Business Improvement District (BID) Research and Evaluation
Market Research Company: Business Improvement District UK, Ireland and Europe
In today’s competitive environment, Business Improvement District (BID) Managers must prove the value of their services to contributing local businesses. Without market research, Business Improvement District Managers rely on local businesses providing sales figures, anecdotal evidence and even perceptions to evaluate initiatives. The latter two factors may or may not be an accurate representation. To ensure an accurate evaluation of initiatives, robust research is crucial. This research provides BID Managers with sound evidence of the success of strategies.
Marketing blind; investing resources in promotions without knowledge of who is visiting and who is missing or what their needs are, sometimes works. However it’s rarely, if ever, the most time or cost efficient path. Marketing based on accurate research achieves a higher and faster return on investment. Accurate market research enables our clients to tackle what matters most, side-stepping unfounded perceptions that distract from achieving objectives. Research provides the unbiased consumer opinion which, given its importance, is too often overlooked.
Market Research Services: Business Improvement District UK, Ireland & Europe
At CARD Group, we specialise in working with BIDs and town centres that are:
- Developing a plan for their town or city
- Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Planning to renew their contract for another term
- Aiming to track, evaluate and provide proof of progress
- Seeking to improve marketing effectiveness
We help you to establish benchmarks, to understand the requirements of local people as well as local businesses and to evaluate and prove the effectiveness of initiatives in terms of establishing and achieving targets. Our market research is beneficial in both the short term and the longer term.
– Promoting your BID in the short term
We advise you on who you should be advertising to, to maximise spend in the Business Improvement District, as well as which communications channels are most effective to reach these consumers.
– Enhancing your retail and services mix over the longer term
Our consumer research shows whether existing shops and services meet the needs of both local residents and those living further afield. If residents are travelling to other towns and cities to find what they need, we advise you as to which shops and services are missing from your BID.
These insights enable you to develop an effective long term strategy to optimise the retail and service mix to suit your catchment area in order to attract dissatisfied residents back to your BID. Improving the retail mix will also enable you to extend your catchment area and attract additional similar visitors from the surrounding areas.
Evaluation Tools
Depending on the requirements of each market research project, we use tools such as:
- Face-to-face or shopper intercept surveys
- Local business surveys
- One-to-one interviews
- Online surveys
- Footfall monitoring
Improve customer understanding to better meet customer needs
Our customer research helps you to better understand visitors and potential visitors to better meet their needs and therefore address any issues that may deter longer or more frequent visits. Our research discovers crucial information such as:
- Who lives in your BID and what are their characteristics
- Who visits your BID
- Why people visit your BID?
Our Expertise
Our involvement with economic development, town centre management and local councils, as well as Business Improvement Districts UK and Ireland, means that we have a wealth of experience to draw on thus providing you with the catchment and visitor insights crucial to developing an effective strategy.
Our BID clients include Cheltenham, Belfast ONE, Better Bankside and Newry. We work with organisations in Northern Ireland, Ireland, the UK and Europe.
If you are searching for a market research company specialising in research and evaluation for BIDs and town centres please email info@card-group.com to request a brochure or a call back.