Questionnaire Preliminary Results

I've started collating the results of the questionnaire I ran on BoardGameGeek yesterday. The competition still has 36 hours left to run, but I've already received well over 250 responses - it's been far more successful than I was expecting. I've collated the results for the first 10 pages of responses, and it's pretty interesting so far.

The questions were designed to be asked now and after the big BGG competition in a few weeks time to gauge how successful the competition was at raising awareness of my brand and my games. This was just the baseline.

Question 1: Are you aware of Reiver Games?

• A: Reiver whatnow? Never heard of them.
• B: I've heard of them, but not played any of their games.
• C: I've played one or more of their games, but don't own any of them.
• D: I own one of more of their games.

I expected that the answers would be A > B > C > D. There's obviously going to be some bias involved though - still not sure what.

Lots of people had heard of at least one of my games, but not my company. I guess that's to be expected, but it shows that the brand of my company is comparatively weak. Also, I was surprised at how few people had played one of my games but didn't own any. Especially in comparison to how many owned at least one of my games. Not sure why that is. It could be because there aren't many copies of my games in circulation so few people have played one, it could be that most people who play one of my games buy it (I wish!), or it could just be that people who own one of my games were more likely to respond.

Question 2: Are you aware of It's Alive!?

• A: Never heard of it.
• B: I've heard of it, but not played it.
• C: I've played it, but don't own it.
• D: I own it.

Again, I expected that the answers would be A > B > C > D. Since It's Alive! had been around the longest (several years if you include The Menorah Game incarnation) I expected more people in B, C or D than Carpe Astra or Sumeria.

This was more or less as I expected. Again the confusing ratio of C to D though. At least 35 people had heard of It's Alive! but not Reiver Games. Even with a game that's been out since June 2007, 20% of respondents had never heard of it. I've run an ad campaign on BGG and two on Boardgame News but they seem to have a limited reach.

Question 3: Are you aware of Carpe Astra?

• A: Never heard of it.
• B: I've heard of it, but not played it.
• C: I've played it, but don't own it.
• D: I own it.

Again, I expected that the answers would be A > B > C > D. I expected less awareness than It's Alive! since it's only been available for four months and there are less reviews available at the moment.

40% of people have never heard of it, and half as many respondents say they own it compared to It's Alive! According to the BGG ownership stats, one third of the number of people who own It's Alive! own Carpe Astra, so that might give some indication of the bias towards Reiver Games owners in the responses.

Question 4: Are you aware of Sumeria?

• A: Never heard of it.
• B: I've heard of it.
• C: I've want to play it.
• D: I want to buy it.

Again, I expected that the answers would be A > B > C > D. I expected less awareness than Carpe Astra even, since this has not been advertised yet. With no rules available, I was expecting very few people wanting to buy it.

Woohoo! I got this one right :-) Two-thirds of respondents have never heard of it (less than I was expecting) and several people are interested.

As several people noted, just by asking these questions I've raised awareness of the company and the games. Not one of the respondents could answer all As in a weeks time - they'd have to answer all Bs at least. Hopefully I've pushed a few into the C or D categories too :-) 82 new people are aware of my company, 47 new people are aware of It's Alive!, 95 new people are aware of Carpe Astra and 166 new people are aware of Sumeria. Reiver Games is number eight in the list of hot companies on BGG today. Plus I've got some really useful information to help me target marketing in future. Not bad for at most 13 quid.