Road to The Position:
Market Analysis
"Oh god, how boring is this? And difficult. And expensive. And is it really necessary? We just want to release our product!" There are many pre-conceptions about market insight/analysis. And the scope of a market analysis project can become huge making many companies just skip this vital step. Don't. It doesn't need to be that monsterous.
Most companies have access to more information than they think through partners, customers and employees. It's just about finding smart and effective ways of gathering this information. It doesn't need to be too complicated.
Market insight is the knowledge of how you are preceived on the market (your strength & weakness), who you are compared with, how your competitors are positioning themselves and their products, who your customers are and what their true reasons are to buy.
Without knowledge, you risk shooting into the dark. And the investments you are putting on product development and brand messaging might just disappear into thin air.
Market anaysis is a vital support prior to or during the development of a product to ensure that you are reaching a relevant target group, that your prodcut is relevant in itself (do you need to tweak the functionalities?) and that the message you want to send out is relevant to the people you want to address. It is also key in next generation product development or product portfolio development to ensure relevance to customers.
Online Surveys
Online surveys is a great tool to use on customers, partners or employees to get a general idea of how your brand or product is perceived. And to understand the buying process - what other products or brands you are being compared with.
In an online survey you can compare different data/regions/type of customers in order to see general trends and patterns.
SurveyMonkey it an example of an cost-effective yet powerful tool to get an overview of how you are being perceived.
Interviews
Direct questions will most likely not give you the answers you are looking for and it's often easier for an external part to conduct interviews and get answers. It requires sensitivity and interview skills to pick up things that might have relevance.
Interviews is also a great tool to follow up on a survey in order to get more in-depth information of customer behaviour.
Competitor Analysis
In order to know what position on the market you should claim, you need to understand the competitive landcscape. Trying to claim a positon on the market that is already being occupied by a competitor will be challenging - and unlikely to succeed.
There are competitors at different levels:
- Direct competitors: offers comparable technologies and products
- Indirect competitors: offers a solution that solves the same type of problem as your product using an other type of technology
By looking at what channels your competitors are using, how they are communicating and positioning themselves, you will have a much higher chance of succeeding with you product positioning and find effective strategies to reach your target customers.
Workshops
I loves workshops. It's an inspiring way to gather a lot of information while also building brand awareness and getting people to move in a unified direction.
It can be used with employees, partners and customers. Separately or together. The result will be successful but requires smart and creative exercises that fit your purpose, an understanding of group dynamics and almost neurotic agenda planning.
Learn more about workshops
Contact me today!
Contact Details
Linda Rosdahl
+46 (0)760399540
Linda@CuriousCone.com
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