How do I get a mailing list, or any advice on how to go about this. I'm trying to do a market research for a product that I'm thinking about.

How to bring together some retired Senior Citizens to ask for their opinion? (obvioulsy not here. or no on the internet.)

4/8/2008 11:00:49 AM

go to old peoples home.


they are dying to talk to somebody

4/8/2008 11:01:36 AM

I would think a mailing list would be big $$$$ with little return. How many opinions do you need anyways? Just ask the questions here and we'll tell you what our grandparents would answer.

4/8/2008 11:07:06 AM

^^

4/8/2008 11:09:44 AM

Quote :

"they are dying to talk to somebody"

4/8/2008 11:11:03 AM

Not the senior citizens in the nursing homes. The ones in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s.

I prefer to do a mailing list to get a sample size of at least 500 returns. That's going to cost me some $$$ but, I'm willing to pay for it.

4/8/2008 11:16:07 AM

Damn, what is the ratio of received:mailed back projected at? I would think 1:10 would be damn good, meaning you'd send out 5,000... Plus bulk mailing, printing, all that, how much are you thinking? $5,000?

4/8/2008 11:26:57 AM

I was thinking $2,000 as my budget for this. I was thinking a 3:10 response rate. Maybe direct mailing would not be the best way to do this.

Anyway.. anyone recommend some good list brokers that are affordable ?? and lets you reuse the list etc ??

4/8/2008 11:43:40 AM

There are 100's of list companies nationwide-there's sure to be one specific to exactly what you are looking for. I would think you'd pay between 10-20 cents per name with their name, address, and age included.

There has to be a site/blog whatever that tracks return rates on the materials sent. I really don't know what a reasonable rate of return is, but I would be damn happy with 10 percent.

4/8/2008 11:50:43 AM

I suppose it depends on how many you need. But I had a grad-level communication campaign class, and we needed focus groups. We ended up with two groups, probably 6-8 people in each. Plenty for a focus group, but not for a survey.

Post some information with your contact info in coffee shops, or anywhere you think you might get enough of your target audience.

It really depends on what type of "survey" you're looking to do.

Edit: Also, sorry, I didn't read all the responses where you specified some of this info.

[Edited on April 8, 2008 at 12:24 PM. Reason : edit]

4/8/2008 12:23:19 PM

there is a pretty big senior center in bond park in cary (so older people but not people about to die) you could hang out there and ask people (or to go more professional, book a room and actually do a market research group and provide food/compensation)

also if i remember correctly, there is also one of those senior living communities down the road from Green Hope Highschool on 55 (or in that general area). It ranges from people who are active seniors to people in assisted living. But I think it would be harder to organize something through that since its a private community than through the senior center

4/8/2008 12:25:58 PM

Quote :

"book a room and actually do a market research group and provide food/compensation"

That is a damn good idea now that I think of it. You won't get 500 responses (maybe 25-50) but old people love them some free food and drink. You could be done with 2 hours of planning/purchasing and 2 hours of presenting/setup/teardown. If they allow booze you could do a wine sampling or something.

4/8/2008 12:32:01 PM

Quote :

" Not the senior citizens in the nursing homes. The ones in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s. "

You might want to clarify your terminology a bit... late 50s isn't a senior citizen. Age 65+ is typically considered a "senior citizen" simply because that is the age when you can start collecting social security.

My parents are 60 years old this year, they each work a full-time and a weekend job. They aren't senior citizens, nor retired, but they are in your population of interest..... But, if you called them senior citizens or tried to market a product for "old people" to them they'd get pretty annoyed. Also, don't underestimate senior citizens' internet savy... my dad is an eBay powerseller and a major forum moderator. My aunt is in her mid 60s and she has her own part time business as an IT consultant.... Just things to consider. You must have a young family =p



[Edited on April 8, 2008 at 12:48 PM. Reason : .]

4/8/2008 12:46:39 PM

yay! i had a damn good idea!

and also on that note - with a $2k budget, if you want more responses you could just do a series of them at senior centers all over raleigh

[Edited on April 8, 2008 at 2:17 PM. Reason : .]

4/8/2008 2:16:38 PM

This is gonna sound like a smartass response, but I'm serious. Go to golden corral, CVS or some other old persons hot spot and offer a couple bucks off of a meal (or whatever)for survey takers. Of course this won't provide ALL of your respondents, but it could help. You will need to go much wider to get a good cross section of seniors.

4/8/2008 4:33:55 PM

21% responders is what you should expect.

4/8/2008 4:35:49 PM

Ok, Statistician to the rescue. You've got a couple of problems here. I would just go ahead and forget the mailing list idea. You'd probably get a 5% response rate, the logistics of mailing thousands of surveys and computing the responses is too expensive and time-consuming for your budget, and even if you were to get 500 responses, it wouldn't matter because the minority that would respond wouldn't represent your target population. What is your target population btw? All Americans over 55? All people with a certain health problem? All retired people? Are you even at a point where a formal survey is appropriate for your product? Maybe you should first talk to 10-20 seniors to gauge interest and make improvements/correct flaws you overlooked before you try to gather a big sample. Either way, I don't think your amateur surveying is going to get you reliable results. There are professionals for this--I visited a company in DC that designs surveys and employs people to call people for their opinions--but I don't know what their prices are.

4/9/2008 8:34:11 PM

you could always ask a sociology or polysci professor in CHASS, particularly the soc people.....they are generally well versed in surveying

4/9/2008 9:24:55 PM