Kevin Harrington

Market research on a budget

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Kevin Harrington

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Marks & Spencer sales figures
Marks Spencer sales figures

You don’t always need to spend thousands on research to find out what is going on in some markets. Simply keeping your eyes open and aimed in the right direction can deliver great results.

On a recent visit to Marks & Spencer I was in a queue to pay and the previous weeks sales figures were on show for all to see:
Menswear suit sales total £63,000 in the week to 26 May 2008. Of this the top ten suits accounted for £23,000. The best seller was a Collezione black suit that grossed £3,600 or nearly 6% of the suits business.
I know what some of you are thinking, “That’s not market research. That’s M&S market research.”
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Kevin Harrington
I’m a UK-based B2B marketing consultant, specialising in strategic advice for SME business owners. I bring extensive hands-on expertise to every client engagement. Senior leadership roles across technology, media, payments, and publishing have shaped my practical approach. Highlights include serving as Chief Marketing Officer at The Panoply plc (now TPXimpact), Chief Commercial Officer at Tungsten Network, and Global Marketing Director at BBC Worldwide. Over the years, I’ve guided numerous SMEs through transformation and value creation. Helping businesses evolve and thrive is a genuine passion. Practical marketing insights and succession planning strategies are at the heart of what I do, as I believe growing a business’s asset value should be a rewarding and positive journey for every entrepreneur.
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Comments

One response to “Market research on a budget”

  1. Anonymous

    Ha Ha it’s also amazing what you can learn on the tube/train with high brow execs studying papers presumably en route to meetings that would be deemed confidential. I recently learnt a great deal about anchor butter – not sure what I’ll do with the info though!

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