I gave this presentation on February 16, 2016, at the Decatur Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center. It covers market analysis competitive analysis, the importance of target markets, pricing strategies, and positioning in the marketplace.

1. Market Analysis

2. What We’ll Cover Today
Understanding your market
Analyzing your competitors
Defining target markets
Pricing strategies
Positioning

3. What We’ll Cover Today
Understanding your market
Analyzing your competitors
Defining target markets
Pricing strategies
Positioning

4. Questions to ask
 Is your market growing or shrinking?
 Is there room for one more company?
 Will you be bringing something different to
the market?

5. Do a BROAD search

7. Do a more specific search

8. Google Consumer Surveys

9. Google Consumer Surveys

10. What are industry blogs
talking about?

11. Conduct primary research
Interview potential customers, vendors, association leaders, related businesses

12. Use your own knowledge of
your industry
Trends?
Pricing?
Competitors?
New technology?

13. 2006 – How I did it then
 Personal knowledge of industry,
competitors and pricing
 I knew website sales would continue
to grow in industry
 I knew I had an innovative product
 I didn’t aim too high

14. 2016 – How I do it now
 Industry data through associations
 Constant asking/pulsing customers,
prospects, and others
 Regular monitoring of competitors
 Collaborative learning/sharing with staff
 Annual SWOT and strategic planning

15. What We’ll Cover Today
Understanding your market
Analyzing your competitors
Defining target markets
Pricing strategies
Positioning

16. Spy on your competitors:
What do they say about themselves?
How are you different?

17. Where can you research them?
Websites
Google
Press Releases
Social Media
Networking Events
Ask mutual contacts

18. The more you understand
your competitors,
the more effectively you can
position your company!

19. Competitive analysis
YOUR COMPANY COMPETITOR 1 COMPETITOR 2 COMPETITOR 3
Overview
Competitive
Advantage
Target markets
Market share
Marketing
Strategies
Products/Service
s
Pricing/Costs
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

20. What We’ll Cover Today
Understanding your market
Analyzing your competitors
Defining target markets
Pricing strategies
Positioning

21. Who buys from you?
Do they all look alike?

22. Or are they all a bit different?

23. The more you understand
your different target markets,
the better you can structure
your products, services and
marketing efforts.

24. Target market examples
Men who like to go fishing
and live in Alabama,
Tennessee, or Georgia
and make at least $60,000
per year

25. Target market examples
Women between the ages
of 25 and 65 who live
within 30 miles of Decatur,
Alabama

26. Target market examples
Small businesses with at
least 5 employees and
revenue of at least
$500,000 per year

27. Target market examples
The HR Directors at major
industries in Decatur such
as BP and 3M

28. Target market examples
Government Contractors
in Huntsville

29. Understand the value and potential
of each of your Target Markets.
Which are the easiest to sell to?
Which are the most profitable?

30. Prioritize your target markets
1 2 3 4 5
What resources should you put into servicing or
growing each target market?

31. Establishing target markets
is the most efficient way
to maximize your
sales and marketing.

32. Should your services be packaged or marketed a bit
differently for different markets?
Define your services &
message for each market

33. AUDIENCE PRODUCT/SERVICE MESSAGE
General Business Branding, print
design, web design,
marketing & social
media consulting
We can help you be
more strategic with
your marketing so
your business grows
Economic &
Community
Development
Organizations
Web design, retail
recruitment guides,
presentation
materials
We can help your
community attract
the attention of site
selectors and
retailers
Existing Customers All services – with a
focus on new
services
Don’t forget we can
help you with a wide
range of services
List each
Audience…
…and the
service/product you
want to provide each
…and the
message you
want to tell each
Do this in Excel

