Market Research

“Market Research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about a particular target market, competition, and/or environment. It always incorporates some form of data collection whether it be secondary research (often referred to as desk research) or primary research which is collected direct from a respondent.”

Source: Market Research World

Order of research: Golden Rules

• Internal sources before external sources
• Secondary before primary research

Main Questions to ask

• What is happening in the market? What are the trends? Who are the competitors?
• How do consumers talk about the products in the market?
• Which needs are important? Are the needs being met by current products?

Three categories underneath

MR is for me information you research and analyse now so you can make forecasts for the future. You estimate future trends for specific products or services. That’s why I created another Blog on WordPress: a blog about Market Research.

1) Competitive Intelligence: An analysis about the main competitors

2)Consumer Behavior: How the target reacts, likes?

3) Market Research: Business Environment: How are the political, economical, social and technological factors?

1)     Jay Eckles

WEB DESIGN

Commentary:

- Good structure: He divided its Biography into 3 parts

- Ice-breaker: Personal information at the beginning. His hobby is woodworking: shows that he is creative (he put a link, where you can see his work)

- He uses many action verbs: I discovered, I decided, I graduated, I served, …

- A photo would be nice

- In Education: “And, no kids, that’s not an online degree”: First I did not understand this line. The whole text is written very professional. Jay should remove this line, or rewrite it in better English.

2)     Elise Tomlinson

ARTIST

Commentary:

-          Short About me: Just where she was born and the different degrees she obtained. But there are some good links to her long version resume (mainly with her exhibits and publications)

-          Other links as “100 fun facts to tell about me”: Interesting site, which give personal information and let know a bit of her personality.  She also has an “artist blog”. http://www.elisetomlinson.com/blog/index.html : very nice

-          She gives some good illustrations (prove her work, and style) in her “artist statement” which is just next to the “About me”. There she answers to the question: Why do I paint? Why did I choose this work?

3)     Dr. Todd Stephens

TECHNICAL ARCHITECT

Comments:

-          Structure: Current position, then his career and the companies he had worked for. (Logos: good idea!), links to his resume, CV, patents! And at the end a brief description of his current position.

-          I think the layout of this page is very good. Nice colors, nice photo/illustration…

-          He puts links very good: every where he needs to prove what he have accomplished and where he did it.

-          But it is his internet page. He shouldn’t write his biography in the third person.

It was 21:40 when we entered the Irish Pub on the ground floor. Our first impression: the Irish Pub is a crowed pub with loud music. Our first small talk was with a Scottish waiter, who works at the Europe center in Berlin in order to practice his German and earn some money. We then observed the audience in the pub. It seemed to us, that there were no tourists and far and wide no people our age. As our task was to analyze the people in the club, we started to question them: Do you speak English? Where are you from? Do you come often here? How old are you? Do you enjoy the music/ the band/ the drinks?

In order to manage the questionnaires we split and could ask as many people as possible. Every one of us, at the end, did ask about 3-4 groups of people.

Now, we can affirm that the public is middle-aged (around 40 years old), is going to the Irish pub in groups of 4 to 10 people or as couple, has a 70ies/80ies music taste, came from Berlin (most of the time), belongs to the middle class and goes frequently, some even every Saturday, there. There were also some German tourists; one couple came from Magdeburg and a group of 5 from Bamberg near Munich.

On this evening a band called “Station III” played songs from Kiss, Rolling Stones, The Who, Simon & Garfunkel…Songs the audience heard when it was young.

To go further and to complete our task, we asked them if there speak English and if there know some English idioms. If not, we would love to hear some German ones.
It is raining dogs and cats – It is raining really heavily.

It is not my cup of tea – I don’t care for that.

I am nuts about you – I am in love with you.

German ones and their transcription: to facilitate them the task and to break the ice we asked them to describe the atmosphere in the pub:

Packed like sardines (the crowd) – There is not much place left, too many people

Busy as a bee (the waiter) – To be very busy

You are walking on thin ice – You have to be very careful

Other ones:
All that glitters is not gold
Necessity is the mother of invention
When in Rome, do as the Romans do
Out of sight, out of mind

Around 23h we left the pub and could attend a beautiful firework display on the square before Gedächniskirche.

As conclusion we can say that many English idioms have their transcription into German idioms, (or the other way round) and that there are no English speaking people at this time and day at the Irish pub at Europe Center in Berlin. Next time our team will go another place, in order to seek out native English speakers in Berlin!

Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York) is an American folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. Many of her songs are topical and deal with social issues.

She is well known for her longer-lasting passion for activism, notably in the areas of nonviolence, civil and human rights and, in more recent years, the environment.

Joan Baez started her social and political involvement in 1957 and is still engaged today.

In early 2003, Baez performed at two rallies of hundreds of thousands of people in San Francisco protesting the U.S. invasion of Iraq (as she had earlier done before smaller crowds in 1991 to protest the Persian Gulf War).

