How would you go about this market sizing question: 'How many barbershops/hairdressers are there in the UK?'

Question

case interview preparation estimation market sizing market estimation Market sizing

New answer on Dec 21, 2020

5 Answers

2.9 k Views

Anonymous A asked on Dec 18, 2020

Hi,

I was practicing market sizing questions, and came across this question:

How many barbershops/hairdressers are there in the UK?

I went about about this question through these steps:

1) Population (65m)
2) Working age adults (I estimated this to be 33m as I made the assumption that 0-19 and 60-80 do not work and/or they do but at negligible rates)
3) Proportion of working age adults that are hairdressers/barbers (I estimated 1%)
4) Average number of workers in a barbershop/hairdressers (I estimated 10)
5) Divide the total no. of hairdressers by average number of workers in a barbershop/hairdresser

This got me to an answer of 33,000.

I would be grateful for any suggestions as to how to approach this question and whether my approach can be improved!

Overview of answers

Sort by:

Only show saved answers

Related Products

Prepped and Primed

5.0

3 1-on-1 Coaching Sessions
Fully tailored and customized
100+ video course included

USD 1,107

USD 989

Ian

CoachingPlus 5

4.3

5 coachings à 60 minutes with CoachingPlus experts
Plus a Premium Membership (6 weeks)
Your ideal case interview preparation course

USD 1,054

USD 729

PrepLounge

Premium Prep (20 weeks access)

4.5

ALL the resources you need for your case interview preparation
Unlimited access to 200+ cases, video tutorials, and 220+ case interview exercises
No subscription trap or automatic renewal

USD 199

PrepLounge

Premium Prep (6 weeks access)

4.5

ALL the resources you need for your case interview preparation
Unlimited access to 200+ cases, video tutorials, and 220+ case interview exercises
No subscription trap or automatic renewal

USD 89

PrepLounge

Related Cases

Company case by Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman case: Full Electrons Ahead

Style:

Candidate-led (usual style)

Topics:

Growth strategy , Market analysis , Market sizing , Operations strategy

Rating:

4.4

Your client, large automotive OEM WyCar, has developed its first fully electric vehicle (EV) and introduced it as a pilot on the Austrian market last year. However, sales have been far below the expected numbers. The management has engaged you to support them in understanding the reasons and advise ... (Open whole case)

109.7k

Times solved

4.4

6.6k Ratings

Intermediate

Difficulty

Company case by Bain & Company

Bain Case: Old Winery

Style:

Candidate-led (usual style)

Topics:

Growth strategy , Market analysis , Market sizing , Mergers & Acquisition

Rating:

4.4

You have inherited the “Old Winery” from your grandfather, a winery that has been family-owned for five generations and can be dated back to the 16th century.Half of the eleven hectares are used to grow white grapes, the other half to grow red grapes. They are grown in a conventional way, i.e. they ... (Open whole case)

98.2k

Times solved

4.4

2.0k Ratings

Intermediate

Difficulty

Company case by Roland Berger

Roland Berger Case: Onlinestar

Style:

Candidate-led (usual style)

Topics:

Growth strategy , Market analysis , Profitability analysis

Rating:

4.3

Onlinestar, an online retailer of furniture and garden products (core business), has grown significantly in recent years as a result of an expansion of its product portfolio. The company mainly imports goods from Chinese manufacturers but also operates its own production of cat lavatories (special b ... (Open whole case)

75.7k

Times solved

4.3

1.1k Ratings

Intermediate

Difficulty

Nutripremium

Unlock with Premium

Style:

Candidate-led (usual style)

Topics:

Market analysis , Market entry , Market sizing

Rating:

4.5

Nutripremium is a very well-known premium nutrition food company in Europe (€1 billion revenue last year). It is based in Spain and has an excellent market share not only in its home country but also in Portugal, France, Italy and Germany. Nutripremium has two main lines of products:Vitamin-sup ... (Open whole case)

70.4k

Times solved

4.5

2.3k Ratings

Advanced

Difficulty

Children vaccine

Unlock with Premium

Style:

Candidate-led (usual style)

Topics:

Market entry , Market sizing , New product

Rating:

4.4

Beyer, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, just invented a very reliable vaccine against Chickenpox, a disease that affects children in the age from 2 to 16 years.Beyer came to you wondering what their potential sales in Europe in the first year would be if they launched this p ... (Open whole case)

59.9k

Times solved

4.4

2.3k Ratings

Advanced

Difficulty

Answer 1

Best answer

Ian

Expert

Content Creator

updated an answer on Aug 26, 2021

MBB | 100% personal interview success rate (8/8) and 95% candidate success rate | Personalized interview prep

Hi there,

Sorry to be so blunt, but you already failed at step 2.

