Market Research is not a secret but a lot of work.

It provides you which information about products, markets, competitors and even more.

This information is essential in order to evaluate your steps in developing and marketing.

Market research should be done before the implementation of important steps, such as
the introduction of a new product or export activities into a new market.

If we do market research we normally want to know:

  • the market volume
  • and the market share of your competitors.

Both questions are simple but difficult to answer.

The market volume depends mainly on available statistics.

The market share of your customer is a secret; the maximum you will receive is the
overall turnover of the company.

Your are lucky if you have only a few competitors with a limited range of comparable
products.

The perfect result would be to receive the number of products with almost identical
characteristics, sold over the year.

With this number and the market price we would be able to calculate the market share
of your competitor.

The total market volume and your target share against your competitors is important to
decide if the investment will pay or not.

To estimate your potential share we have to evaluate “soft” information such as how
competitive your product is in:

  • features & benefits
  • pricing & discount
  • quality
  • service

This competition analysis should also consider the distribution channels, the market
price and the discount for reseller, the complexity of the product, the qualification of
its reseller and the need of the demand.

And do not forget to take your competitors reaction into account!

Estimating the total costs e.g. of opening up a new market you have to know the
additional the costs for certification, homologation and other approvals by authorities
such as TÜV and DEKRA.

Reducing the risk means also to know your rights on patents, labels and brand names
which you want to use.

The above version is a kind of top-down approach! The bottom-up version would check the essentials and simply start e.g. with a show or contacting key customer.

 

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