Years ago, when computer monitors were packed into cubed boxes for transportation rather than a box the size of a lever arch file, or forming part of the portable computers now known as ‘laptops’, market research for Business Studies GCSE involved going out into the community and trying to stop people walking past to ask them questions. Now, we are rarely stopped to answer questions of this nature in the street but we are inundated with surveys in printed form and electronically (either to our inboxes or on the internet).
More often than not, ‘delete’ is an overused button on computer keyboards. You order something online and you receive a never-ending trail of further emails encouraging you to purchase more from the same supplier. In residential addresses, the correspondence which continues to appear in the mail way after the previous owner/tenant has departed is always the ‘junk’ mail. Without naming any particular companies, I am relatively sure that the lady who lived in my property before I moved in, only ordered seeds once or twice from a catalogue. If she ordered them more regularly, she would surely (in five years) have managed to update her address. Market research …. If someone hasn’t ordered from you in five years…. STOP SENDING THE CATALOGUE.
Market research these days is proving very interesting for us at FWL. In the last three months, our workload has increased beyond recognition. So, we are even more interested to know how people have found us. Plain and simple answer: TV and Internet. Back in the 1990s, the answer would be very different, not only because we weren’t here! But then, magazines and other printed material would have been the main publicity method for most companies. Oh how the times have changed….
We don’t advertise in magazines. We have, on occasion, but it hasn’t proved to be very successful. Internet and TV/Radio is clearly the way forward (as well as networking in person). Bring it on! FWL is ready for more….
