My daughter is learning the basics of market size and market share. Does anyone have data or an estimate of how many mass-produced Irish whistles are sold annually worldwide? How about by manufacturer? Thanks.
You might try emailing some companies:
Feadog: whistles@feadog.ie
Clarke: info@clarketinwhistle.com
I’m not sure about the others. I gues Chieftains are also mass produced (Phils website is: http://kerrywhistles.co.uk)
Don’t kow if this helps or not, but good luck on the project.
Companies may not want to give out financial information on sales. Another number to ask for is the number of full time employees. If a person can find that out, and get data from similar industries, a person can do the math and get a back of the envelope number. Average would be $250,000 gross sales per full time employee. Of course one person shops often have have widely divergent numbers, however, for small businesses with employees, that will give a ballpark.
Lacking any hard data, a person could look at the traffic on Ebay, and get a rough estimate that way, if they have data on other industries. Ebay would also be a decent place to get an idea of market share, though of course it is a skewed sample.
Calling or emailing some of the major musical instrument mail order retailers might yield some data, but again, some places are not going to want to discuss financial information. They have no idea who is calling and anyone can say they are doing research for school, when they might be intending to become competitors.
Sorry to be contrary Bill but I think you are way of base with the
250,000 gross sales per full time employee. At least in the whistle
business. Most mass produced whistles are both labor and machine intensive endeavors and cost of materials is neglible. 250,000 is 2 to 3 times to high at best and using Ebay as a barometer for total sales is ridiculous. 99% of whistles are sold through distributors, music and souveneir stores and online retailers. I’m not telling but I obviously
know how many whistles we make/sell annually (Susato) and have first
hand knowledge of how many Feadog make/sell and if you add
Clarke, Generation, Walton’s and others to the mix it is most likely
over 1 million a year. Which, compared to recorders is almost
nothing. There you go… a little inside knowledge.
Kelhorn Mike
Mike, thanks for the inside knowledge. That’s enough to get her started.
A million whistles a year? Wow.
Hmm… it wouldn’t make sense to take the whole of world population, so let’s take the population of North American and Europe, which is roughly 1 billion. If no one bought more than one whistle per year (yeah, right!), that would mean that only one person in a thousand bought a whistle. Of course, then there’s the resale market, too.
So, what would explain why so many of them have been showing up in my house?!
I’m sure that Dale has figures, but since he gets a licensing fee everytime some says “whistle”, “penny” or “crystal people” he probably won’t want to let us know how rich he really is…
A sad thought: what percentage of those million or so whistles end up in a landfill or “lost” by the end of the year? I’m guessing the percentage for cheapie whistles (and for low-end recorders) is probably higher than we’d like to think, given the number of other toys that end up lost or tossed. So, on a brighter note, think of WHoA as something akin to working in the animal shelter or for the Salvation Army, saving those who might otherwise be lost.
I was thinking of opening up a home for wayward Rose, Copeland and Busman whistles… strictly out of my own pocket of course… that’s the kind of guy I am… 
EXCELLENT idea! After all, if Jerry Freeman can succeed with his rehabilitation of blue-collar, misguided delinquent tooters, there’s no reason why these privileged, entitled silver-spoon tweeties can’t be put on a proper track as well. They just need lots of structure, some demands on their time and a lot less coddling! I’d be honored to head up the Precious Metal Conical Bore Unit if you ever need a hand!