Business development has always been a challenge. Looking back over the past three years, you’ll notice that the business growth of many companies has also been slowed by various adverse events, from pandemics to severe inflation amid geopolitical events. To launch a successful business and, most importantly, to stay afloat, you cannot do without analyzing the market and adopting a suitable growth strategy. It is an in-depth and complex process that requires effort, but in this article, you can learn about the 5 best market analysis techniques to help execute your growth strategy.

Why is market analysis so crucial to your business?

Market analysis is the process of monitoring and evaluating all market trends. It helps to determine the sustainability of a product before it goes to market and define consumer behavior patterns to assess their buying patterns.

Market research covers the following important aspects for a business:

Knowing your competitors before entering the market

Competitors are an integral part of the business, which can be both bad and good. For one thing, with their help, you can learn more about new industry trends, the needs and wants of the customers, and possible problems regarding the product that you might also encounter and avoid. All of this allows you to compete on par with the rest and even come out ahead when you apply the proper method of market analysis.

A greater understanding of your customers

The more understanding you posess of your clients, the higher the likelihood of success and increased interest in your offerings. The market analysis allows you to develop a complete map of your clients and their wishes on which you can base your business strategy.

Stimulates development

The market analysis allows companies to hit their audience(s) precisely, spot mistakes quickly, and find business loopholes to help you save money without losing efficiency. Research dramatically reduces risks and can save your company from collapse because to stay in the game; the main thing is to get the understanding and then meet the needs of their customers in time. For example, Nokia could not take action in time to meet the desires of consumers and could not stay in the market. At the same time, Apple listened and still listens to the changes and wants of customers, and it is the most successful company in terms of the performance of electronic gadgets and digital content.

How to conduct a market analysis?

Given the speed of change in our world, it’s essential to know the right ways to analyze the market to apply the best strategy for business growth for your company. Below we will demonstrate the top 5 ways to identify market opportunities for a successful business growth cycle.

Consumer Segmentation

Customer segmentation involves dividing customers into groups based on common traits, such as demographics, geography, psychographics, behavior, etc. This helps business owners and managers assess potential demand for their product/service, and then target the right audience. By categorizing customers by gender, age, location, education level, preferences, hobbies, values, and motivation to buy, you can offer your product to the most likely buyers which is crucial for proper business performance. For instance, if a business wants to launch an online legal advice platform, it might want to analyze population stats & divorce rates in the target area. It will help tailor their civil law advice sub service to ensure the offer resonates with potential clients.

Buying Model Analysis

Information about how customers shop can help you understand and improve your selling proposition. Knowing your clients’ purchasing patterns lets you know, in particular:

When exactly do people make a purchase or order your services
When your customers need your offerings the most
Where exactly the purchase takes place
How customers pay for it

You can position your product according to your customer’s interests by answering these questions. For example, e-commerce is gaining popularity today, so customers expect flexible payment options and efficient delivery of their orders. Retailers who understand this have optimized their business to make it much more convenient, ensuring checkout in minutes and thus capitalizing on impulse customer purchases.

Direct and indirect competitor analysis

Direct and indirect competitor analyses are considered by business growth marketing strategies that improve your existing offerings and attract new audiences. Speaking about each of these types of analysis in more detail:

Direct competitor analysis analyzes companies that offer similar products or services; Pepsi and Coca-Cola, for example, are direct competitors. This analysis primarily aims to determine your direct competitors’ actions to create a substantial competitive advantage. Ask yourself: which brands in your niche are the most popular, and what is their value proposition? How do they market their products or services, and what competitive advantage do you have over them?;
An indirect competitor analysis studies companies with the same target audience but offering different products. You are operating on the same plane, like Nutella and Jam – sweet spreads on bread, pancakes, etc. In that case, one of these companies can research the sales of the other better to understand their position in the competitive sweet paste market.

This analysis method will guide you to interpret your business market better and establish a value proposition with a competitive advantage over others.

Diversification Analysis

Diversification is a risky business growth strategy. Therefore, before you take this step, you must ensure you have the right skills, resources and business model. Consider the 5 critical stages of business growth, namely:

Existence
Survival
Success
Rise
Resource Maturity

It would help if you were firmly in the fifth stage of growth, resource maturity, to pull off diversification successfully. Analyze potential market sectors. Which would benefit from your offering, and consider possible competition and growth potential. You must be sure that diversification will not weaken your brand and that new offerings will not go unnoticed by competitors because even large corporations like Google can fail. The company once released an alternative to the Google Glass smartphone, but the product was subjected to thousands of complaints about poor quality and was discontinued after 2 years.

While Xiaomi, a major Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has expanded its range to smartwatches, routers, and vacuum cleaners, these products are in demand.

Environmental Analysis

External factors significantly impact how your business will develop, so it’s a good idea to consider them before go-to-market launch. Economic, geopolitical, technological, and many other situations can help you assess the market’s attractiveness and develop successful strategies. Today, for example, the market is very much influenced by technology, so digital marketing strategy is a significant lever of business growth strategy. There is an excellent emphasis on digitalization and automation, and many companies have started or are planning to invest in this area.

It should be noted that external market analysis should happen non-stop because every minute, something is changing, and we can see the consequences of these causes very soon.

What to do next?

Analyzing the market above will help you form the most appropriate business plan. By following the business insider information, the sooner you act, the better. However, it would be best if you remembered that not all market opportunities would work for you. The best solution is to invest in all kinds of research and analysis before you enter a new market and make changes to your product.

Top 5 Techniques to Match Your Business & its Target Market

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