Market analysis is the foundation of any business and marketing plan

Dear readers

In my last blog post on writing your business plan with Business Plan Pro (business plan software) we looked at your products and services you want to sell and how to describe them in your business plan.

We have to move on and spend some time on your market as well as marketing plan (please note that we will be selling marketing plan software soon!).

It goes without saying that you need to define your market. Your success will depend, to a great extent, on how well you can define your market. YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR MARKET!

Our business plan software allows you to describe your market segments, marketing strategy, market needs, market trends and market growth.

In short, you need to perform some market analysis. The outcome of your market analysis would be market segmentation and a marketing strategy plan.

Prior to formulating your marketing strategy and writing your marketing plan, you need to divide your market into different segments (called “segmentation”). This step is extremely important. Without proper market segmentation, you won’t be able to define your market, identify the needs of your potential customers, new trends in that specific market (and, of course, I also refer to trends among your competitors in, for example, ways they provide their products and services to the same market), formulate your marketing strategy and completing a practical marketing plan.

What age are you targeting? If you target the age between 23 and 29, for example, you would, most probably, target an income group that isn’t at the top of the salary ladder yet. What products or services are you going to sell to them? Where are they living – in the city or in the suburbs? Do you know what they are buying right now – i.e. what are the buying patterns of these people? Buying patterns might indicate their needs and you must be aware of their preferences. We can go on and on.

Business Plan Pro has several sections on this and we will discuss in the next few blog posts some of these sections in more detail:

• Market analysis summary 
• Market segmentation 
• Target market segmentation strategy 
• Service business analysis 
• Competition and buying patterns

If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact us at blog@business-around-the-globe.com

Warm regards (and enjoy the rest of your weekend!)

Michiel Jonker, CISA

PS: Here are some valuable business links I have picked up, belonging to my Twitter friends: lessons on business decisions, business startup information and online entrepreneur’s help.

Tags: Business Plan, market analysis, market needs, market segmentation, market segments, market trends, marketing plan, marketing strategy