1. Day 5 Morning 1. Attendance/Recap/Questions
2. Basic Sales Projections and section 2.7
3. Business Plan Review – Section 2
4. Intro to Market Research
5. Basic Case Study in Market Research
6. Market Research Competition
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. --Charles Dickens

2. Sales Projections Sales Forecasting Techniques Full Capacity
Predicting your business will sell as many units that are possible to produce.
Observational Data
Observe competitors or similar businesses and predict how many units you may sell.
Industry Standards
Understanding how your sales are sometimes estimated in a particular industry is critical. Retail stores have different indicators of sales compared to a software company.
Industry/Seasonal Cycles
Investigate and understand buying patterns in your industry. Retail sales seem to do better near the end of the year…
Team Effort
As you begin to forecast sales, bring in multiple perspectives. The more groups you have looking at the situation, the better off you will be.
Number of Customers vs. Distance
This is critically important for businesses with a physical presence. If you have a business that requires a customer or you to make a physical visit, your sales will be greatly determined by the target market within a couple miles of your business.
Market Share
Number of customers x Number of purchases per Year x Average Amount of Each Purchase

4. Why Is Market Research Important?
Market research is an organized way to gather and analyze information needed to make business decisions.
A market is a group of potential customers—people or businesses—who are willing and able to purchase a particular product or service.
Business Environment. The business environment refers to any social, economic, or political factors that could impact your business.
Customers. These can be individual consumers or businesses.
Competition. Competitors offer a product or service similar to yours or one that fills the same customer need or want.

5. Targeting Your Market
The limited number of customers who are most likely to buy the product or service represents your target market.
One of the goals of market research is to develop a customer profile, which is a detailed description of your target market’s characteristics.
Consumers. A company who sells to individuals is sometimes referred to as a business-to-consumer (B2C) company.
Businesses. A company who sells to other companies is sometimes called a business-to-business (B2B) company.

6. Customer
Profile
Target Market
Market

7. Targeting Your Market
A market segment is a grouping of consumers or businesses within a particular market that has one or more things in common.
Demographics are objective social and economic facts about people.
Basing market segments on where consumers live or where businesses are located is called geographics.
Psychological characteristics of consumers, such as attitudes, opinions, beliefs, interests, personality, lifestyle, political affiliation, and personal preferences, are called psychographics.

8. Market Research Methods
Primary Data. New information that is collected for a particular purpose is primary data.
Once you have a better sense of your target market, you can begin to gather data directly from that potential group of customers. Some common ways to obtain such primary data are:
Interviews/Surveys
Focus Groups
Observations

9. Market Research Methods
The two basic types of market research are derived from secondary data and primary data:
Secondary Data. Existing information that was previously gathered for a purpose other than the study at hand is secondary data.
Examining existing secondary data is useful for doing general, exploratory research to learn more about your area of interest. Sources include:
Government
Trade Groups and Journals
Business Magazines and Reports
Local Community Resources

10. Steps in Researching a Market
Identify Research Objectives. Before you actually start gathering data, list the objectives you wantyour research to accomplish.
Determine Methods and Sources. Based on your objectives, decide which research methods will best help you achieve your goals
Gather the Data. Make adjustments to your research plan depending on what you learn as you collect the data.
Organize the Data. Organize the information as you gather it.
Analyze the Data. Analyze your data by comparing competitor’s characteristics, identifying potential differentiators, and creating an expanded SWOT analysis that compares the strengths and weaknesses of your business to those of your competitors.
Draw Conclusions. Using the data you analyzed in Step 5, decide whether to proceed with your business idea, alter it, or stop completely.

11. Day 5 Market Research: A Case Study
Take 20 Minutes to Complete the Google Form Worksheet titled “Market Research: A Case Study”

12. Market Research Competition Instructions
One person in your group should upload this to their google drive. They then should share it with everyone in the group and Mr. Mailhiot. Please change the name of the document to your product. You are a market research firm. Your company is hired by businesses to conduct market research for them! Imagine that the product/business you have been assigned has hired your firm to conduct market research. They need and want a great deal of information. They want to know how you gathered that information. Did you analyze the data? What conclusions can you draw? Complete each of the following slides. Ensure they are professional and quality work. You may add slides. The team that does the best market research will win the prize

13. Secondary Market Research Resources
Government Websites
Census Bureau Homepage:
Small Business Association Homepage:
Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Online Resources
Census Data by Zip Code:
Business Statistics & Financial Ratios:
Nielsen Research Services:
Marketing Blog:
Reddit – find a subreddit that associates with your product or industry!
Business Magazines & Reports
Inc Magazine (
Entrepreneur Magazine (
Local Community Resources
Public Library
Local College
Local Business Director: