Perform a Market Research
Assigned to:
John Doe
Detailed description:
Target market: In marketing and advertising, a target audience, or target group is the primary group of people that something, usually an advertising campaign, is aimed at appealing to. A target audience can be people of a certain age group, gender, marital status, etc. (ex: teenagers, females, single people, etc.) A certain combination, like men from twenty to thirty is often a target audience. Other groups, although not the main focus, may also be interested. Discovering the appropriate target market(s) to market a product or service to is one of the most important stages involved with market research. Without knowing the target audience, a company's advertising and the selling efforts can become difficult and very expensive.
Strategic Environment: Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions. When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. An Castoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing plan to pursue a defined strategy.
There are a many companies especially those in the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) market that adopt the theory of running their business cent red around Consumer, Shopper & Retailer needs. Their Marketing departments spend quality time looking for "Growth Opportunities" in their categories by identifying relevant insights (both mind sets and behaviours) on their target Consumers, Shoppers and retail partners. These Growth Opportunities emerge from changes in market trends, segment dynamics changing and also internal brand or operational business challenges.The Marketing team can then prioritise these Growth Opportunities and begin to develop strategies to exploit the opportunities that could include new or adapted products, services as well as changes to the 4Ps.
Real-life marketing primarily revolves around the application of a great deal of common-sense; dealing with a limited number of factors, in an environment of imperfect information and limited resources complicated by uncertainty and tight timescales. Use of classical marketing techniques, in these circumstances, is inevitably partial and uneven.
Thus, for example, many new products will emerge from irrational processes and the rational development process may be used (if at all) to screen out the worst non-runners. The design of the advertising, and the packaging, will be the output of the creative minds employed; which management will then screen, often by 'gut-reaction', to ensure that it is reasonable.
For most of their time, marketing managers use intuition and experience to analyze and handle the complex, and unique, situations being faced; without easy reference to theory. This will often be 'flying by the seat of the pants', or 'gut-reaction'; where the overall strategy, coupled with the knowledge of the customer which has been absorbed almost by a process of osmosis, will determine the quality of the marketing employed. This, almost instinctive management, is what is sometimes called 'coarse marketing'; to distinguish it from the refined, aesthetically pleasing, form favored by the theorists.Competitors: The first step of performing a marketing competitor analysis is to identify your current competitors. Not only that but you also need to identify your potential future competitors. There can be two ways of doing that;
Look at them from a customer’s point of view
Look at them from their point of view
By looking at them from a customer’s point of view, you are looking at their major strengths and flaws. In other words, you are doing the first part of the SWOT analysis. You think like a customer would. Why would a customer go for their services? Is it because they do things differently or their quality is top notch? Either way these things are like strengths for the competitors. You put yourself in the customer’s shoes and wonder why you would go for them instead of coming to your own company.
Industry: Now you’ll need to outline what’s happening in the industry from a number of wide angles that would help the reader of your business plan get the gist of whether on the whole if its a good or bad place to be. A great general-purpose tool for doing just that is something called the PEST Analysis. Here’s what it stands for and what you should consider:
P - Political factors: What role the government plays in your industry?
E - Economic factors: What is the state of economy on both a local and national level?
S - Social factors: What the relevant changes in matters like lifestyle trends, demographics, consumer attitudes, buying patterns and opinions?
T - Technological factors: What is the impact of changing technological trends on your industry?
Analysis: Interpreting or analysing the results you have gained is a key step to getting the most from your market research. It is essential to gain a thorough understanding of what your research is saying - as you may get some unexpected results.
As you review your information and start to interpret what it means for you, consider whether you have gathered enough data to give you conclusive results. You may need to do further research to reach a conclusion.
our data analysis provides the basis for drawing conclusions. Ultimately, market research provides information that reduces risk and uncertainty and increases your chance of business success. The final conclusions should meet your initial objectives; consider what options you have discovered in your analysis to best meet your larger business objectives. To reach conclusions about your research:examine the major themes and trends
review the tables you created when processing your data and refer to your objectives to be sure you have enough information to reach informed conclusions
assess and separately list the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats you have identified
look for gaps in your information that make it difficult to draw a definitive conclusion from the results of your research
review your initial research plan and consider what you need to change to provide more comprehensive results.