Our family-run specialty foods business is doing quite well, but we think that we could do better if we focused our advertising to the type of customers who patronize our store. If we knew that there was a specific region with high potential, we could target those customers in every medium we use to promote our goods. Please give us some idea of how to go about this without hiring an expensive market research firm. You are correct in wanting to identify your customers because the more small business owners know about their customers, the more they can focus their marketing efforts on those customers and their needs.
Business owners can conduct their own market research at minimal cost.
Some of that research is just basic fact finding, but can yield significant increases in sales. Your location is of primary importance and, therefore, you need to know where you are in relation to your customers. You need to know where your customers live and where they shop. You want to identify shopping patterns, buying patterns and similarities between your customers. The better your understanding of your customers, the better able you will be to respond to their needs.