The goal of a market analysis is to determine the attractiveness of a market and to understand its evolving opportunities and threats as they related to the strengths and weaknesses of the firm.

Situational Analysis and Objectives SpecificationCollection of dataMarket SurveyMarket description Demand ForecastingMarket planning

Identify emerging and relevant values and attitudes shaping behavior in order to make optimal marketing decisions.

Answers the why are we here? It provides a background on the

factors that influence the company’s functions and performance

THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS•Macro environment

•Market

•Competition

•Product

•SWOT

THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS – Macro environmental Situation

Define and analyze:•Economy

•Technology

•Political/legal

•Social/cultural trends – education, lifestyle changes

THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS – MarketHow to appropriately identify your target market:

•Demographic descriptors –attributes of individual customers

•Geographic descriptors – define trade area

•Behavioral descriptors – benefits sought by the customer

THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS – Competition•Develop a competitor profile: customer base, products or services, revenues, marketing strategies?

•Sources for information: marketing materials, employee and customer networks, news releases, prior knowledge

•Continually monitor competitive landscape on a periodic basis

THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS –

Product•Determine and prioritize customer needs

•Identify the benefits of your products/services in meeting customer needs

•Know where your products/services rank in the competitive landscape

SWOT ANALYSIS

Conducting a SWOT analysis that identifies company’s internal strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) from the perspective of the products/services offered and examines external opportunities (O) and threats(T)

What the company is concerned with

What it stands forUsually this information is found in mission and vision statements

Company’s mission History Sales and profits Market share Product offerings Key personnel Capital resources

Primary data: information that is developed or gathered by the researcher specifically for the research project at hand

Secondary data: information that has previously been gathered by someone other than the researcher and/or for some other purpose than the research project at hand

SurveysObservationsOne on one interviews

ConsumersEmployeesCompetitors

LibraryDatabases

Defining the target market Selecting the sample Developing the questionnaire Training the surveyors Recording the information Interpreting the information

Effective demand Breakdown of demand Price Consumers Interest Methods of distribution Sales promotion Supply and competition Government policy

An activity of determining qty. of goods to be purchased in Future

Necessity for forecasting DemandStock EffectsMarket Response effects

Qualitative Methods

Consumer’s opinion survey. Sales force composite. Experts opinion method. Delphi technique

Econometric method.Barometric method.Time series method.