Markets change. And to stay relevant and profitable in them, businesses must keep abreast of those changes. Too often companies overlook their potential, trading future growth for present security as they strive to simply stay afloat.
To combat stagnation and harness unmet and even unknown opportunity, companies must opt, not only for ongoing assessment of their own strengths and weaknesses, but also for routine market analysis that lays bare the threats and possibilities that surround them.
A market analysis makes use of both past and contemporary facts and figures so that products can be made and marketed at the right price to the right people. Take a look at two common market analysis techniques that can help you recognize and anticipate meaningful market changes, safeguarding your products, policies and procedures:
A SWOT Analysis
Quite often, a basic evaluation of your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) can help you better understand the internal and external factors affecting your bottom line. Critical examination of company-specific traits (such as financial and human resources, physical plant characteristics, employee policies and manufacturing processes), when coupled with insights developed after looking at the external influences affecting your company (such as industry trends, consumer demographics, social policies and partner relations), allows you to pinpoint exactly what is and is not working within a broader context. By highlighting pluses and minuses side-by-side in a column, you are afforded a quick comparison that often leads to startling realizations (especially when company weaknesses are evaluated against market threats). And the end result: a market analysis technique that provides the means for better decisions and (hopefully) more profitable action.
A PEST Analysis
In addition to specific internal and external issues, there are multiple macroenvironmental factors that affect a company’s profit potential. A PEST analysis is a market analysis technique that seeks to uncover the political, economic, social and technological issues impacting a company at a given time. By examining governmental policies, employment laws, political activities and trade/tax regulations; studying interest and employment rates and economic trends; uncovering consumer and customer demographics; and exploring technological change (all components of a PEST analysis), you can attempt to forecast market development, mitigating your company’s risk and improving its performance for the future along the way.
Want More Information?
A quality market assessment provides companies with quantifiable data regarding many of the issues influencing a particular market. It doesn’t, however, offer much (if any) qualitative information. If you need help figuring out the type of data you need, as well as how you can collect it, so that you can make the best decisions and increase ROI, contact our team at Communications for Research. We can help you determine if market analysis techniques make sense for your objectives or if more comprehensive market research methods would be better. Don’t just guess; the stakes are too high!
