Wikipedia defines market research as: “any organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition.” This information usually relates to behavior, attitude and the motivation of certain target groups.
Market research is found in many forms and shapes, I have applied several.
After several of my blue-chip clients asked me: “How can we reach the gay customer?”, my first question was: “Why do you want that?”. Then came some clichés abour gays (“trendsetters”, “high income”, “high education”), which made me think. I decided to take a sabbatical in 2009, and start my PhD Research “Marketing The Rainbow – does the gay consumer really exist?“. In the course of this research, several interesting facts came up, for instance that THE Gay Consumer does not exist, but the gay consumer does. These findings will now be applied by me, i.a. in the Hospitality industry. Stay tuned!
Within the framework of my PhD Research “Marketing The Rainbow” I took the first steps to practise the finding in the area of “Travel & Hospitality”. I found out quite soon that in this area not only the most successful, but also the most numerous examples could be found, of companies targeting the “LGBT consumer”. Gays travel more
Al vrij snel bleek nl. dat op dit gebied niet alleen de meest succesvolle, maar ook de meeste voorbeelden konden worden gevonden van bedrijven die zich richten op de “LHBT consument”. Gays travel more often, spend (much) more and their considerations are diverse and sometimes suprising.
To further investigate what these travellers expect, and how Europe – and more in particular the Netherlands – score as gay-friendly destination, in October 2015 I launched an online survey call “LGBT Friendly Travel Destinations”. No less than 600 people participated: a result of my relentless networking activities.
Note: a minimum of 200 participants is usually required to draw any significant conclusions.
BeeldenBedrijf offers a unique product: a professional ‘Mini movie’ at reasonable prices. Such a movie adds an important factor to a product or service, which otherwise would remain two-dimensional: emotion! For instance for the presentation of a private health care institution or a house for sale. To map potential customers I set up three surveys in the second half of 2015:
After successfully organizing GayDay@Efteling in 2011 for 1,500 participants things went quiet for a while. Thanks to the continuing interest on the Facebook page of the group I am not considering to organize a FunGayDay in 2016.
To get a clear picture of the wishes and ideas of participants, I launched a survey in October 2015, which garnered more than 500 responses. The results of the research, as well as follow up actions are now being evaluated.