Market Research

[Vikki]

I've been looking all over the net for some market research or business information on restoration. I can't find anything but businesses. I think it's important to know your market, but I'm not in a position to pay a marketing firm.

Has anyone seen any good sites ABOUT the business?
Has anyone here done any of their own research?
Any ideas for conducting research?
Thanks.

[thomasgeorge]

I spent quite a bit of time looking in vain for that type of info also. Since Restoration via digital means is such a new area and at present still largely unexplored territory, all I can add is personal observations which may or may not be germane. The majority of my customers are in the 45-50 yr. old plus range, income levels would be probably middle to upper middle class range. Women predominate in the area of wanting reprints of snapshot type photos ranging from the mid 1950's to present. Men predominate in the area of wanting restores and reprints of photos of farm machinery, old family portraits, photo albums assembled. The majority of older photos here are from the mid 1890's up to approx. 1932. At that time the effects of the Dust bowl and the world wide depression seem to have put a damper on photography here and it is not until around 1946-47 that you begin to see lots of photos again, interestingly many are of new farm equipment,tractors etc,, fields of wheat(good growing years then), new cars and trucks and family outings. Hope this was of some help. Tom

[Ed_L]

I think the business of restorations is too new (or too small) to have much information easily available about market research. What Tom indicated doesn't surprise me at all. It's exactly the way I pictured it. If you are really interested in doing market research yourself, you might go into a busy mall to conduct your own research via a list of written questions to ask people of all ages, backgrounds, etc. That would probably give you a decent starting point for your own neck of the woods if you get enough response

Ed