Do you use Situational Analysis (SWOT) and Marketing Analysis?

So now you have set your goals and you know how to track your performance, what’s next? For most businesses it’s important to identify your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your perfect customer. Most people do this by using Situational Analysis (SWOT) and Marketing Analysis.

A SWOT analysis helps identify your companies’ Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. You can see some examples in the below diagram.

Figure: SWOT analysis template to help you ask the big questions about your business

Market analysis studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a special market within a special industry. Through all these analyses, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company can also be identified.

Market analysis should cover: all trends happening in the market, your market share, a competitor analysis, your potential customers, strategy and ROI plan, last but not least, intellectual property monetization opportunities (for example patents or copyrighted materials, such as written materials like books, computer codes, designs, and more).

Figure: You should follow these steps in order to conduct your market analysis

The benefits of this kind of analysis mean you will have a thorough picture of your customers, competition, and yours/their strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the benefits include:

• Knowing your market share
• Knowing detailed information about your competitors’ activities and strategies
• Intimate knowledge of who your customers and what they are looking for
• Latest trends
• Knowing your target market
• Design effective business strategies with high ROI
• Increase sales and IP licensing opportunities