Small Business Marketing Workshop - Part 2

In part 1 of our small business marketing workshop, we were coming up with good questions to ask to help us narrow down and define our market.  My example for a product was picture frames.

So we have a list of questions and we can do one of three things: Search the internet to see if we can come up with answers to our questions, create our own market research for the answers to our questions, or, my favorite, guess the answers to our questions.  I am going with the last option but only because I will research for the answers to see if they align with my answers in part 3.  If you cannot find answers to your questions and cannot afford to do market research, you can use trial and error by guessing at the answers then evaluating the results of your sales and marketing efforts.

Here are my questions from part 1 and my guesses as to the answers:

Would a man or woman be more likely to buy a picture frame?  

Men 40%
Women 60% 

Would a certain income level be more likely to buy a picture frame?  

Under $30,000 family income    30%
$30,000 - $60,000 income    60%
Greater than $60,000   10%

Would somebody who owns a digital camera be more or less likely to buy a picture frame?  

No digital camera   60%
Digital camera    40%

Your assignment before starting part 3 is to come up with your own answers to your questions.  Understand they will be purely guesses, and you may be wrong.  That's ok.  We are just trying to paint our own picture of our customer.

Next step:

• Part 3 - Introduction To Research 

Other useful articles:

• Marketing 101 For Small Business 
• How To Create More Demand 
• About Demographics 
• Free Advertising 
• The Use of Loss Leaders, Discounts, and Promotionals

Sponsors:

• OfficeMax Deals of the Week