MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

SPRING 2023 | APRIL - JUNE

&
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01
SUMMARY
Problem Statement.........................................
04

Market Research Report Objective......

05

Survey & Interview Scope..........................

06

Market Research Survey..............................

06

Consumer Interview....................................... 07

02
ABOUT US
About Gaucho Creative..................
09

About Island View Outfitters........

10

Why GC?....................................................... 11

03
RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY
Internal Debrief.......................................
13

Preliminary Survey Research.........

14

Consumer Interview............................. 17

04
FINDINGS
Insights & Data Visualizations............ 24

05
APPENDIX
Survey Appendix..................
30

Interview Appendix............. 39
 SUMMARY

SUMM
ARY
Objectives, Problem Statement

Survey & Interview Scope

Market Research Survey

Consumer Interview

GAUCHO CREATIVE & ISLAND VIEW OUTFITTERS MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

01 SUMMARY

PROBLEM
STATEMENT
IVO is looking to expand their university merchandise business beyond
UCSB to colleges across California. Through various forms of market
research, IVO is aiming to identify colleges with similar values and campus
culture, including sustainability, creativity, and community.

Additionally, IVO wants to ensure high rates of student engagement and

brand awareness for their expansion campaign by devising a robust Brand
Ambassador program. Our team’s perspective as a part of the target
demographic allows us to approach this work with a strong understanding
of the students IVO is tailoring their business to.

04
01 SUMMARY

MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this report is to give a high

level overview of our market research
methodology and general findings. We
surveyed nearly 300 California college
students in order to gain a comprehensive
understanding of our target market’s wants
and needs.

The market research report will explain our

data collection methods, survey creation
process, and consumer interview flows,
which informed our university selection
process for the business expansion plan. 

05
01 SUMMARY

Survey and Interview Scopes

In order to select the best fit schools for IVO’s expansion
and gain insights on brand ambassador motivations, we
created a survey that was distributed to 14 state schools
and universities across California, listed in the appendix.
Our survey asked specific questions to obtain a definitive
ranking of student priorities for school apparel, a deeper
understanding of each school’s culture, and determine
what elements make a successful brand ambassador
program. This survey was created through Qualtrics and
specific cross-references and filters allowed us to narrow
in on specific elements of each school. We used a
combination of Qualtrics Crosstabs and RStudio to
conduct our analysis. Our consumer interviews were
conducted to further contextualize our survey responses
and gain the information necessary to identify specific
school traditions, partnership opportunities, and
competitors.

Market Research Survey

The questions in our survey aimed to gauge the culture
on each campus in order to identify the schools best fit
for IVO’s expansion. Our major survey insights were
categorized into 5 main buckets:
Demographics
Deman
Brand Ambassador Progra
Alignment with IV
Values, Cultures, and Traditions
This survey was disseminated to 14 California colleges,
both state schools and universities. After filtering out
incomplete responses and using bot-proofing
techniques to maintain our data’s integrity, we received a
total of 182 entries from our survey respondents who
answered questions in the form of Likert-scale, multiple
choice, ranking, and free responses.

06
01 SUMMARY

CONSUMER
INTERVIEW
Our consumer interviews consisted of four different flows: Brand Ambassador, Spirit,
Sustainability, and General. These flows were created based off of interviewee
personas, which were profiles we created to help us understand IVO’s market
segmentation. Interviewees were categorized into a specific flow based on their survey
responses. Having four interview flows allowed us to tailor the questions we asked
interviewees based on what they would be most knowledgeable about and helped
us provide thorough and accurate information. Each interview was approximately
10-15 minutes on Google Meet and conducted by two Gaucho Creative members. 

07
 ABOUT US

ABOUT
About Gaucho Creative

About Island View Outfitters

Why Us?
US
GAUCHO CREATIVE & ISLAND VIEW OUTFITTERS MARKET RESEARCH REPORT
02 ABOUT US

ABOUT
GAUCHO
CREATIVE
Gaucho Creative is UC Santa Barbara’s first
and only marketing and strategy consulting
group, specializing in digital strategy and
creative storytelling. Gaucho Creative is made
of ambitious students with diverse
backgrounds and a desire to develop
professionally and provide impact-driven
business solutions to various clients.