34. AUDIENCE PRODUCT/SERVICE MESSAGE BEST WAY TO REACH
General Business Branding, print
design, web design,
marketing & social
media consulting
We can help you be
more strategic with
your marketing so
you get results
Networking, public
speaking, sales reps,
referral program,
social media
Economic &
Community
Development
Organizations
Web design, retail
recruitment guides,
presentation
materials
We can help your
community attract
the attention of site
selectors and
retailers
Industry Tradeshows,
sponsorships,
referral program, e-
newsletters, blog
Existing Customers All services – with a
focus on new
services
Don’t forget we can
help you with a wide
range of services
Social media, Direct
mail, referral
programs, e-
newsletters, calls
List each
Audience…
…and the
service/product you
want to provide each
…and the
message you
want to tell each
…and the
best ways to
reach each
Next, determine the best way to reach each market

35. Research your options
 Are there industry associations that allow
networking, tradeshows or advertising?
 What local events do women go to and
what local groups do they belong to?
 What magazines or newspapers do my
customers read?
 What websites do my customers visit?

36. How do you choose?
 What can you afford?
 Spread out your visibility over time
 What can you consistently deliver? Is a
monthly e-newsletter realistic?
 Biggest rule: Have a presence in as
many places as possible within your
budget: a small ad four times is better than
a big ad once

37. Develop your 12 month plan and budget
Do date/pricing research for print ads, events. Then plug in around those.

38. Develop your 12 month plan and budget
Do date/pricing research for print ads, events. Then plug in around those.

39. Build in Structure and
Accountability with Monthly
Marketing Meetings
 What happened last month? Did it yield results?
Should we do anything different?
 What is coming up? What do we need to
prepare?
 Anything anyone is seeing in the industry as an
opportunity or threat?
 Any customer feedback on products or services?

40. How I identified my
target markets
- then and now -

41. What We’ll Cover Today
Understanding your market
Analyzing your competitors
Defining target markets
Pricing strategies
Positioning

42. Factors to consider
 Amount of competition
 Typical price ranges for your industry
 Cost of your materials or supplies
 Lower overhead as a startup could enable
lower penetration pricing to gain market
share, or keep pricing competitive and
build more revenue to finance growth

43. What goes into cost model
Direct labor Direct Materials
Factory Overhead Sales, General, Admin
What the
market will
bear

44. 2006 – How I did it then
 I knew most industry pricing
 I belonged to an industry that provided
annual pricing surveys by market size and
size of agency
 I knew what the market would bear
 I used standard pricing out the gate for
design, penetration pricing for web.

45. 2016 – How I do it now
All of the above plus
 Direct analysis of all rates and pricing
based on current data
 Adjustments based on internal analysis of
profitability by service and industry + what
the market will bear

46. What We’ll Cover Today
Understanding your market
Analyzing your competitors
Defining target markets
Pricing strategies
Positioning

47. How can you differentiate to stand
out in your markets?

48. Define your brand identity. Get
beyond your services list to what
makes you different – an elevator
pitch could capture this.

49. Focus on talking about WHY
you are a better choice
 We can help you grow your business
 We can help you streamline operations
 We can help you expand your capabilities
 We can help you make better products
 We have the best customer service
 We have the most experience
 We have the lowest price (be careful with this)
 We are local

50. Factors to consider
• strengths
• competitor
weaknesses
• innovation
• target market
• price
• Industry trends
• experience
• customer
service
• reliability
• customer
feedback
• sales requests

51. How I did it
2006 - 2009/10 - 2016

52. Positioning needs to be
revisited regularly!

53. Rule #1:
Regularly
pulse your
company with
market
research –
PAY
ATTENTION!
RESEARCH
Customer
Surveys
Industry
Sources
Competitor
Research
Internal
Data
Google
Research
Social
Media

54. Rule #2:
ADAPT
QUICKLY!
RESEARCH
Customer
Surveys
Industry
Sources
Competitor
Research
Internal
Data
Google
Research
Social
Media
• New services
• New products
• New marketing
strategy
• New positioning
statements

55. Bottom Line:
You don’t have to be perfect.
You just have to be better
than your competitors.

57. Download this presentation at
www.slideshare.net/ellendid4
Please connect with me!
www.RedSageOnline.com
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facebook.com/redsage linkedin.com/in/ellendidie
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