Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Market For Youth Mental Health/addiction Conferenc

Posted by ds_pritchard on 2/3/2014 at 11:25 AM ET 250 Points
A successful residential treatment program for youth addiction/mental would like to encapsulate their knowledge & success and provide conferences / education. It is a non-profit org. with provincial funding via the Ministry of Health. Target markets / programs would be 3 fold:

(1) Self-hosted, 2-3 day conference with a related expert in the field. Open to other professionals (main focus) and/or interested individuals. How do I determine what the market will bear and if this could be at a minimum, a break even initiative, possibly a revenue source?

(2) Single-day workshops offered on-site to professionals and / or interested individuals. They are located approx. 1 hour out of Toronto, so would need to know if it must be offered in the city or if participants would travel. How to determine break-even and profit?

(3) 1-2 hour workshops/speaking engagements (ie. Outreach to non-professionals). This could involve aligning with schools/school boards, police services, youth outreach programs.

I have experience in program development but need to advise client on feasibility of moving into these above markets. They would like me to propose on this upfront piece of work (ie. market evaluation and recommendations) and I'm not sure how to do it and price it. They are price sensitive because they are not-for profit. Even if research showed a market, would need to at least have break even for programming. If it could generate revenue, all the better.

Really need some direction on how to proceed with this research. I have not been able to find any related information for Ontario, Canada or even North America (audience which might apply for Conferences). Thank you for any help.

(3)
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 2/3/2014 at 2:48 PM Moderator
    You can do some primary research on this, but it could cost more than it's worth. You might want to contact a market research professional for advice. (I can provide a referral with experience in Ontario, and with non-profit organizations, if you need one.)

    You could also advertise/promote each event to see what kind of response you get, and cancel any event that doesn't have sufficient sign-ups to make it profitable.
  • Posted by ds_pritchard on 2/3/2014 at 3:46 PM Author
    Thanks. My instincts are telling me something very similar. The number of organizations/individuals that might participate in both conferences and workshops is vast and geographically diverse. The effort and cost to provide primary research, would be significant and may not be worth the return. I know I can work from the reverse position re. what the overall costs would be to host and fill it accordingly. I want to be honest and upfront with client.

    Can you please provide me with a market research professional (ontario/non-profit) recommendation. I think I need to be clear about what my research costs vs. market research expert and what would be garnered from it. As you say, the cost may not be worth it vs. slowing entering into offerings and evaluating as we go.

  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 2/4/2014 at 1:34 AM Member
    i also like Michael's preference of self-selection over (representative) market research in this case. Could you use social media or the mailing list of a large volunteering organization to get a few hundred people to vote for the 3 options? This is small and unrepresentative, but in my experience accurately predicts preferences of the larger population on such matters

    Cheers

    Koen Pauwels
  • Posted by ds_pritchard on 2/4/2014 at 7:59 AM Author
    I appreciate your response. I like the social media suggestion would be cost/time efficient.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 2/4/2014 at 10:10 AM Accepted
    Facebook has a paid advertising platform - you can literally tip in your database (emails, addresses, you name it) and they will do the rest. Of course you'll need a landing page of some kind, the point is that you can find out if people are interested.

    The other thing is that you can use this platform to advertise to specific groups of people - in fact you can advertise to them and refine your search to those who own a Mercedes 550SL car.

    My thoughts would be to run a campaign for a couple of days using your database (which would be used anonymously) and see what they come up with. Because they can give you a tremendous amount of information about the people who showed interest - where they live, what they do, other interests, etc etc etc.

    With this, you then have some concrete information about interest and everything else. You can use this in other advertising as meets your needs. I know of several businesses who now find Facebook to be their primary source of leads these days.
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