Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Research - How To Reasearch An Untapped Market?

Posted by Anonymous on 1/16/2006 at 9:27 AM ET 500 Points
How do I go about researching a very specific market category? The market in question may or may not exist, and if it does, it's almost certainly limited.

I'm thinking of specialized educational software for children, focused on such things as fire / home safety, adoption, special needs, etc. This isn't sold in stores, and I don't know any company names offhand, but I would like to perform some market research. How do I determine if this market exists and / or is worthy of business pursuit?

The software would be used by children, but would also contain either electronic or printed parents' guides, and / or progress-tracking tools for parents. It might also include supplemental workbooks and things of that nature.

The target market includes parents, schools, social workers, therapists, agencies, etc. whom could use a tool to educate children about topics not covered by off-the-shelf educational software. For example, a couple whose adopted 6 year-old is starting to ask questions about adoption might purchase software that teaches "adoption culture" in an age-appropriate way via games and activities. An elementary school might use the software to address household safety. A child psychologist might have an autistic child use the software to teach and encourage social behavior.

This seems like a very focused market. Every piece of educational software on store shelves deals with traditional school subjects: reading, math, science, etc. There are reasons for that, but I believe that there's also an unmet need for the specialty software I'm proposing. I'm almost sure there are similar tools out there that can be special-ordered, but I don't know exactly what topics are covered or where they would be purchased. Any insight, direction or advice you can share is appreciated.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by darcy.moen on 1/16/2006 at 9:42 AM Member
    I would start by talking to therapists within this field of interest. They would be the best source for tools (or lack thereof) for each group.

    Second, I would go to some specialty learning aids stores such as 'The Learning Tree' and see what is available on the market.
  • Posted on 1/16/2006 at 10:26 AM Accepted
    Hi Den -

    This is a great idea, but whether or not there is a market substantial enough to support the product is another question. You are definitely taking the right step in performing market research first.

    You are probably looking at several niche markets, as you've described above. The best approach is to conduct a set of small studies, since the markets are very distinctive, and the first step is identifying each market and determining ways of getting a sample. There are ideas of how to approach each:

    Adoption: The target market here probably consists of at least two segments: parents of adoptees and therapists who work with adopted children. You may want to contact Adoptive Families of America at https://www.adoptivefamilies.com/. They may be willing to help you sponsor a survey by inserting something in their magazine, or may at least be helpful in pointing you in the right direction to find an audience that could answer the survey. Adoption agencies might be another possibility to provide you with a set of respondents. Of course, confidentiality will be important, although I'm sure you will respect that. These two resources will also be helpful in formulating some questions to ask, since there are issues within this audience that can be sensitive. Additionally, there is segmentation into this market for example, closed vs open adoption, domestic vs international adoption, transracial vs non-transracial, etc. that your survey will want to address.

    Safety: Again, there are probably two segments - teachers and parents. There are two possiblilities to start with - the National Association of PTAs - https://www.pta.org/ and the National Homeschool Association - https://www.americanhomeschoolassociation.org/.

    Social Skills: I think there is already at least one product out there that teaches children with autism how to read facial expressions called Mind Reading. This software and other publications geared toward the needs of kids with autism can be found at - https://www.jkp.com/media/catalogues/JKP-USA-AutismCatalog-Fall2005.pdf. You can browse through for a starting point of what is available.

    Next, you can go to the Austism Society of American - https://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer. Again they can give you additional direction and may be helpful to you with respect to finding sample for your survey.

    Each of these groups can also be helpful to you in providing information as to products that might currently exist, so that you can better assess what needs are not being addressed that you might be able to fill.

    Once you have a sample for your target audience, you can develop the survey. Your basic objective will be to assess the demand for the product, based on interest in the product and ownership of necessary technology (computers, operating systems, etc.). Additionally, you will want to know when/how it would be purchased, determine pricing possibilities, and explore ways of positioning your product. In terms of the survey itself, you can use a service like Survey Monkey on the web. However, you may want to seek out help on formulating questions that are unbiased and setting up the study in the best way to support your analysis. There are also some rules of thumb in developing surveys that can help you acheive a good response rate.

    I hope this helps - good luck! Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

    Joy
  • Posted by telemoxie on 1/16/2006 at 1:08 PM Member
    Dennis - I've worked on a project with a similar orientation to what you are describing. While the needs are immense, and the goals are commendable, it's real tough to figure out how to make money.

    Have you considered bundling the software (I'm guessing this would be web based) with "internet" access and email, to offer both the positive aspects (e.g. helpful family oriented materials, homework help) with an avoidance of some of the negative aspects of the internet (e.g. blocking easy access to pornography) to create a family-friendly safe browser or portal or something? This might give you the top end revenues you need to pull this off.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/16/2006 at 7:46 PM Member
    If this were my project, I'd break the concept into its component parts, as Joy suggested. Then I'd conduct one-on-one interviews with a dozen people in the target audience for each one. You might learn that some segments are great ideas while others are not.

    Then when you have a sense of the subjective reactions from a few dozen people (in different segments), you can decide on a quantitative, projectable, statistically reliable survey approach that includes all the issues you uncover. You'll almost certainly want professional help with that part. There are too many ways to mess it up if you haven't done this kind of thing before.

    Hope this helps.
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