Future of distribution - Week 43

Group name: The future of magazine distribution

What we have done:

Interview with Christer Lie: We interviewed Christer Lie about printing technologies to get a better understanding of whether our idea of having small print on demand-printers would even be possible in the future. Lie thought that this would be possible in the future, and mentioned specific techniques (which we will look into further), and also gave us some other interesting input.

Observing magazine customers: We observed ~15 magazine customers during their daily habits of purchase, and made notes of gender, age and other relevant information for their behaviour (if they were stressed, took their time, walked around with magazines etc)

Interviewing magazine customers: We also interviewed ~15 magazine customers during their daily habits of purchase (different people than those we observed), and asked them four general questions which we find important for getting a better understanding of customers’ behaviours (“What are your usual habits when buying magazines?”, “How do you choose magazines?“, “What do you think about digital magazines?”, and “Would you like to be able to customize your own magazine?”)

What we will do: We will structure the interview from Christer Lie, as well as the observations of the magazine customers, and interviews with the magazine customers. We will also try to get an interview with Johan Stenberg.

Problems encountered: In the beginning we had some trouble finding a good way to communicate with each other, but now we have created a facebook group and also use gmail. Otherwise the only problems really have been troubles in getting an interview with Johan Stenberg (we are waiting for him to answer our email), and dealing with stressed customers.

Changes in the project: We have decided to focus more on the customers needs as opposed to what would be beneficial for the magazine stores. We are thinking more in terms of having small on demand-printers which could be placed in a variety of places (airports, trains, stores, etc.), and the actual features of these printers will be determined when we have got a better understanding of what the main needs from the customers seem to be.

Other: Otherwise things have been working out fine, and we are enjoying the project!