09
 02 ABOUT US

VIEW OUTFITTERS
ABOUT ISLAND
Island View Outfitters is a company local to Isla Vista
offering unique, personal, and creative college
merchandise. IVO has been paying tribute to the 805
through their apparel since 2008, with their founder
Garrett Gerstenberger printing and selling custom
designs out of his garage to fellow UCSB students. Island
View Outfitters has now become a staple in the Isla Vista
community, and has expanded their headquarters to
Cuyama Valley as High Desert Print Co., their main
printing division in partnership with the Blue Sky Center.

10
02 ABOUT US

WHY GC?
Our unique perspective as not only a part of the Gen
Z target demographic, but also Isla Vista locals makes
the Gaucho Creative team a perfect fit for this
project.

Our Gen Z identity allows us to understand on a

personal level the customers IVO is tailoring their
apparel and brand to, providing us a deeper
understanding of their attitudes, preferences, and
behaviors. Not only does our team have an
understanding of the customers, but of the business
as well.

As UCSB students ourselves, our pre-existing

familiarity with IVO provides our team with a more
complete, personal understanding of the
company’s values and identity.

11
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

RESEA
RCH
METHOD
OLOGY
Preliminary Survey Research

Consumer Interview

GAUCHO CREATIVE & ISLAND VIEW OUTFITTERS MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

INTERNAL DEBRIEF
Goals/Overview
The first step of our internal debrief was
creating a preliminary research document that
would help us understand IVO’s mission,
values, brand identity, positioning, and
competitive advantages. We sought to
understand the ins and outs of IVO in order to
make informed and constructive strategic
recommendations to the organization.

Debrief Content
The debrief consisted of research surrounding 5 primary categories:
Brand Identit
Target Marke
Competitive Positionin
Business Expansio
Brand Ambassador Program
We analyzed IVO’s competitive positioning by diving into the brand’s strengths, weaknesses,
potential opportunities, and possible threats. We created a list of potential expansion locations
by analyzing alignment with IVO, student culture, college size, school pride, and proximity to
national parks and California lifestyle activities across California colleges. Best practices for
brand ambassador programs were determined by researching industry trends and standards.
Specifically, a comparison of large brands’ and small brands’ practices, structure, and program
models were analyzed to determine best fit for IVO’s goals with current feasibility in mind.

Major Takeaways
By gaining a comprehensive understanding of IVO's values and identifying their target market,
we were able to fully comprehend their vision of creating niche memorabilia that encapsulates
the essence of the university experience and its natural surroundings. This strategic decision
paved the way for our subsequent survey and interview research. This also enabled us to gather
invaluable insights about the distinct culture and iconic landmarks associated with each
campus. As a result, we were able to refine our selection process, narrowing down the list of
schools to those that closely aligned with IVO's values and exhibited promising opportunities
for market expansion.
During our exploration, we also discovered that successful brand ambassador programs offered
college students not only a chance for professional development but also exclusive perks such
as complimentary or discounted access to products. Recognizing the positive impact of these
programs on other brands, we deemed it imperative to consider incorporating similar elements
into IVO's own brand ambassador program, capitalizing on its potential to foster both brand
loyalty and market expansion.

13
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

PRELIMINARY
SURVEY
RESEARCH
Goals/Overview
The primary goal of the preliminary research segment was to
map out the target market through the use of a comprehensive
survey that scoped out buying patterns, motivations, and
industry competitors.
The survey research was also used to gain a deeper understanding of the school’s culture
through a student perspective in order to determine if their values aligned with IVO’s. We had
a threefold approach to this segment. First, we sourced a diverse participant base that
spanned a variety of interests and affiliations. Second, we pushed out our survey and
gathered data from our respondents. Finally, we used the survey research to determine
principal motivators for brand ambassadors and to determine their role in the business
expansion program.

Survey Set Up
We decided to use Qualtrics to host the survey because of its extensive survey organization
capabilities, user-friendly interface, and data visualization tools.
Our survey was split into 7 sections aimed at understanding 4 main areas:
if there is a demand in the area, if the university’s values align with
IVO, if there is interest in a brand ambassador program, as well as
general respondent information.
Within the 7 survey sections were 35 questions that all participants saw and 4 additional
conditional questions that were displayed based on participants’ responses. In an effort to
protect against bots and filter out any responses that could’ve been a bot, we implemented 3
different bot-proofing techniques. The bot-proofing techniques we used included a recaptcha,
a hidden honey-pot question only seen by bots, and a selection question where participants
were instructed to select an obviously incorrect answer. Approximately 90% of the survey
questions were required to encourage participants to submit full and complete responses.
Upon closing the survey, we filtered the surveys for completion in order to encourage
participants to submit full and complete responses.

