Finders Keepers Market Research training

Finders Keepers
Market research for small businesses
22 November 2007
Alison Hornsby & Adrian Carridice-Davids Photo from Andy Hay via flickr.com

What we’ll do today
Understand what market you’re in
Work out how to research your market
Do a practical market research exercise
Look at how to analyse your research
Explore how you might find your niche

Before we begin…
What’s your favourite brand?
Talk to eachother:
Who you are
What you do
Your favourite brand - and why it’s your favourite

Who am I and what have I done?
Spanish and French
Senda Juvenil
Trade for Change
Social Enterprise Leeds
WYSE School
SBC since 2005

What do I do?
Training - market research, marketing, social business planning
Consultancy - social enterprise
Mentoring
Photo from Ant Smallwood via flickr.com

Why bother with market research?
Starting up can be a risky business
If you find out about your market, you give yourself a better chance of keeping going
You need to get a feel of whether there is sufficient need - and demand - for your product or service.

What is a market?
A set of all existing and potential buyers of a product or service
or
The total value of products or services which satisfy the same customer need

How do I decide what market I’m in?
Ask what the customer needs
With the person next to you - discuss what needs you plan to meet.
Photo from flydime via flickr.com

What’s the aim of your research?
To become a Zulu in your chosen market
To find out about
The market
Customers
Competitors and partners
Ultimately, to make decisions
Photo from shtt! via flickr.com

What do you need to find out?
You are planning to open “some kind of café or take-away”
Decide what market you are in
What do you need to find out about:
The market you will be part of
Customers
Competitors
Don’t worry about how you’ll find it out yet

How will you find things out?
The market - think big and then home in
For the product/service you’re selling, do some secondary (desk) research:
Market research reports - from your local business library - Mintel , Keynote etc
Trade magazines, books by successful entrepreneurs in that sector, “how-to” books
Internet research - including other countries - can you learn from other markets?
Other ideas?

The market - think big and then home in
For the area you’ll be selling in:
Information from the Local Authority - regeneration initiatives, business support agencies, local media
Talk to people who work and live in the area
Walk around - what kind of businesses are setting up?
Can you learn from elsewhere - has a similar area changed recently, or are things happening in a neighbouring area?
Any other ideas?

Your competitors
Can you:
Mystery-shop them?
Talk to their customers
Work out what they’re doing well/not doing well
Find out any public information about them?
Talk with them?
Photo from malias via flickr.com

Competition - good or bad or both?
Is it a good thing that you have lots of competitors?
Could it be a bad sign if you have no competitors?
Is there any scope for co-operation with you competitors?

Customers:
Demographic data, from
www. neighbourhood .statistics. gov . uk
Your local authority, eg:
http://www. oldham . gov .uk/ward-profile-st-marys-2006. pdf
Neighbourhood profile from
http://www. upmystreet .com

Customers: you could do some primary research:
Talk to people!
Run a focus group
Do one-to-one interviews
Telephone/postal surveys
Email/internet survey
Today we’ll look at developing a survey

Café customer questionnaire
First of all, decide what you want to find out
Then, design your questions:
Start with a couple of easy questions
Ask one thing at a time - and keep it simple
Ask yourself - how will we analyse the response to this question?
Vary the style of questions
Trial the questionnaire - then review it

A real café questionnaire
Designed with free software:
www. surveymonkey .com
People can complete surveys online
You can also manually input written questionnaires, for analysis

Real café questionnaire - analysis
What should we note from the responses?
Can you see any opportunities for the café?
Can you identify any issues which need addressing/risks that need managing?
Any other issues?

What will you do with what you’ve found out?
Turn your research into intelligence
Think about:
Opportunities and threats
Risks, and how to manage them
Is there a particular niche/market segment you can serve?
Can you estimate the size of the opportunity?

Market segmentation
Division of a market into different groups of customers who have things in common (particularly similar needs).
Why is it important to do this?

Because customers are not all the same!
Different customers have different needs
If you understand that, you can tailor your services to meet their needs
You might also find a niche where you can be the market leader

Who are their customers?

Who are your customers?
Some ways you may group customers together include:
Age, gender, employment status, family status, ethnic origin, income level etc
How they may buy your product/service - eg Saturday shoppers, local office workers, breakfast buyers, etc
Can you identify which segments to focus on?

Estimating the size of your market
A fictitious example: an organic veg box scheme :
Our research suggests 5000 people in Leeds are in the market for organic veg boxes
If each of these people were to buy a £10 monthly box, the market is worth £600,000 (10 x 12months x 5000 people)
Given the amount of competition, we think we could aim eventually for 20% of the market - approximately £120,000
Research suggests the market for organic veg is growing by 30% a year - so we are confident that we can get a share of an expanding market.
But will more competitors enter the market and reduce our share?

Over to you…
Questions… comments?
Photo from aymlis via flickr.com

To recap
Decide what market you’re in
Research the market, competitors and customers
Do some primary research if you can
Sit down and analyse what you’ve found out - then act upon it
Try to identify your niche

For lots more information…
www.socialbusinessconsulting.co.uk

And finally…
Cultivate your instincts

Before we begin…
Talk to other people in the room
Find out the person’s name - and see if you can put their name in one of the boxes
First to a full house wins a prize!
Photo from Tub Gurnard via Flickr.com

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Finders Keepers Market Research training

by Rob Greenland on Nov 20, 2008

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Finders Keepers Market Research training — Presentation Transcript