Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

HI,

I havn`t been able to find market-research tips and tricks anywhere on the site.( may be I have missed it somewhere). But I surely think there is a scope for a separate section in Forums for Market Research.We can ask specific research questions and brainstorm tips and tricks. Most initial market research is done without any proffessional help and if done right can really influence some important business decisions.We can sure do with some help here.

Hersh,

I`m pretty confident that there are a few people here that do offer market research.  Worth digging around.  I also know that JumpUp.com has some resources as well.

Best,

Jennifer

 This Is my 1 1/2 cents. There is a reason why there is not much stuff on market research. It kind of fits somewhere between a psychology and lack of the better word "magic". That space that I don`t think that has been defined yet. It`s like you plotting your house in the middle of the wilderness  and you hire a guy with a couple of sticks to tell you where to dig a  water well. It`s a lot of gut instinct and psychology behind it. But in reality nobody knows how the market is going to react.  I`m still trying to figure out how the Magic 8 ball came to be or the Pet Rock.   

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Window and Home Jewelry LLC.
Artist designed window ornaments.
www.wahomejewelry.com

The best marketing research....IMHO....is "just do it".

The other day, I read the article on WSJ about Taco Bell spending 10 million and three years on marketing research and finally decided to open in Mexico. It went into great details on how they reached that conclusion.

Well, my response was: "What? 10M for that?" They could have spent 50K on actually opening one in Mexico and they would know whether there is a market in six months!

If you have a good idea, and you did your home work on studying some basic facts (market size, demographics, location etc), just do it. As soon as you open the door, you will get feedback from your actual customers on what you do right and what you do wrong. Listen to them, and act accordingly. That will be the best marketing research you can get.

Thanks Jennifer, art8 and JOhn. Well, I also know that companies with larger wallets do tend to spend more on research, but at the end of the day its a risk assesment. These companies have stakeholders to reply to and any new venture has to go through a hefty risk assesment process before spending a penny. I understand what you are saying John but Coke or Dell or for that matter even Nike, can`t `just do it`.

A well done market research fills in the grey areas of a business plan.You know where you walking into. You actually yourself detailed basic research methods: market size,demo,location etc. 

Also, art8, you believe that nbody can predict the market, you are right but only partially. Any business plan is inomplete without a sales and financial forecast based on past figures. A given market under a similar set of circumstances would not behave too abnormal to predict.Remember, thats why a business plan also have to do PEST: political, economical,social and technological factors affecting that given market. Everything that can affect how the market behaves has to be taken into account. I dn`t think gut feeling a psychlogy can help one gauge that.

What you say Jennifer?  

 
  jhonqh for those kind of money, marketers would be working hard to earn them.  But for a entrepreneur or an enterprise that has a small budget or in this case a shoe string all they have is there gut instinct the idea( the AHAAAA). Of course knowing  facts about their market and having a plan to get to those points are vital. We all want to see where were going. Coke ,Nike, the Diamond industry are some best example of fully develop marketing. But they all started at one point as AHAAAA . So I agree, just do it, besides I think it`s fun or else I would not be spending hours playing.

  blog2 there are all kinds of tools that one can use to predict the market or read the market but like the weather I think it`s more fluid and dynamic especially in the developed world.  Coke didn`t developed based on a liner plan. It developed organically.  Marketing is just another tool but the AHAAAA or the product has be good, and stands on it`s own. With out this, all the marketing you do is a waste of money.      

 
  

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Window and Home Jewelry LLC.
Artist designed window ornaments.
www.wahomejewelry.com