14
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Methodology
Participant sourcing framework

We sourced channels of distribution for the survey by

identifying various professional development and special
interest clubs at our selected universities. These types of
organizations ranged from consulting & marketing clubs to
Panhellenic societies. In total, we reached out to 140+
organizations across all of our schools.

The idea was to source a diverse participant base in order to get an adequate feel for the
school’s culture. For the purpose of our research, we created 3 “personas” or student-
character types. They were the spirited student, the sustainable student, and a brand
ambassador student. We determined whether a respondent fell under one or more of the
categories based on their responses to select identifier questions (ie. a respondent who
selected that sustainable consumption was most important would fall under the Sustainability
persona, or a respondent that selected ‘Yes’ to being spirited and knowledgeable about their
school would fall under the Spirit persona). In order to fulfill the sustainability survey persona,
we also included various organizations that had a focus on being environmentally conscious.
Once we finalized our list of 14 schools, we began to send outreach emails that gave a brief
description of Gaucho Creative and the opportunity to participate in our survey. As an added
incentive, we offered a paid raffle prize to select random participants. To further push our
survey, we ran paid Instagram Story advertisements in the geolocations of our schools. Many
of our members also had personal connections with members of these various organizations,
which allowed us to further encourage survey participation.

15
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Survey Sections

Introduction & Outlined the purpose of the survey and the raffle incentive
Recaptcha for participants. Incorporated 2 bot-proofing techniques: a
recaptcha and a honey-pot question

Demographics Contained questions pertaining to participants' age,

gender, ethnicity, disposable income, education level, and
university affiliation

Demand Participants answered questions about how frequently,

where, and why they purchase university merchandise in
addition to their satisfaction with their university
merchandise options

Values, Culture, Included questions aimed at understanding each

Tradition university’s campus cultures and traditions, the university’s
best features, and the environment of the university

Brand Ambassador Began with a description of what a brand ambassador is

Program and what a brand ambassador’s responsibilities may
include before inquiring about participants’ interest in
becoming a brand ambassador, what would motivate them
to become a brand ambassador, and what responsibilities
they would be most excited about

Alignment with IVO Participants answered questions about what they would
like to see in their university’s merchandise, and whether
their values and their university’s values aligned with a
brand description of IVO

Interest in Interview Inquired if respondents would be open to participating in a

brief interview about their survey response in return for $5

16
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

CONSUMER

INTERVIEW
Goals/Overview
The goal of the consumer interviews was to expand on survey insights with more specific
questions targeted towards university culture, events, traditions, and popular brand
ambassador programs. There were four specific interview flows that included the spirit persona,
brand ambassador persona, and sustainability persona, and a general flow that included a mix
of questions from all personas. Participants were sorted into one persona based on their survey
answer and each student persona was asked a different flow of questions. A mix of the general
findings from all interviews focused on experiences with effective on-campus tabling &
promotion methods, the culture of local second hand stores, and what students enjoy and seek
with their current university merchandise options, which was able to better guide the business
expansion plan for IVO.

“interviews focused
on experiences with
effective on-campus
tabling & promotion
methods, the culture
of local second hand
stores, and what
students enjoy and
seek with their
current university
merchandise options”

17
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Set Up & Sourcing

After initially targeting 14 California
universities with our preliminary survey,
we narrowed down this list to 5
California universities for interview
selection. The selection of the 5
universities was determined through
cross-referencing 5 sets of survey
questions, with answer choices being
coded numerically through Likert scale
and ranking questions. Based on how
the school scored for each question
set, universities were given an
average value, with a higher
numerical value equating to a better UC DAVIS
fit for the scope of this project. The 5
sets of cross-reference questions
consisted of 2 market demand
question sets that aimed to discover if
there was a demand for alternative UC SANTA CRUZ
university merchandise at that campus.
Additionally, there were 3 market fit
question sets that aimed to discover if
the university culture aligned with IVO’s
values of sustainability, affordability,
CAL POLY SAN
and a passion for nature. LUIS OPISBO

Upon conducting this analysis, we

determined that our top 5 schools
were Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC
Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and
San Diego State University. Once
these universities were selected, our UC IRVINE

team reached out to participants from

these schools who indicated their
interest on the survey in participating SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

in an interview. Students were each

assigned an interview flow accordingly.
Our team aimed to conduct 2-3
interviewees from each school and all
interviewees were incentivized with $5
compensation for participating.

