Winter 2010 Survey II of
Eureka Daylily Reference Guide Users
Instructions
The response to our Winter 2010 Survey I was very good and now we'd like to share with you the results and then take some of those questions and go further. Please help us learn how to improve Eureka Daylily Reference Guides by reviewing the results of Survey I, below, and then responding to Survey II with your opinions, suggestions and advice to these follow-up questions.
Free Books
Plus, we're continuing the Free-Book Reward with another special as our way of thanking you for helping us with the Survey II. By completing and submitting this survey at the same time as you place a Eureka Guide order for your St. Patrick's Day Special, you'll receive a free book (see coupon special below for details). Or, just complete the survey to be part of the drawing for one of two copies of Variegated Plants: The Encyclopedia of Patterned Foliage by Susan Conder.
Review of Survey I Results
Primary Reason To Purchase Eureka Each Year
With the first two questions, we were trying to discover what Eureka Readers considered most important for them as they were using the Guide each year.
With the question, "What is the PRIMARY REASON that you purchase Eureka?", two thirds of the people responding to this question first and foremost looked through Eureka for the daylily listings.
The remaining votes were split evenly between the number of nurseries and the number of photographers.
While a very small number of people commented that they would like to see the complete elimination of photographs, Survey I indicated that most people wanted an emphasis on the number of daylily listings with a smaller but equally distributed emphasis on both daylily photography and daylily nurseries.
How To Attract More Daylily Listings from Daylily Nurseries
Given that most people want more daylily listings in the Guide, what would encourage more nurseries to list their daylilies in the next Eureka Daylily Reference Guide? Also, how do we balance this with the expectations of Eureka readers as to when they want to see their new Eureka published each year.
Almost all of the comments added to the survey indicate that the primary factor for nurseries listing their daylilies in Eureka is the deadline date. Many find the current Sept. 1 deadline too early for them to analyze their daylily inventory.
Preferred Publishing Date by Eureka Readers
First we asked Eureka readers which publishing date they would prefer: before Christmas, late winter, late spring or whenever. Please see the chart to the left.
The survey indicated that Eureka readers are almost evenly divided as to when they want the Eureka to be published each year. While almost one third of Eureka readers would like to see us continue publishing prior to Christmas, late winter and "whenever" were as satisfactory. This means that before Christmas or late winter would be equally fine considering that almost everyone else would be fine with either.
Preferred Publishing Date by Daylily Nurseries
Next, we asked which publishing date the nurseries would prefer. The results of this survey question indicated that, for the nurseries, the largest preference to be late winter instead of the current release before Christmas.
In the remainder of the nursery responses as to when they would prefer publication, they were rather evenly divided between "whenever" and "before Christmas".
Since almost half of responding daylily nurseries want a different publishing date, late winter, and 62% of responding Eureka readers would be OK with that (29% + 33%) we are going to take a further look at changing the date when we ship Eureka. Please help us with that in Survey II below.
What Is Most Important to Eureka Readers?
Before we make changes to Eureka content or Eureka publishing dates, we wanted to see what was most important to Eureka readers with a question about your priorities.
In order to place more daylily listings in Eureka, something would have to change.
We could make room for those additional pages of listings by decreasing the number of pages dedicated to color daylily photography.
Or, we could add more pages to the Guide and increase its cost by as much as 1/3.
Another option, deceasing type size, was mentioned by several but almost all did not want us to pursue this option.
This is complicated by the fact that 68% of Eureka readers want more daylily listings (see above) while 46% of Eureka readers want the proportion of listings and photos to remain the same as it is now. The easy solution to this desire is to raise the cost of the Guide but only 11% want this.
