RESEARCHING YOUR MARKET
Research will help you with a wide variety of business decisions.
You will likely have to make decisions involving:
- A good location
- Sales projections
- Your product line
- Your pricing strategy
- Where you advertise
- Offering credit
- How much capital you require
- How much floor space you need
- How much inventory you order
- How much equipment and supplies you require
- How many employees you hire
- Etc. Etc.
Business information is required to make sound decisions and to
prepare a credible business plan and cash flow forecast.
Where to find information
In most cases business information can be gathered at no charge.
The following are sources of information on your industry.
- Competitors
- Neighboring businesses
- Sales representatives
- Trade suppliers
- Business friends and associates
- Chamber of Commerce/Board of Trade
- City or Municipal Hall
- Local Government Agent's office
- Downtown business associations
- Trade associations
- Shopping center developers
- Newspapers, radio and TV.
- Various directories
- Bookstores
- Government Statistics
- Trade publications
- Similar businesses in another city
- University or community college
- business schools
- Advertising agencies
- Post Office
- Business section of library
- Phone book, Yellow Pages
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Observe Your Competition
Get out on the street and study your competitors. Visit their
stores or the locations where their products are offered. Analyze
the location, customer volumes, traffic patterns, hours of
operation, busy periods, prices, quality of their goods and
services, product lines carried, promotional techniques,
positioning, product catalogues and other handouts. If feasible,
talk to customers and sales staff.
Consider how well your competition satisfies the needs of
potential customers in your trading area. Determine how you fit in
to this picture and what niche you plan to fill. Will you offer a
better location, convenience, a better price, later hours, better
quality, better service?
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Talk to your Suppliers
Conversation with your suppliers can tell you a great deal about
how your industry works and what trends are taking place in your
market. They may be able to tell you valuable information about
pricing techniques and mark ups, about the fastest moving lines and
why they are selling, and why some competitors are successful. (They
can also provide you with information about credit terms.)
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Conversation with your customers or potential customers can give
you insight into what their needs are. They can indicate what they
look for in your industry, what they think of your competition, what
price they might pay and what level of service they like.
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Surveys and Focus Groups represent more formal ways of getting
insight from your customers.
If you have a specific information requirement and a definable
audience, it is likely that you can undertake a useful survey.
Designing a non biased questionnaire requires attention to detail.
There are many good books available on questionnaire design and
initiating a survey. If you are depending on the survey to assist
with a costly decision, you may want to consider hiring a
professional marketing research firm.
A focus group involves getting feedback from a specially picked
group using controlled interview techniques. The process usually
allows the participants to provide their opinions, come up with new
ideas and brainstorm.
This is valuable for generating new concepts, getting feedback on
proposed advertising or gaining insight into attitudes and opinions
about a new product. Focus groups require a skilled interviewer and
hand picked participants. Professional firms can be hired to tackle
the project for you.
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Community colleges have marketing management programs where
students can be hired on a confidential consulting basis as part of
their curriculum. The students do not have the experience of
professional firms, but will often do a reasonable job at little
cost.
You will probably have to cover expenses incurred by the students
and course objectives and timing may compromise your requirements.
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Market Analysis
Guide to Market Research and Analysis
Store Location: "Little Things" Mean a Lot
Small Bizz Workshop
Marketing Basics
Marketing Primer
Researching Your Market
Sales Forecasting
Business Promotion Idea List |
