Help with research project, any advice welcomed!!

[Palms]

I am doing a very mini research project at college. I would have like to gone into more depth but the lecturer said i have to keep it simple. They basically want less to mark and easy to pass but that is another rant.

Anyway i have decided to do the following and just wanted any ideas or advice that you can offer. I have to include primary and secondary sources of information.

Title - What category has most impact on consumers when purchasing a floral gift and how does this differ between age demographic? Categories include Design, Vase Life, Price, Delivery Service.

I intend to hand out about 30 questinnaires with mostly closed questions to produce graphs from and also a couple of open ended to capture thoughts. I can go to my trade mag for references and will ask if they have any other information.

I was also going to do a poll again on facebook to capture some of the younger audiences. I have not had chance yet to do my focus group and wont have in the time scale, that would have been good i think.

Do any of you really clever people have any ideas of how I can make this more interesting, or do you have any other ideas that i could do it on. i want to do it on something that will benefit the shop.

Thank you for helping the oldest student in town lol..

Any ideas are good by the way, even if it disagrees with everything i said...

 

[anytimeflowers]

Hey Paula,

Wellllll........although I don't qualify as "really clever" lol, I thought I would chime in, anyway! Hope Ramiro does, too.


What you are describing sounds totally boring! I'm sorry sweetie, it just does. Before I start on ideas, though, I gotta say I was confused, (naturally, that's me) I thought you were describing what your focus group was going to be. SO...kill two birds with one stone, because this could be one of your focus groups.

Why not do it as a focus group? That way, you will still get those burning questions answered, and I'm assuming this is some sort of marketing class so you will be doing a "marketing thing".

My suggestion would also be to have some items there to "help" them understand the categories better. How about a vase of skunky water with dead flowers and a vase of clear water with a few beautiful blooms? Sign on skunky would be "Drink of water, tuppence" and on the other "Drink of water, 1pound". You may also consider giving a flower to somebody, and then tell them to give it to somebody else. Then have everybody "notice" the smiles of the givers and recievers. (This is one of Ramiro's tricks, I can't take credit).

Just some of my thoughts, kiddo!
Linda

 

[lil_goldie]

If this is just for marks, don't worry about being boring. At the end of the day people LOVE to give their opinion. Isn't that why we're all on FC?? LOL

Is 30 people really enough to capture a true age demographic?

I can't really offer any other suggestions because I'm not sure why you're doing this.
What is the class? What is the main goal of this research project?
What are considered primary and secondary resources?

 

[Palms]

Thanks girls. I am doing a business course and it is one module on it. I dont really have the time to get together a focus group which is another project for a different time...

Primary source is first hand, interview, questionnaires etc etc

Secondary is from articles, journals etc etc

I am not that bothered about it being boring as such as I am quite interested in the results. All the talk of cookie cutter vs design makes me wonder what customers actually want out of a flower shop and I thought this would be a good time to get a feel for it.

Goldie, I think you are right, 30 is not enough. I think 100 would be enough but i dont think i will have the time. i might top it up to 50 with a view to getting more if i can. Plus dont forget, i will be asking on fb as well.

Does this give you a better insight??

 

[Bigted]

I think I would add something about how they order, internet vs phone vs in person vs mobile phone, etc.

 

[Palms]

Thanks Ted, this is what i am looking for i think. Something to give it a bit more meat!!

 

[anytimeflowers]

Paula, I've given myself a note to read thoroughly and perhaps not post until I've had at least a pot of coffee. Good grief, you must have been wondering the the heck I was talking about, thought it was a presentation to 30 classmates lol.

Now you have me interested! Not boring. Are you thinking to have sub-categories? Like Ted's example, Category would be how do you prefer to order your floral gifts and then list those different options? Or are you looking for them to rank the categories in order of importance?

Categories I would include for ranking purposes are:

Store Hours
Staff
Value - different than price
Confidence in flower seller

There was a really great study done by one of the colleges for SAF, about generations and their different purchasing habits for floral. Although I can get to it on SAF website, I don't think you are a member. However, Florist's Review covered it, and probably others too.

Here is a link to some of the info - http://www.superfloralretailing.com/january2010/NewGeneration.html

Hope that is a little more helpful!
Linda

 

[Palms]

Linda that is MORE than helpful, not got time to look at it right now as i am on my way to work but will definately look later. If anyone else has any other info that i can look at or take some info from, please let me know..

I am really grateful for this and Linda, I will be incorporating your other ideas. Thanks, sometimes you just need to brainstorm with someone.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I'm not very "clever"....I usually just ask people, either "on face", "on Phone", or online, how they came about our shop, and how they "prefer" to order their flowers.
Whenever ANYONE shoots me a questionnaire, I unfortunately have no time (NOT being sarcastic) to be straight up!
Those that DO respond to questionnaires are usually very polarized I have found!

 

[Johan]

Hi Paula
For your questionaire I would include pictures of designs with a title like contemporary, country, traditional. Iwould also include colour choice aswell and also gender. We all know men love red and yellow together LOL. You could do the colours as a floral selection. Just for your ease I would just download the close-up pics off of eflorist and put them on. And even look as flower association i.e red roses - love , lilies- death etc, as age will definately play a big part in this. You could also do the different shop looks, i.e dated 1970-80's taty shop, urban/slick, country style or cosy. People are really influenced with a shop look.
I would definately use pictures though as sales are mainly very visual.
Hope this helps.
Jo x

 

[Palms]

First thank you so much for everyone helping me.

Mikey, I think EVERYONE here at fc is clever and also really thoughtful for helping each other out, i sincerely mean that. I knew that when i put this post on, people would help and that is a nice place to be at when you own a business as a sole trader.

I do usually ask them anyway how they heard from us etc.. but in order to collate info for graphs, i kinda have no choice. i will enter them into a draw for a free bouquet or something...

Jo, yes that is a good idea for the blokes especially, i will put a modern pic and a traditional picture to keep it simple. Thanks for that. I intend to ask age, occupation, house status, frequency of buying and then list the categories. I am not allowed more than 10 questions which frustrates me as it is all about keeping it simple for the lecturer..

Thanks again so much. I am going to draft my questionnaire tomorrow so i think i will post it here if that is ok and then you can all have a once over and tell me how to improve. I appreciate that you are all busy people so thanks