What is Market Research and Competitive Analysis?

Market Research

Market research involves systematically collecting data about people or companies. What does that group of people need in order to better understand a market? The results of market research, which are usually summarized in a report, are used to help owners make more informed decisions about the company’s strategies, operations, and potential customer base.

Types of Market Research

  • Primary: Primary data is first-hand information that you gather yourself, or with the help of a market research firm.
  • Secondary: Secondary data already public information, such as magazines and newspapers, government or shared data in industry reports. You can analyze data in new ways, but the information is available to a large number of people.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is to identify your competitors and a process to evaluate their strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own business, product and service. Competitive analysis aims to gather the intelligence necessary to find a line of attack and develop its go-to-market strategy.

How to conduct your competitive analysis?

  • Understand Market Conditions.
  • Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
  • Design / Adjust Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy
  • Analyze and compare competitor content
  • Look at their social media engagement
  • Identify areas for improvement

Competitive analysis helps you understand the dynamics of the market in order to find an optimal way to reach your target customers. Analyzing your market and competition also helps you determine how your company and your product fits into the current environment.