Market studies

Penetrating existing markets or entering new markets entails risk, risk that can be reduced by undertaking a market study. A market study will 'map' the market plotting channels to market, assessing competitor strengths and weaknesses and identifying pressure points where you may have a competitive advantage.

There can be both full versions of the study or 'lite' versions. The latter uses information from published sources - such as on-line databases, the internet, published market research reports - to produce market forecasts and is less costly than a full blown study.

For example, we recently completed a market study of the UK Market for solid state relays in two days. A study of the UK market for treated pallet timber took slightly longer at three days as import regulations needed to be investigated.

A full blown market study will include in-the-field market research and this will increase the cost. However, even here it is sometimes surprising how few face-to-face interviews can be required to reach a conclusion about a market. In our experience of years of conducting this type of study a consensus is often reached in business-to-business markets within as little as twelve interviews.

This needs hedging around with all sorts of caveats but this pattern has been repeated too often to be ignored.

So if you need to reduce risk commissioning a market study is a sensible first step. Contact us for a no obligation quotation.