Research your industry

Gain an understanding of the industry you reside by identifying how to enter the marketplace, see the current trends and compete with other brands.

Any market research you do must be backed up with data you can rely on. This can either be collected yourself using questionnaires and polls, or obtained from trusted sources such as academic journals or the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Explore your industry statistics by gathering the following information:

What statistical information is available?
What information can you gather that indicates market size and number of customers?
What financial data is available in order to approximate industry revenue?
What standards and regulations are required to operate in this industry?
What influencing factors affect this industry? Laws / regulations / weather / fashion / technology / etc

Competitor analysis

Identify the competitors in your industry and investigate their perceived performance compared to you.

Use a chart using an x-axis representing satisfaction and a y-axis representing market share.

Split the chart into quadrants: Contenders, Leaders, Niche and High-performance.
Represent each competitor as a circle, categorise each one by placing the circle in one of the quadrants on the chart.
Determine each competitors price points, value propositions and offers.
Analyse each competitors marketing strategy in terms of how they give, share and serve.

Identify market gaps that your business could fill.

Know how your competitors are performing and identify needs that are currently not being filled.

How do your competitors fall short of these needs?
What do consumers want? What results they looking for?
Find market gaps that you can fill with your products and services.
Explore ways you can differentiate between these offerings and your competitors products and services.
Investigate how you currently give, share and serve for the needs in this gap. What can you give, share and server more?

Define your target market

With your knowledge of the industry, the businesses you are competing with and the identified market gaps you can fill, you can now define your target market.

Is there a particular demographic or psycho-graphic segment of your target market you can focus on?
What particular challenges do these segments experience?
How can you match your products and services to each segment?

Identify barriers to entry

Determine the factors that are preventing your business from entering the marketplace.

Financial obstacles and risks

The initial investment required to cover product development, technology, patent protection, stock etc. needs to be judged as viable within your current working turnover and cash-flow limitations.

Regulatory obstacles and risks

Determine what legal costs, regulatory compliance, certifications and any other requirements need to be met.

Operational obstacles and risks

Assess the current market appetite for your business and determine the external factors that may be affecting customer spending.

Try our marketing workshops for FREE

The first FREE introductory workshop will cover the Business Posture section of the Strategy Builder training programme.

This 45 minute call will cover the following areas:

Splitting your marketing activities into customer acquisition and customer nurturing marketing strategies
Add clarity to your objectives by asserting a well defined USP
Generate a business posture by presenting value and results combined with your passion to deliver

The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Improving Communication and Measuring Success. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

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