Scanning For Opportunities
I am not a “Trekkie,” but I know more about Star Trek than a healthy, self-respecting adult male should. If you’ve ever watched the program, you may remember that the Starship Enterprise scanned each new world to see if it could support life before beaming down a landing party (I may have just crossed the “Trekkie” line).
In a similar fashion, marketers also have the ability to scan new market opportunities to determine if they support sales and growth. Specifically, a Market Scan looks at a market segment and asks:
- How big is the market?
- Who are the key players/competitors?
- What stage of the life cycle is the product/service in (Introduction, Growth, Maturity, etc.)?
- Who is buying the product/service?
- What are the main channels of distribution?
- What are the barriers to entry?
The end result is a 3-5 page brief, delivered in one to two weeks, that presents the findings in a way that is clear and concise, providing management with useful data to make an informed decision about next steps, without a significant investment in time or money.
Many organizations have the capacity and resources to conduct this type of research in-house but prefer to hire organizations like Optimization Group to conduct the research. Moving the research “out of house” is often beneficial when:
- Internal personnel and/or resources are temporarily unavailable or require long timelines
- A strongly unbiased viewpoint is desired
- Access to reliable data sources is difficult
- Confidentiality is important
In short (with apologies to Star Trek fans everywhere), a market scan enables an organization to “…explore untapped new markets, to seek out new channels and new opportunities…to boldly go where few marketers have gone before!”
Live long and prosper!
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