Results: The Great British Mug Survey
First of all, a big thank you if you joined in the Great British Mug Survey last week. It was very interesting to see how you felt about your mugs and what you cared about most when it comes to drinking and purchasing mugs. There were some mixed responses particularly in whether you preferred to buy British and what kind of mug size you preferred. All the data has been really helpful so far and will help develop products here at Jin Designs.
In terms of Jin Designs Mugs, there were a few who felt they would like the choice of two sizes of mugs. This would be great to do one day and hopefully it will happen. As a small business, at this stage, unless a nice investor comes along, two sizes of every design is just not financially possible.
One of the biggest challenges is trying to compete with the range that more established, multi million pound companies like Sophie Allport, Cath Kidston, Emma Bridgewater are able to offer. But maybe there is some way of offering a little more choice for those who want more variety.
A good percentage of those asked were happy with the Jin Designs mug size as it is. For most people, the mugs are the ideal size, fitting neatly under coffee machines, perfect for afternoon tea, and just right for an evening cuppa.
In response to the survey, Designer Jinny said "I'm going to do my best to offer more choice but this could take some time as the business grows. There are a lot of customers who like the mugs as they are in terms of size. So nothing will change in terms of what is currently on offer. But there could well be more choice in the future. I'd like to keep production based in the UK and support British industry as this is important to me and my customers. It's been really interesting to see the responses. I'm grateful to everyone who took part and for all the additional comments people took the time to leave. It's been very helpful."
When it comes to mug size, size does matter. It was a really mixed response:
There was a definite preference to one or two favourite mugs:
But not necessarily a preference for British made:
The preference seems to be for fine bone china. Some of the responses indicated that a thinner rim was preferred. Others preferred a chunkier mug for drinks like coffee or hot chocolate. But it was definitely a resounding victory for fine bone china:
Most people are price conscious but there were 36% who bought because they liked the design, the price didn't matter. Interestingly only 1.4% voted that they didn't care about the design - which does show that we are quite fussy about what our mugs look like and not just what they are made from:
But would you pay more for British made? Most of you say you would and even more say you possibly would...
And in terms of Jin Designs mugs, it looks like some of you would like a bigger size:
Watch this space! To take part in future surveys and help develop products in the future, don't forget to Sign up to the Jin Designs Newsletter