18
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Interview Flows
Before reaching out and scheduling interviews,
our team created a couple interview flows to gain
value on different insights. The purpose of the
consumer interviews was to narrow down from 5
to the top 3 universities. In order to do that, we
had to ask questions from each interview that
would give us key market demand and fit insights
as well as a level of competitive analysis. To
address these customer segments, our team
created 4 flows. The first two interview flows, a
spirit flow and sustainability flow, aimed to target
two different demographics that IVO appealed to.
We had a third interview flow, the brand
ambassador flow, which provided insight into the
development of the brand ambassador program.

Both the spirit and sustainability flows had many

similarities, the main difference being to whom
we interviewed with each flow. To determine the
best people to interview based on their survey
answers and our interview flows, we created
some target interview personas that would be
able to provide insight into the sustainability and
spirit aspects of their university. To develop
target personas, we used quantitative data from
the survey, targeting specific questions and
responses for the two personas. For the
sustainability persona, we described them as a
nature-oriented explorer. We defined their
demographics as members of Gen Z who were
involved in adventure/exploration of their
community and sustainability causes in their
community. They also tend to be people who
enjoy traveling and have many travel aspirations
for the future, social media (Instagram, Tiktok),
appreciates art and likes drawing, participates in
organizations and activities that align with their
interests. In relation to IVO, these were folks that
cared about apparel sustainability and held that
at a premium.

19
03 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

To select the best fits for this persona and

interview flow, we used a couple question-

answers. We referenced demand questions about

the school and its culture in order to figure out if

the potential interviewee was a good fit for

sustainability. We also referenced questions about

the student and school’s core values in relation to

their purchasing decisions and used those fits to

choose the best interviewee.

Next , we defined our spirit flow. We

described the perfect fit for the

spirit interview persona as

someone who is enthusiastic about

their school, has a large network of

friends and acquaintances, is

involved on campus, and has a lot

of pride for their school and

community. The question-

responses that we used to find the

best interview fits for the spirit flow

were questions that referenced the

respondents pride for their school

and their involvement around

campus. We also referenced the

respondents knowledge of their

schools apparel and the student

bodies sentiments of it.

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 FINDINGS

FIND

INGS
Insights & Data Visualizations

GAUCHO CREATIVE & ISLAND VIEW OUTFITTERS MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

04 FINDINGS

After conducting outreach for our market research, we

had a total of 291 survey responses and 11 consumer

interviews to draw from. As previously mentioned, we

filtered our survey responses for completion and quality

using bot-proofing techniques and analyzed a total of 180

responses in order to determine our top 5 schools. We

used a mixture of RStudio, Excel, and Qualtrics to pinpoint

trends and preferences in both overall survey responses

and school-specific responses. While school-specific

analysis is expanded on in the Business Expansion

Implementation Plan, we’ve compiled a few general

insights based off of our survey responses.

24
04 FINDINGS

INSIGHT 1
Of the five factors influencing consumer purchasing decisions, style and price were
consistently ranked the highest (rank 1 and 2) which indicates that these factors are the
most important to consumers when purchasing university apparel. Additionally, survey
participants most frequently selected that they shop in-person at the bookstore for
university apparel.

DAVIS AVG RANKINGS IRVINE AVG RANKINGS SLO AVG RANKINGS

Price: 4.5 Price: 5.1 Price: 5.1
Quality: 4.3 Quality: 4.7 Quality: 4.3
Visual aesthetic: 5.54 Visual aesthetic: 4.94 Visual aesthetic: 4.92

Price

Quality

Visual aesthetic

6
Average rankings (1=lowest, 6=highest)

0
UC DAVIS UC IRVINE CAL POLY SLO

25
04 FINDINGS

INSIGHT 2
Of the 180 participant responses, 69.78% of them selected Daily Wear as a one reason
they purchase university merchandise. Of those who selected Daily Wear as a reason they
purchase university apparel, 35.43% ranked price as the most influential buying factor and
51.97% ranked style as the most influential buying factor.

