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: 11/14/2007 Subject: Marketing Research
Question QUESTION: Hi Chris..
I read all the questions about marketing research and its really help me.But for the problem of how to examine the data and interpret the result of study case(museum),how I do it?is it primary data still needed?Can I used only secondary data? Thank you
ANSWER: Hello Deasy,
I'm not sure that I understand your question. I think that you're doing a case study on a museam and you have some secondary information available. But please tell me what is the business problem with the museam? Are the number of visitors dropping? Or is the profit on the decline? Does the business problem that you have align with the secondary data that you have = or does it look like it could be a problem with your museam in particular?
If you can give me some more details I will try to help you.
Chris
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QUESTION: I have study case about the visitor comments in the museum. I have to examine the data and interpret the result of study case.I have data sheet(secondary data)and I don't think to use primary data.Chris,can you also give me an example of marketing research (to make my knowledge more deep about it) Thank you.
Answer Hello Deasy,
Thanks for the clarification - I think that I understand now. I suspect that your assignment is to go through the information on the museum comments and identify some common elements and make some recommendations about what the museum could do to make customers more happy. I'm just going to guess that there might be some comments about lowering the price of entrance - that's something that happens in almost all market research. Then there might be some other comments about types of exhibits that customers would like to see, or see more of. You probably want to put the comments into some categories and add them up - so you can tell what requests are most popular. If you have a lot of information you could put the categories into an Excel spreadsheet and order the requests by the number of people that made them. You can also use your imagination to think of ways that multiple requests could be satisfied together (maybe one request is to have a different type of exhibit and there is another museum that you could trade exhibits with for a period - so both of you get different customers seeing the same exhibit). You can also use your own ideas - if there are some preferences that you like to see in a museum look for comments that might parallel your thoughts.
The way that I typically approach a presentation is by thinking about giving a quick elevator pitch (about 60 seconds and without any paper). The story probably goes something like this - most people are happy with the museum (because the comments are less than the number of comments in the request box), however there are some changes that certain customers would like to see: the most common requests are: A, B and C. And then you should have an idea about how they could address one or more of the requests - and you don't have to be limited to their comments - but sometimes people have a hard time stating what they want - so there is an element of interpretation and that's where your judgement comes in - think of yourself as a representative of the customers, that gets to talk to the museum management to find a solution that works for both groups.
