Market Research and Business Strategy Essentials
Market Research
Market research involves determining the market’s response to a product and considering the most appropriate trading strategy.
Business Activity
Facilitating the exchange between the company and potential buyers of its products.
Key Concepts
- Need: A state of dissatisfaction produced by not having something.
- Demand: The quantity of a product buyers are willing to buy at a certain price.
- Supply: The quantity of a product that sellers are willing to offer at a certain price.
- Exchange: Obtaining something desired that belongs to someone else in return for something they want.
Marketing Mix
The company combines four controllable elements:
- Product
- Price
- Promotion
- Distribution
Marketing
A set of techniques aimed at understanding the business environment and identifying opportunities. The market can be understood as the place where exchanges occur, but in this case, we use it as the set of buyers and sellers of a product.
Product
Anything that can be offered in a market for use or consumption.
- Augmented product: The formal product with added benefits associated with its purchase.
- Commodity: What the consumer expects the product to satisfy.
- Formal product: The basic product when it becomes something tangible.
Tangibility
- Goods: Durable or non-durable.
- Services: Non-material objects that satisfy a market need.
Purpose of Consumption
- Consumer goods: Products that consumers buy for their homes.
- Industrial goods: Products that companies buy for their production or commercial activities.
Example:
- Commodity: Fashion
- Formal product: Clothes shop
- Expanded product: Clothes shop with parking
Product Characteristics
- Brand: Identifies products and differentiates them from similar ones.
- Packaging: Facilitates easy transport.
- Expanded product: Makes the product more competitive.
Product Life Cycle
- Introduction: Release period.
- Growth: Sales begin to rise.
- Maturity: Sales are high, with no variations in volume.
- Decline: The last stage of the product.
Price
- Based on cost: Add the cost of the product to obtain the desired profit from the sale.
- Based on the buyer’s reference: The buyer’s perception of the product’s value.
- Based on the competition: Study the prices of the competition.
The Market
The set of actual and potential buyers of a product.
Market Structure
Manufacturers of goods and providers of services can influence the market structure, along with intermediaries, specifiers, and buyers.
Target Market
Prospects.
Market Segmentation
Dividing the market into similar groups of buyers with specific characteristics.
Competence
Concurrency in the same market from different suppliers of goods or services.
Product Promotion
Identify the target audience, select the message, determine the desired response, choose a means of communication, and establish a feedback method.
Product Distribution
Distribution Channels
The path a product follows from its manufacture until it reaches the consumer.
Factors Influencing Distribution
- Nature of the product: Perishable, fragile, bulky, etc.
- Company features: Ability to make investments, human resources, etc.
SWOT Analysis
Analysis of threats, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths of a company in its environment.
- Strengths and Weaknesses: Internal aspects of the company.
- Threats and Opportunities: Companies develop their activity within a social, economic, and cultural society and political structure.
Opportunities
External to the company: Positive aspects of the environment that, if fostered, can help achieve objectives.
Threats
External: Everything that could seriously affect the goals should be predictable.
Strengths
Internal: The strengths the company possesses, such as leadership, people, products, knowledge, structure, etc.
Weaknesses
Internal.