media coverage, the geocaching industry is just waiting to be discovered by many new customers, and at the forefront of this expanding market is geocaching.com.

Geocaching.com is the world’s largest geocaching and location-based gaming portal.  Started in September, 2000, by GPS enthusiast and web developer Jeremy Irish, the site now hosts more than 4 million geocachers, and more than 1 million active caches.

In this project, I investigated the marketing strategy of geocaching.com, looking in to the marketing mix, namely the four P’s (Price, Product, Place, Promotion) and additionally geocaching.com’s target market and geocaching.com’s main competition. In regards to price I researched how geocaching.com ultimately creates revenue, users’ opinions on the prices of both geocaching.com merchandise and premium memberships and moreover the pricing strategies used for both. In regards to product I researched users’ opinions on aspects of the geocaching.com product and corresponding merchandise and the branding of geocaching.com as well as the product life cycle to a lesser extent. In regards to place I researched the distribution of both tangible and non-tangible geocaching.com related products in addition to the most popular place to purchase geocaching.com goods. In regards to promotion I researched promotional material and methods utilized by geocaching.com in addition to how customers ultimately were made aware of geocaching.com, with an emphasis on the viral marketing aspect of geocaching. In regards to target market I researched not only who geocaching.com’s target market is, but also whether any other target market could potentially be targeted. Finally, in regards to competition I researched the market share of geocaching.com in the geocaching market and compared several of the most popular geocaching websites.

Methodology

To begin the investigation, I decided to undertake some secondary research and research the product, most notably through the press materials provided, the geocaching.com shop, the introductory video posted on youtube and topics on the forums. I additionally briefly researched several of geocaching.com’s potential competitors. Before I created a questionnaire, I thought it would be best to contact geocaching.com in regards to some of my questions so I could get the company’s interpretation on their marketing mix and see if their opinions were in line with that of their consumers. I eventually got a highly useful interview from Kelly Ranck, a marketing assistant from geocaching.com which then helped me to create a questionnaire solely for the users of geocaching.com’s forums, asking if information she gave me in regards to the marketing strategy was in line with respondents’ opinions. This survey was answered by 43 geocaching.com users. In hindsight, this may have caused bias in regards to the review of competitors, as the respondents were most likely primarily users of geocaching.com.

Upon some further, practical secondary research involving the actual premise of geocaching.com, I had the idea to create a survey intended for a target group of 14-16 year olds to see whether they would enjoy geocaching.com, as the service seemed to be more popular and known amongst older generations and geocaching.com could potentially attract more target markets. This survey was answered by 40 fourteen to sixteen year olds.

Theoretical background

Product

The Product is possibly the most important element in the Marketing Mix as none of the others factors can exist without the product itself. Geocaching.com as a product would come under the category of a consumer service as it is a service  (geocaching.com is intangible, therefore not a good) and is produced for consumers (ordinary people who purchase goods and services for their own personal use). Geocaching.com, as a website, satisfies the needs of the consumer as a major online portal for geocaching.

Moreover, geocaching.com satisfies the consumer with a powerful, friendly brand image and strong sense of community.  This brand image holds the advantage of allowing for consumer loyalty, encouraging repeat use and making geocaching.com seem more trustworthy and established in general. Arguably because of this geocaching.com has been offered to be used for a number of endorsements including Magellan GPS’s. The straightforward interface appeals to the target market of  and the earthy green colour scheme emphasizes the natural image of geocaching.com, which will undoubtedly appeal to the target market of outdoor enthusiasts. If geocaching.com were to have a USP, it would undoubtedly be the actual activity of geocaching, seeing as it’s a niche market which many have never heard of before and are fascinated by. Finally, geocaching.com’s place in the product life cycle could be described as in the ‘Growth’ stage, as while the product is fully established in the market and is most likely the most profitable company (as indicated by the high level of users and advanced technology of the site in relation to competitors), the geocaching market is fairly niche and the company is still fairly young in terms of both sales and awareness.

Price

Geocaching.com sells premium memberships at $30 a year or $10 for three months, as well as a variety of merchandise ranging from $0.40 - $299.99. Geocaching.com appears to be utilizing the pricing strategy of premium pricing, in regards to the membership, as premium content is being offered for the price, and moreover uses psychological pricing/ odd pricing in regards to the geocaching.com merchandise, with almost every price ending in ‘.99’. Similarly to many products, geocaching.com’s price is determined by demand and supply, with price of the product, price of competitors’ products, paying capacity of customers, choice taste and fashion of the consumers affecting demand, and price/capacity of the server, rates of wages, taxes and advancements in technology.

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Place

Any product or service that’s is to be purchased by a consumer in general has to be made available where and when the customers want to purchase it, whether or not the product is sold in a premium, upper class boutiques or in an everyday convenience store or supermarket, depending on how easily the target market will be able to get to it and how they will respond. This way a product gets to a consumer can also be described as a channel of distribution. Geocaching.com, is obviously only sold in one channel of distribution, this being straight ...

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