# Market Research Agencies?



## bigsister (Aug 27, 2012)

Hi folks

I'm in the very early planning stages of opening a cafe, and the research side of things is proving difficult as I'm currently living on the other side of the world to my intended location (and will be for the next month).

Outside of starting research with a basic questionnaire that I'm throwing at facebook users, I'd really like to get more data from more varied sources, across the population of my intended location.

The responses I've had have been good, and very encouraging in that a lot of the answers reflect what I'd like to do with the shop, but the group's nowhere near wide enough to make give me any real confidence. I'm going to try and chase down industry reports too, but I'd really like to have up-to-date research from my intended town.

So given that I can't really get on the street myself, I was wondering how other people have gone about their research, specifically, if anyone's used an agency to gather data on their behalf?

I thought I'd ask on the off chance that someone can share their experience, and to avoid just picking someone out of google etc!

I'd really appreciate any advice you can share!

Thanks!

Mat


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## bdt (Sep 13, 2011)

Hi Mat

My market research has been a combination of industry reports and observations, etc in my intended location. Am not sure where you're looking to open but I made a trip to the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh as that was the closest place I could get access to the Mintel Coffee Shops report for 2012 without forking out about £1200 for a licence myself. I thought the information in there was very useful but for obvious reasons, I'd only pay any notice to an industry report in the geographical area you're opening as customer preferences and trends no doubt vary greatly from one country to another.

Where, out of interest is it that you're planning to open?


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

I've found agency/industry reports scarce and too expensive. My research has been via legs/tyres.


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## bdt (Sep 13, 2011)

I think a lot of the research that needs done on this type of new business is fairly common sense stuff.... visiting the area where you intend opening at different times and different days, observing how busy existing cafes are, etc.

The most useful I got from the industry report was most statistical stuff relating to what customers expected to see in a coffee shop they visited, etc. One stat for instance that surprised me was that only around 10% of coffee shop users would only drink decaf. In the current health conscious society we live in, I'd have expected that to be much higher.


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## bigsister (Aug 27, 2012)

Thanks for the replies chaps!

I looked at the price of the Cafe Project 11 UK report, in no way can I afford a licence, but spending a few days in the Library will be worth the hassle if I can track down a copy. I'm in the North East of England, so hopefully there'll be fairly relevant data on the area to be had.

I suppose nothing's spoiling for a month till I can get home and sit in cafes, and stand in the street with a clipboard, myself!


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Some things to bear in mind when doing research on this... what is your personal goal and how might it differ from popular opinion. What I mean is, a clipboard would probably show 90% of customers think a cappuccino is a latte with chocolate powder on it. Does that mean you should be making cappuccinos the way 90% expect you to? Or will you interpret it differently? Or will your own personal aims... eg to make high quality cappuccinos ... supercede the views of the public?

Good to go into a research phase knowing what you'll do with the results. Good luck with it.


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## bigsister (Aug 27, 2012)

Hey Mike! Thanks for the reply (and the luck!)









Indeed, you're dead right. I have a pretty clear picture in mind, at least in terms of what I want to serve, so there's doubtless going to be a whole lot of effort required to convince my intended market that there are good reasons to visit us and not SBux









I guess I want the research to reassure me that a decent number of coffee drinkers are around, and if they're not that serious about it, that they'd at least be receptive to the education necessary. As for that education, I see that as more of a marketing issue which I'm quite confident of being able to tackle in the right way.


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