Reason for purchasing university merchandise Frequency

Admission to school 67

Annual university events (eg. UCSD: Sun God Festival,

16
UCSB: Deltopia, UC Davis: Picnic Day)
Daily wear 127

Family apparel (eg. Cal Poly Dad, UCSC Mom, etc.) 57

Game days and athletic events 38

Graduation 33

Graduation

Admission
Game Day to School

Annual
Events
Family
Apparel

Daily
Wear

26
04 FINDINGS

INSIGHT 3
For this insight, we hoped to receive answers from students who were highly involved in
their campus culture. Students who self-reported as being knowledgeable about their
schools traditions, culture, and events were generally in agreement that free product/
merchandise was the most effective form of in-person outreach (40%), with tabling (18%)
and events (15%) being the second and third most-selected answers.
This remained relatively consistent with the answers from all 180 respondents, who also
indicated that free product/merchandise was most effective (36.9%) followed up by
events (18.4%) and tabling (17.9%). For the three other options (flyers, raffles, and
personally recruiting friends), flyers were overwhelmingly the least preferred at 3.4%.

#1 Choice for Effective In-Person Outreach

Knowledgeable/highly knowledgeable

General

40
Free merchandise
36.9

15.2
Events
18.4

18.1
Tabling
17.9

10.5
Raffles
11.2

10.5
Word-of-mouth
12.3

5.7
Flyers
3.4

0 10 20 30 40

27
04 FINDINGS

INSIGHT 4
When asked if they would be interested in being a brand ambassador, more participants
said yes (99) than no (83).
Of the participants who indicated that they would be interested in being a BA, 45% ranked
free merchandise as their top motivating factor, 29% ranked professional experience as
their top motivating factor, and 23% ranked compensation as their top motivating factor.
Overall, when ranked against professional experience, compensation, and brand loyalty,
free merchandise received an average ranking of 1.8, followed by professional experience
and compensation at 2.3 (1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest).

# Field 1 2 3 4

1 Free merchandise 45.71% 48 29.52% 31 19.05% 20 5.71% 6

2 Professional experience 28.57% 30 26.67% 28 34.29% 36 10.48% 11

3 Compensation 22.85% 24 38.10% 40 25.71% 27 13.33% 14

4 Brand loyalty 2.86% 3 5.71% 6 20.95% 22 70.48% 74

Average (Free Merchandise) 1.8

Average (Professional experience) 2.3
Average (Compensation) 2.3
Average (Brand loyalty) 3.6

Those who were not interested in becoming a BA more commonly valued compensation
(44.58%) over free items (39.76%), which indicates a discrepancy in motivational factors.
This is valuable to consider in future recruitment efforts if ambassador turnout is low.
Overall, free merchandise is consistently ranked high in both groups, so IVO should
strongly consider this as the most effective incentive for BAs.

28
04 FINDINGS

INSIGHT 5
When asked to choose what they’d like to see on school-related merchandise through a
“select all that apply” question, more than half of the students selected “niche references
to school traditions and student life” (62.2%). However, the remaining options weren’t too
far behind, with “standardized logos and letters” being selected by 52.8% of students,
“specific references to campus landmarks” being selected by 50% of students, and
apparel for university events being selected by 33.9% of students.

Student demand for merchandise

Niche 62.20%
references

Standardized 52.80%
logos/letters

Specific references
to campus 50.00%
landmarks

Event-specific
university apparel 33.90%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00%

Upon cross-referencing this question with a “select all that apply” question asking
students to select their favorite features of their university (cite), we were also able to
draw a few interesting insights. Across the board, niche references to school traditions
and student life were popular with all students. Other than students who selected
athletics (50%), diversity (55.9%), and social scene (59.4%), more than 60% of students in
each category wanted niche references in merchandise. 50-60% of students in each
category other than those who selected diversity as their favorite feature (38.2%) wanted
to see standardized logos on their merchandise. We saw similar percentages ranging from
50-55% for the “specific reference to campus landmarks” category, with students who
selected athletics (33.3%) and campus environment/amenities (42.2%) having slightly less
people interested. While most of categories hovered around 20-35% for students wanting
to see merchandise regarding specific environments, we saw a significantly higher
percentage for students who selected athletics (77.8%) and slightly higher percentages
for students who selected campus environment/amenities (40%) and community (42.7%)
as their favorite features of their campus.

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 SURVEY APPENDIX

SURVEY
APPEN
Survey
Survey
Survey
DIX
Category
Category
Category
#1:
#2:
#3:
Demographics

Demand

Values, Culture, Tradition

Survey Category #4: Brand Ambassador Program

Survey Category #5: Alignment with IVO

GAUCHO CREATIVE & ISLAND VIEW OUTFITTERS MARKET RESEARCH REPORT