Market Analysis
- Market analysis
- Marketing strategy
- Brand identity development
- Marketing activities plan
Market Analsis
First define the market you are plannig to enter. Clear bounderies must be defined. Be as specififc as possible. For example:
- Hair dresser market
- Hair dresser market in Switzerland
- Hair dresser for men in Switzerland
- Mid-priced (CHF30-CHF50 per cut) hair dresser for men in Switzerland
- Mid-priced hair dresser for men in in towns of 200,000 and more inhabitants in Switzerland
The last proposition is an acceptable market definition to start a marketing strategy.
Collect all the relevant information you can about the market you are planning to enter.
- what is the size of the market, what are relevant trends
- Who are the competitors, what are their position in the market in terms of image, price, services, what are their strentgh and weaknesses, why are they gaining share or losing share, etc...
- Who are the customer, what are their margins, what do they want / need, what needs are not being met, potential new customers
- How can the market be segmented be further segment. In our example for example: hair dresser for men only versus hair for men and women.
Self anlaysis
You must know your own strenght and weaknesses
- what are your financial ressources
- What are your human ressources i.e. what expertise, experience do you have
- If you are already in business, what part of your current assets can you leverage for your new ventures (marketing, operations, sales, technology, etc...
Collect all the facts you deem relevant for your business ventures. Structure your findings in SWOT matrix.
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunies and Threats)
After the market and self analysis summarize the information with some SWOT matrix. It is imperatibve to have SWOT matrix for yourself and for your competition.
To better structure the information use the "strenght" and weakness" catergories for internal elements and "opportunities" and "threat" for "external" factors.
- Strength: what you do better than your competition
- Weakness: what limits your ability to serve the market better or as well as your competitor
- Opportunity: external factor that may positively impact your performance
- Threat: external factor that may negatively impact your performance