Case Study: Marketing Strategy

Project goals:

The British Heart Foundation operates around 500 shops throughout the UK. The funds raised through the shops are vital to the charity’s income. A clear understanding of the target market is a vital component of success, as this enables the shops to provide the products and services their potential customers want, displayed in the way most likely to appeal to them.

Research was carried out with shop customers, shop managers and volunteers to obtain information on the effect of shop location and design, the types of item to stock, how to keep volunteers happy and how to attract more helpers and customers.

A follow-up survey compared the behaviour and opinions of the wider public – people who donated goods to charity shops, people who bought from charity shops and people who did neither, some BHF supporters and some not. The objectives were to find out ways of increasing the volume of donated goods to BHF shops without compromising on quality, and ideally reducing collection costs.

How the research helped:

BHF was able to make effective decisions on where to open new shops, how to retain and attract volunteers for them, whether to venture into specialist shops for electrical items & furniture, and how best to promote them to potential customers and donors. The research gave them a clearer view of the people on whom they depend so much for income, information which proved to be an important foundation for all their marketing, promotional and development activities.