Although ‘Build it, and they will come’ sounded a good idea in the movie, in reality no-one likes a white elephant and most people need to know that if they are going to invest time and money in a substantial capital project, it will attract customers or visitors.
And obviously anyone asked to provide finance or grant funding for a project will require proof of the need for the project and evidence of the potential demand for the service or product involved.
De Facto can research and prove the need and demand for your project, and in the worst case scenario will be able to tell you that it is a ‘non-starter’ before you invest further money on design and planning etc.
We use various methods including desk research, mass mail-outs of bespoke questionnaires, one-to-one interviews, focus groups, public consultation exercises and an assessment of the strategic/planning context. We will choose the right combination of methods for your project in order to gain answers that will give you and your project stakeholders the confidence to proceed.
Click below to read about some of our work in this area, or click here for a pdf containing more details.
In the course of successfully pursuing £2.7m funding from the DTI for this client, we carried out a piece of bespoke primary market research in order to assess the potential demand for the proposed new refit facilities. A one-page fax-back questionnaire was designed and sent to yacht management companies and yacht brokers around the world. The results of this research, combined with extensive desk research into the market, helped us to prove to the funders that demand existed for proposed facilties. This formed a crucial part of the application for funding.
This Birmingham-based private client asked us to help him with the early stages of developing an internet procurement service for the education sector. We undertook extensive primary market research to assess the potential demand for a new service, as well as desk based research to analyse the existing competition. The primary market research involved designing a questionnaire which was sent to over 1,000 schools. Based on the results of the research we identified a number of options, and recommended next steps for development of the proposition.
Porthleven Town Council asked us to prepare a regeneration plan for the town. Having raised a development budget for this work, we then prepared a ten-year regeneration strategy and accompanying action plan.
Our work involved extensive community consultation, analysis of the results of this consultation and gathering of baseline demographic information. The resulting strategy was accompanied by a summary development framework, which contained seven programme strands with key projects identified, and delivery mechanisms.
As part of the consultation process, we surveyed every household in the ward in order to help us establish the priorities for the town. We used postal questionnaires - a total of 1,670 were distributed, of which 735 were completed, returned and then analysed. In addition we hosted focus groups to discuss issues in more detail.
South Molton Town Council asked us to help them seek funding support for their proposed South Molton Economic Enhancement Scheme. The aim of the project was to encourage the development and expansion of locally based businesses through the restoration, refurbishment and better use of two key listed buildings in the town.
In order to persuade funders of the need for the project, we carried out research among four sectors of the community - market traders, creative businesses, community groups and other businesses. Over 600 questionnaires were distributed, and an overall response rate of 29% was achieved. The results of the research informed the scope and development of the proposed project, and were also used to inform estimates of the potential economic impact of the project if it were to go ahead (another crucial factor for funders).