Market Research

Stages of Market Analysis

A market economy is affected by many factors such as supply and demand trends, competition, technological development, and inflation, and any of them can prevent a market player from getting the desired result. To develop one’s business, one needs to conduct research and obtain data to base their product promotion strategy on.

Market analysis includes collecting information about customers, competitors, supply, demand, business environment, and price fluctuations. This type of analysis can be applied to many markets: for example, b2b. consumer, or industrial ones.

The process of market analysis consists of several steps. It is important to identify them before the analysis starts and to follow them closely. These steps are:

1. - Identify your goals.

2. - Create an action plan.

3. - Set up your terms and budget.

4. - Choose your methods.

5. - Conduct market research.

6. - Organize and analyze the data and prepare a report.

How to Create an Analysis Plan

When conducting market analysis, it is always better to follow a detailed plan that fits the scope of the task. Sometimes, studying just one segment is enough. In this case, your plan should include the following steps:

1. - Identify market capacity and dynamics, i.e. the number of orders a company and its competitors might expect within a given period of time.

2. - Analyze competitors, paying attention to their promotion strategy and prices.

3. - Identify and assess product segments. At this stage, an analyst is looking for a group of consumers (a segment) that is most likely to purchase the company’s products. Knowing this data, the company can adjust product properties and the location of its PoS and run a successful marketing campaign 

4. - Analyze sales points and channels, identify possible agents.

5. - Study pricing.

6. - Conduct consumer studies, i.e. identify the habits, preferences, and reactions of the target audience as well as the reasons behind the behavior of different consumer groups. 

7. - Predict future development.

The cost of market analysis depends on the scale of the task. Therefore, before you start the analysis, we recommend carefully choosing specific services and the scope of work that your company requires.