Remember, market sizing isn't about coming to the exact right answer insomuch as it's about assessing your ability to have structured thinking and ability to think reasonably. You didn't do this :/

Wrong approach - You cannot just randomly guess what % of your total pop is hairdressers in order to figure out how many hairdressers are in the UK. This is not breaking down a problem into logical segments in order to make more reasonable assumptions. You literally just said "ah, maybe x% multiplied by the total population!"...that's not strategic thinking...sorry!

Ok, so, how to we fix this? Well, we have to look at what ways I can break this down into more reasonable steps/assumptions!

So, let's thinking about:

# of people in the UK
# of haircuts per person per year
1. Think monthly
2. Break down population into reasonable segments that affect frequency of haircuts
Throughput of an average barbershop/hairdresser
1. Think hourly and expand out
Calculate # of shops needed (by # of haricuts and throughput)

And viola! Much more reasonable to make these kinds of assumptions!

Hope this helps, but feel free to message with any questions!

Take a look here for additional practice! https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/brain-teaser/intermediate/taxis-in-manhattan-market-sizing-229

(edited)

Was this answer helpful?

4

Answer 2

Clara

Expert

Content Creator

replied on Dec 20, 2020

McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

Like the approach!

You can also think it by population who needs a haircut, extrapolating by the number of barbrshops you konw there are in an area, etc.

However, yours works
Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Was this answer helpful?

3

Answer 3

Vlad

Expert

Content Creator

replied on Dec 19, 2020

McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

I would rather go with demand:

Population (men, women, age split)
Frequency of haircuts by group
Average capacity and occupancy of a barbershop
Number of barbershops by dividing total demand and supply of one barbershop (adjusted by av occupancy)

Best

Was this answer helpful?

3

Answer 4

Adi

Expert

Content Creator

replied on Dec 19, 2020

Accenture, Deloitte | Precision Case Prep | Experienced Interviewer & Career Coach | 15 years professional experience

Hey,

I think good first attempt. But there are some weaknesses in your approach:

Why 1% are hair dressers- how do you back that assumption?
Think about men or women's salon/hair dressers/barber
Think about hours of operations, number of people getting services in a day etc

Have a look at these threads for a similar question & solution:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-many-hair-salons-in-new-york-1795
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/market-size-5281

Was this answer helpful?

2

Answer 5

Gaurav

Expert

Content Creator

replied on Dec 21, 2020

Ex-Mckinsey|Certified Career Coach |Placed 500+ candidates at MBB & other consultancies

Hi there,

Interesting question! Thank you for sharing.

I agree that it makes more sense to build your reasoning starting with the demand.

Don't forget that haircut is not the only reason people go to hairdressers.

Was it helpful?

GB

Was this answer helpful?

1

How would you go about this market sizing question: 'How many barbershops/hairdressers are there in the UK?'

Overview of answers

Related Products

Related Articles

Case Interview 2023

EY-Parthenon Case Guide

Bain Case Interview

Case Interview Prep

Free Guide to LEK Consulting Case Interviews

The Most Common Pitfalls in Case Interview Preparation

Candidate-Led Cases vs. Interviewer-Led Cases

Related Cases

Related Case Interview Basics article(s)

Similar Questions

Case study: consulting offer or ownership stake

McKinsey and BCG interview preparation - 2nd attempt

Market size calculation for school buses

Related Products

Prepped and Primed

CoachingPlus 5

Premium Prep (20 weeks access)

Premium Prep (6 weeks access)

Related Articles

Case Interview 2023

EY-Parthenon Case Guide

Bain Case Interview

Case Interview Prep

Free Guide to LEK Consulting Case Interviews

The Most Common Pitfalls in Case Interview Preparation

Candidate-Led Cases vs. Interviewer-Led Cases

Similar Questions

Case study: consulting offer or ownership stake

McKinsey and BCG interview preparation - 2nd attempt

Market size calculation for school buses