Your Coffee Shop Business: How to Research Your Market

Market research is the key to running a success coffee shop business. Without detailed knowledge of your market sector, the other businesses that will be your competition and your potential customers, you can't hope to develop a sound business plan that will guide your coffee shop to long-term success and sustained profits.

Market research can come in many forms, so it's important to understand what key pieces of research you need for your business before embarking on the research itself. Look closely at the questions you need answering about your new coffee shop and then draw up a detailed plan to find the answers to those questions. When you've completed your market research you'll be in a much stronger position to move your business forward.

Researching Your Market

For your business to be successful you must have the answers to a number of key questions that include:

• Who are the other key competitors in your market?
• What are your competitors' weaknesses?
• What is the USPs (Unique Selling Points) of your competitors?
• How much are your customers prepared to pay for your products and services?
• Will the location of your business deliver the income you need to make a profit?

Your research will then move through a number of stages that include:

1: Compiling your research questions and deciding on its core objectives.
2: Choosing a research method that suits your business and that will deliver the required results.
3: Collecting the data from your research in a form that can be easily compiled ready for analysis.
4: Analyse the data to answer the questions you have set and provide you with the market data to act on.
5: Implement any changes to your business plan that the research has revealed.

Market Research Tools

There are a number of techniques you can use to research your business market. These include:

Desk research
With the advent of the Internet research your business market is now much more efficient than it once was. If you develop very focused search phrases you can locate detailed information that can be used in your overall market research.

Government reports
The government produces a raft of economic reports, most of which you can access via the BERR website and the Office for National Statistics. The Economist Intelligence Unit can also be a good source of market information.

Field research
One of the best ways of research a market is actually go into the community that it is part of and ask people what they think of a new business idea. Have your questions ready and try and make them as concise as possible.

Research agencies
Outsourcing your market research is also an option. There are hundreds of agencies that provide a wide-range of services you could tap into. You can locate research agencies via Research Magazine's website.

Market Research Checklist

To ensure your market research is cost effective and actually delivers the information you need, use the checklist below to ensure your research is timely, detailed, focused and easily analysed:

What do you want to know?
It's may seem like an obvious question, but looking closely at the precise market data you want to collect will enable you to use the right tools and ask the right questions.

How are you asking your questions?
Whether you are using field research that you want to carry out yourself, or using a marketing agency, you still need to develop a set of questions that give you the data you need. Think carefully about each question you want to ask. Does each question really deliver the answers your business needs?

Identify your target group
The research you get will only be as good as the people that respond. Ensure you have as larger group of people in your test group as possible, and also make sure they have a profile that fits with the research you want to carry out.

Carefully analyse your results
All market research is open to interpretation. Look at the objectives you have set for your market research and then analyse your results in that context. It's easy to only see the results that support your own business ambitions, when in fact your research could be showing you that some of your assumptions are actually inaccurate, which is exactly what good research should reveal.

Good well thought out market research can be a great asset before you start your business, and when you want to expand your operation or test a new product or service. The key to good research is to ask the right questions of the right target audience and then accurately interpret the results you obtain.

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