Insight and Innovation | Market Analysis

Me and My Market

by Dana E. Jarvis, Manager for Project Services

Picture it…early Monday morning. Bob has just walked into the office, eyes half shut from a full weekend of work. Two months ago, senior management asked Bob to reshape the company's marketing plan. Profits were low, customers were on the decline, and new opportunities were hazy at best. Realizing there was a lot of work ahead, Bob quickly assembled a cross-functional team to critically examine the company's marketing efforts. After two months, the team struggled for solutions, hampered by barriers larger than the national debt like:

	Limited knowledge about current, past, and potential customer behavior
	Limited knowledge about competition and its behavior
	No interlocking strategies between marketing and other functional areas
	Consistent packaging and repackaging of same ideas
	Fragmented marketing system infrastructure
	Lack true knowledge for the demand of the company's products and services
	Difficulty with objectively examining the issues due to entrenchment

The team also developed a number of questions based upon their efforts:

	Who are our customers?
	What criteria do we use to target customers?
	How do our customers make their buying decisions?
	How do we retain customers?
	Why would people want to purchase our products or services?
	Who is our competition?
	How do we differentiate ourselves from our competition?
	What opportunities exist to partner with our competition?
	What are the components of our marketplace?
	What is our role in the market and our market share?
	How can we position ourselves for increased revenues with customers?
	What are our marketing goals?
	How are these goals integrated with our other functional areas to maximize performance?
	Are we achieving desired results from our marketing efforts?
	How are we evaluating our marketing performance?
	How are we monitoring the market to capture profit opportunities?
	What is our return on investment for marketing? How do we know?

Organizations are consistently faced with challenges like the ones mentioned above. Truly, both internal and external pressures can stretch the organizational fabric to its limits. Certainly, one can envision an organization which is exactly the opposite. Such an organization would have a clear understanding of market conditions, their role in it, and an infrastructure with systems in place to position them for success in a dynamic global economy. In other words, the better organizations understand their market, the more likely they are to mitigate risk, leverage opportunities for enhanced market position, and generally add to their bottom line.

Dana E. Jarvis specializes in market analysis, policy analysis, and strategic planning. He can be reached at djarvis@hillgroupinc.com or via phone at 412-343-9393.

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These materials have been prepared for educational and information purposes only. They are not consulting advice or opinions on any specific matters. Transmission of the information is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, a consultant-client relationship between The Hill Group, Inc. and any recipient of this material. Readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional advice.