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE (Words and music by Peter Seeger, Performed by many singers)

 In the song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” Peter Seeger repeatedly uses his lyrics to describe the pointlessness of violence and the need for peace. “Where have all the graveyards gone?” is a line heard in the song. This line is asking, what is the point of all the deaths lost in wars. Also contained in the song, is a verse about how all of the soldiers are going to war. He believed that too many soldiers died and more were doomed to die in the years to come if something wasn’t changed. This can be heard in lines “Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, every one.” The lines “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” are sung at the end of each verse. These lines are very important and are calling for a change. If people could just learn to work out their differences in a peaceful way then many people could be saved from experiencing the death of themselves or loved ones.

Peter Seeger’s song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” was one of the first of its kind. It helped to bring about a new wave of thinking which changed the way people acted, what they believed in, and eventually led to a new movement in America. By incorporating the lessons learned by listening to the song into the daily lives of all people, the world could become a better, more understanding place.

Link to the lyrics: http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/where.html

I like to take a walk outside in winter. When it snowed in the night I see the world in a magical way. Everything looks so different then. Of course, I took a scarf and my gloves because it is freezing.  The air is so clear and cold that I can see my breath. I like to see through branches into the sky. It is a nice contrast between the dark trees and the bright sky. At home, I drink a mug of tea. It is a real ritual in winter. Everytime I come home I need to drink tea in order to warm up again. I like fruit and herbal teas. The best fruit assortment is orange and strawberry. My favorite herbs are: fennon, licorice, chamomile, lemon balm, vervain, thyme and mint.

The Pre-Christmas period in Berlin is very exceptional. I like to go out when the whole city is illuminated with million chains of lights.  The streets, the buildings and the trees are shining. This period of the year is very great for going to Christmas markets. Over 70 Christmas markets have opened their gates this year in Berlin. The Gendarmenmarkt is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and is the exquisite setting for “WeihnachtsZauber “-market which will whisk you away to a magical Christmas world full of scrumptious treats and fairy lights.

The history of Christmas markets goes back to the late Middle Ages in the German speaking part of Europe. The Vienna “December market” was a kind of forerunner of the Christmas market and dates back to 1294. Bautzen Christmas market was first mentioned “Christmas Market” in records in Germany in 1384. In Southern Germany the Christmas market is also called Christkindlmarkt (“Christ child Market”). Generally held on the town square and adjacent pedestrian zones, the market sells food and drink from open-air stalls with other seasonal items and traditional singing and dancing.

I am a little child, I look forward to eat a candied apple when going to a Christmas market.  

I went last month (on the 21.11.2008) to a play called “The cherry orchard” by the famous Russian author Anton Tschechow. This play picked up two of my interests: my interest in the Russian culture and the interest in business.

The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to the family’s estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. While presented with options to save the estate, the family essentially does nothing and the play ends with the estate being sold and the family leaving to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down. The story presents themes of cultural futility — both the futility of the aristocracy to maintain its status and the futility of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its new found materialism. It reflects the socio-economic forces at work in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, including the rise of the middle class in the mid-19th century and the sinking of the aristocracy.  

The play lasts three hours, from 19h30 to 22h30. For me it was a little bit too long. In fact, the director could have abridged the last part after the break.

The protagonists played very well there role. The audience really could relate to them. It was a comedy, but you always noticed that there is a tragic dimension in the play. The Russian aristocracy and their mentality were very good displayed.

Skimming stones

When I am on holidays near water (a see, a river, the ocean) I like to walk on the beach or riverside and collect stones. Flat stones! And then from time to time I let the stone skim. It is important

• that you have a flat stone
• the water must be as calm as possible
• and the angle is should be the flattest

when the stone hits the water.

I like to choose the flat stones and touch their gnarled surface. And then weight them in my hand before throwing them. When skimming stones, I feel kind of free, surrounded by nature. There is just me, the stone and the water in front.

‘Skimming’ a stone involves throwing it into a body of water in such a way that it bounces across the surface several times before sinking, leaving a trail of expanding ripples. The aim, if there can be said to be one, is to make the stone bounce as many times as possible. But I think you all know what stone skimming is.

I always count my bounces. The best number I reached was 7. Is there someone who can outperform me? How many times can you skim a stone?

I didn’t know that Skimming Championships do exist. In fact, there are also World Stone Skimming Championships. This year they took place on Sunday 28 September on Easdale Island (in Scotland).

The competition is decided on distance rather that the number of bounces, although the stone must bounce at least three times. At the time of writing, the record is an impressive 54 meters.

Sometimes it’s the little things . . .

Hi, welcome to my category “Things I like”

I will illustrate every day such a “thing” that makes me happy. I hope you will find some that make you happy too. There are so many little things and little moments that life has to offer. All we have to do is look for them, and they’ll magically start to appear.

Hi there!!! 

This is my new WordPress Blog. In fact, this is my first entry on this blog.