Market Research

[candidrachel]

What sort of market research is best? Stopping people in the street and ask them questions? I'm REALLY nervous about approaching people in case they are rude . A friend of mine did some the other day on what people think of the local shopping centre and she asked a teenager if she could spare a couple of minutes and she got sworn at .

I'm going to HAVE to get out of my confort zone sooner or later as it's stopping me from moving forward.

What methods of M.R. do you use and why?

[BCampbell]

Are you selling to random people on the street?

You need to know your market before you cna do effective market research. If you already know what style or niche you fit into, start there. If you're looking to sell locally, you might be best off asking for advice from other local photographers and looking into galleries or arts events. But that doesn't apply to all types of photography, it depends on what you do.

If you're really serious about marketing, it might be a good time to take some basic marketing or advertising courses at a community college or similar.

[GadgetRick]

First, you've got to get over your fear. Going to be very hard to sell your services if you don't. I know, easier said than done and all.

Second, look at what you feel your target audience is. Those are the people you should be speaking about.

More importantly, do you know what you want to ask them? Do you know how to ask them? What I mean is, the way you ask people can lead people to give answers one way or another so you want to be very careful on how you ask people things. An example would be, "Do you think this photograph would be something you might consider buying?" Vs., "Don't you think someone would want to buy this photograph?" In the second sentence, you're leading the customer to give you an answer. You want to get honest opinions.

Another thing is, people (believe it or not) tend to be overly nice when someone asks their opinion. So you have to weed through that as well.

Market research is important but don't let it hold you back. Just pay attention to what people are saying about your service(s).

Good luck!

[candidrachel]

Thanks for replies. First of all I have no idea what sort of questions to ask. I've researched and researched on the internet and read books, but still haven't got the answers I want. I've been sitting on this issue for months.

I understand the fear aspect. I know is only my negative thought patterns holding me back. The fear is never going to go away! Deal with it Rach! Baby Steps. I ventured outside the confort zone recently taking photos of strangers which is nearly always difficult to do if you are a shy person.

I don't think going on a course is going to help to be honest although I do appreciate the good intentions. I always learn more by doing rather than listen to someone lecturing at the front of the class.

I spoke to my friend earlier and asked her what sort of questions she was asking and it was things like "what radio station do you listen to?". "Do you shop on the internet?", she also said photographer wise find out how they go about finding a photographer eg yellow pages, internet, word of mouth etc etc.

I think I'm going to have to have a serious talk with myself and find out what sort of questions to ask potential clients. I definately don't want to compete with high street photo booths.


Once again thanks for the replies and if anyone else has any tips they will still be appreciated.

[GadgetRick]

Well, the first thing you need to do is define exactly what you want/need to know. From there, thinking of the questions is easy. The harder part is determining whom to ask.