Cost cutter: market research
Practical insights into how to slash your research bill without jeopardising results
Words: Emma Haslett
'Information wants to be free', trill members of the open source
movement - sadly, though, getting hold of that all-important market
data is a very expensive process. Follow Smarta's tips to save
money on your market research.
1. Avoid paying for data
With the cost of the average Mintel or Nielsen report edging
into the thousands of pounds, most market reports are unobtainable
to anyone but multinational corporations. But if you're clever
about it, you can get the same data for significantly less: take
advantage of enterprise centres such as the British Library's
Business & IP Centre, which gives you access to thousands of
market reports for free. Failing that, find a student who studies
the relevant subject and promise them beer and home-cooked meals in
return for their Athens login details. The resource gives students
free access to market data, analysis and journals across the
disciplines from any computer in the world. For a list of
institutions which use it, have a look at the
Athens website.
2. Put your surveys online
Who says you need to pay a market research company thousands of
pounds to send out surveys? You can do your own using online tools
at a fraction of the cost of hiring a market research company.
Tools such as CreateSurvey or SurveyMonkey, which costs
$20 a month for 1,000 people to take the survey, allows you to
create your own surveys. You can then add them to your website or
send your customers the link. And considering you only need to
question 342 people for the survey to be technically representative
of the UK population, 1,000 should be enough.
3. Team up with others
If you can't afford market research, team up with similar
businesses to spread the cost. While forming allegiances with
immediate competitors - the shop next door, for example - probably
isn't the most sensible move, try to find businesses in a different
geographical location or a slightly different space (one of your
suppliers, for example) and share the results of your research.
Attend networking events or use industry trade bodies or internet
forums to make the right contacts.
4. Infiltrate your
competitors
When it comes to getting information out of competitors -
particularly large companies - confidence and charm will get you
everywhere. Smarta has met entrepreneurs who found all they had to
do was don an impressive-looking suit, walk into one of their
competitors' shops with a clipboard and start taking down prices
for staff to assume they were someone important from head office
and answer all their questions on merchandising, pricing and
company structure. The same approach will work for calling
competitors as well: do your research beforehand to find out who
you need to speak to, then phone them and get as much information
as you can.
Smarta Business Builder
To help you on your business journey, we've
created Smarta Business Builder, the complete online
tools package for growing your business. Website
Builder, Business Plans,
Accounting
Software, Legal
Documents and Email - all
in one place - from just £20 per month with no contract! Try it out
today.