086-8318748

Tag: situation analysis

  • Keep your Eye on Market Trends

    Keep your Eye on Market Trends at all Times

    Be sure to keep your eye on market trends, for the influence they have on small business can be enormous. This is one area where the micro-business owner cannot afford to take his/her eyes off the ball.

    This is a core part of the first step of The Marketing Process, the so-called Situation Analysis. Existing and emerging trends can come to dominate the performance of a product or service within its marketplace. Pro-active management is critical here. The business owner who spots the trends also spots the resultant opportunities and/or threats.

    That’s pretty fundamental stuff.

    keep your eye on market trends

    Look what has happened to so many pubs around Ireland that didn’t respond to trends in their sector. Look, too, at accommodation providers that didn’t embrace the likes of Booking.com, TripAdvisor or Airbnb.

    On the other hand, look at the fabulous growth experienced by businesses like Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway, who quickly moved part of their business online. They saw the trend and adapted. Or all the little businesses providing healthy, more natural food for a more discerning audience. Or indeed other great people, like the early app developers, understanding that a more convenient way to consume and interact with brands was being demanded.

    No market stands still for long – and that includes yours. Whether you are in FMCG or B2B, market trends can dictate what will happen next, in terms of product features or service delivery. You don’t want to get left behind. If you’re really good, you’ll even start a trend!

    There’s a great business adage that you’ll lose 20% of your customers each year. I think that’s a great stat to keep in your mind at all times. At least eliminate one reason why that might happen, by keeping up with market trends.

    Market Trends and Your Future – Evolve or Die

    Read this extremely interesting review of what happened to the once king of mobile phones, Nokia. We’re all aware of the story, after all, just look in your pocket. An eye-opening read, nevertheless.

    As they say, standing still is not an option.

  • What is a PESTLE Analysis and how can it help?

    What is a PESTLE Analysis?

    So we have learned that Situation Analysis is the first step of the over-arching Marketing Process. One thought-provoking element of this is the PESTLE Analysis. You should sit down and consider the macro issues that are affecting or will affect your business sector.

    But what is a PESTLE Analysis anyway?

    PESTLE invites you to consider the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental issues, trends and changes that impact upon your sector and your ability to do business.

    For example, if you want to sell your goods into politically unstable Market A, how do you propose to achieve that securely? Due to the economic downturn in Market B, might you need to down-spec the product, or reduce margin to maintain volume sales? You may first need to proof if your product is even socially acceptable in Market C, before you think about thriving there. How is the speed of technological advance impacting upon your R&D budget? How might you react to that legal change about to be introduced in key Market D? New environmental regulations in Market E might impact upon your packaging materials.

    And so on.

    What is a PESTLE Analysis
    Factors in the Macro Environment to Consider

    Let’s look at some real examples.

    Some years ago, the Irish smoking ban was a legal event that impacted upon many businesses, among them aluminium fabrication enterprises that spotted an immediate need for outdoors wall-mounted ashtrays. Bingo.

    The move to mobile has forced the introduction of responsive website designs. Web designers who don’t have any on offer? Bye bye.

    The WEEE Directive meant electronic goods retailers suddenly had to put in place systems to take back hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment from consumers.

    In the US recently, we’ve seen how non-compliance with that country’s EPA requirements on car emissions can have a potentially major impact on manufacturers in that sector…

    PESTLE Analysis and You

    PESTLE can be a slightly head-wrecking exercise and should not be attempted in one sitting. You won’t be able to take it all in. Rather, absorb what is going on in the markets that matter to you and build up a file on impacts, both current and potential. You can already see how this ties in with SWOT Analysis, also part of the first step of the Marketing Process.

  • Situation Analysis : The ‘Now’ of Marketing

    Situation Analysis – Where Are You At?

    One of the bigger challenges facing any marketing trainer, like myself, is holding participants’ attention while discussing the role played by what we call “Situation Analysis”.

    While carrying out a Situation Analysis should be the first step (and then regularly repeated), it can be so much more appealing for training attendees to jump straight to the exciting part that is the Marketing Mix – discussing product, price, promotion, and so on.

    But it’s the Situation Analysis stage that should direct us along the path of the Marketing Process towards developing a marketing plan. This first step is where we learn about and evaluate political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental information that might impact upon our plans. Essentially, it’s a critical review of our current business situation. We need to be able to identify internal and external forces that may influence the performance of our business and what strategies we might pursue. We equally need to assess our current and future strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths, aka carry out a SWOT Analysis.

    Situation Analysis
    What to consider during a Situation Analysis

    A Situation Analysis could unearth issues like legislative change coming down the tracks that might provide us with great opportunities or, perhaps, curtail revenue generation from some existing services. We can devote time to investigating recent trends and what might happen next. Perhaps we can spot possible future products and services that we could offer to the market that might just give us a head-start on competitors.

    Situation Analysis – What’s Involved

    Really, the Situation Analysis is all about looking at both the micro- and macro-environments that impact upon or potentially could impact upon our business. So, we might consider looking at issues under the following headings, while carrying out a Situation Analysis :

    Company – What we’ve got internally and what not (resources).

    Customers – Which type of customers we’ve got and which not. What other market segments exist?

    Collaboration – The value we attribute to our suppliers, partners, bankers, etc.

    Competitors – What they’re up to, good at, not so good at, etc.

    Context – The environment in which we are trying to do business – legal, technological, etc.

    All critical stuff.