Comprehensive analysis includes studying the market (its structure, free niches and segments, as well as the niche in which the enterprise operates), information about competitors and consumers, demand for goods and services and their prices, assessment of possible risks, evaluation of the consumer and motives of his behavior. However, it is not necessary to spend resources on searching and processing all the data. To properly plan the analysis, choose a method and use effective tools, it is important to get an idea of what the research is for.
This is why a quality marketing analysis of a market starts with defining its objectives. Depending on what the purpose of the analysis will be, its subject matter is also established, for example:
- in order to analyze the capacity, conjuncture and give an assessment of current and future trends of the market, it is necessary to study its structure;
- subject analysis of goods/services will help to assess the market development and identify the market share of goods/services of the enterprise in the segment;
- finding new sources of sales will help analyze market segments for unoccupied niches;
- comprehensive study of the target segment will help to determine its attractiveness and make the right choice of the target market;
- customer research will help identify key market needs, analyze product demand, and determine the requirements of the target audience;
- economic market research can be conducted to understand the current pricing structure in the industry and to perform price positioning of competitors;
- competitors should be researched to understand the big picture, to identify the companies’ advantages and vulnerabilities, and to develop their own competitive advantages.
In addition, marketing market analysis can be done for different business areas. In this regard, it is important to understand how these areas differ from each other:
B2B , or business-to-business, is a type of commercial interaction characteristic of such spheres as engineering, advertising, staffing agencies, woodworking, and the chemical industry. In these spheres consumers are other companies. At the same time, the number of business customers of such markets is limited, but the average purchase budget is relatively high.
B2C , or “business for the end consumer” – we are talking about all kinds of production of consumer goods (food products, household chemicals, children’s goods, automotive products, car tires, goods for pets, home, repair and so on), shopping centers and store chains, other enterprises that produce goods or provide services to the population. Simply put, B2C markets involve the sale of goods and services to individuals for personal and family use. The average budget and volume of orders may be small, but there are many consumers in this sphere, and the target audience is as diverse as possible.
B2G , or “business to government”, is a type of marketing relationship between business and government. In other words, businesses sell, and government agencies buy (as, for example, in public procurement). The number of customers is limited.
C2C , or “consumer to consumer”, is a type of information and economic interaction, representing, for example, sales in social networks or through special services, some sales in social networks or Instagram, ads in the newspaper and so on. In this case, both the seller and the buyer are individuals. What is important, the sale can be carried out not only through the Internet, but also offline. The peculiarity of the business of C2C markets is the participation of third parties – owners of trading platforms. This sphere is characterized by a large number of consumers and low purchase budgets.
It is obvious that for each sphere a different sales model is applied. This means that the market research will be aimed at finding answers to different questions: for example, how to interest a large number of consumers or how to interest a particular customer, how to find additional outlets and many others.