AboutChris Hawkes Expertise I can help people to understand whether or not market research might help them address the
business decisions that they are facing. I can also help them consider the different types of
research that might be appropriate in their situation, and can help them estimate the costs of
the different methdologies, and the pros and cons of each approach.
Experience I've worked in a Fortune 500 company, as a market researcher for the last 8 years. I've managed dozens of qualitative and quantitative market research. I've conducted extensive market research in the US, and in over 20 other countries around the world as well.
Organizations American Marketing Association
Publications MarketResearch101.com and EzineArticles.
Education/Credentials I have a degree in Finance, which I realy haven't ever used, except to try to understand how my mortgage payments were calculated.
Expert: Chris Hawkes Date: 4/9/2008 Subject: Market Statistics
Question QUESTION: Can you advise where I can get some low priced market statistics. I would like to understand the general competition and margins associated with the market I want to enter. I am also writing a business plan and would like to include some of the information in the business plan. I am a small potato and don't have the funds to pay only the high prices that I continue to find.
ANSWER: Hello Kathy,
I'll try to help you, but you'll have to give me some clues about what kind of industry you're considering entering, where you are located and who your target customer is going to be. If you could also include any general numbers that you've found (or inferred) that would be the beginnings of starting to put a story about your industry.
Chris
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QUESTION: Chris, the industry is semiprecious / gemstone beads. I believe target customers will be middle to upper income, larger percentage to the female sector. I believe companies that sell beads will also be a likely target. Hope this helps. Thanks!
Answer Hello Kathy,
I suspect that there are probably some free or low cost resources that you can tap into that will help you with this.
By the way, I'm about to start selling an e-book on starting businesses and would be willing to send you one for free - just to hear if you consider it helpful or not. If you're inteterested send me an e-mail to chawkes@marketResearch101.com and chris.hawkes@mac.com with a subject line about "Assessing and Planning New Businesses". My hope is that if my book is helpful to you, that you will give me a testimonial that I can put up on my website about how helpful the book was and how it helped you.
I think that one of the places to start will be by finding out which industry associations exist that cover your area of interest. The book explains how to find those associations - which can sometimes be tricky to find with simple Google searches.
