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Jan 7, 2010, 6:29pm

Exceptional Thinking :: General :: Business plans & market research :: What's the best way to do market research?

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Topic: What's the best way to do market research? (Read 231 times)

kwhite
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What's the best way to do market research?
« Thread Started on Jul 16, 2008, 9:44am »

Hello,

Can anyone advise me on the best way to do market research?

Thanks
Karen

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Helen Dowling
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Re: What's the best way to do market research?
« Reply #1 on Jul 20, 2008, 11:15am »

Hi Karen,

This very much depends on what you're trying to research, but to give you a general starter, you need to research three main things:

1) Your customers - you need to find out who your target customers are and whether or not they need your product or service. There are two main ways to do this - either ask your target customers or go and look at research that's already been done. Going to your industry association is always a good place to start.

2) Your competition - find out who your competition are by using Google and Yell.com (online yellow pages). Then go and have a look at their sites, brochures, visit them or call them. You should be looking to answer five main questions: a) Who are they b) What service or product do they provide c) What do you like about them d) What don't you like about them and e) What prices do they charge?

3) Market Trends - you need to know what's going on in the world around you to see if now is the best time to start up. You should do a PEST analysis i.e. Political trends; Social Trends; Economically Trends and Technological trends. Have a think about what's going on in each of those four areas and if any of it will have an impact on your business.

Hope this is ok as a brief introduction. I have an online course that you can download about doing your own market research at http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/Start-up-ecourses.php

Helen

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