Using market analysis to develop strategy, evaluate risks and forecasting sales
Using market analysis to development a your strategy
The process of informing the development of a marketing strategy is when you feed real-time, relevant information gathered from your market analysis into the process. This information is gathered before or during the execution of a strategy and can help ensure the process corrected as and when necessary.
When thinking about where you might gather useful information you should consider both internal and external factors that might affect your strategy. Customers, Markets and Competitors are all important considerations too. Any decisions that are made should be supported by your continuing market analysis.
How to evaluate risks to the achievement of objectives
You want to avoid predictable pitfalls throughout the execution of any Marketing activity. A risk evaluation can help you identify issues that may have a negative impact on your marketing strategy. You can then determine the importance of these risks and decide of they can either be accepted or if action needs to be taken to prevent or minimise them.
Once identified, risks should be ranked either high, medium or low in order to evaluate them and determine if you need to take action, but you must remember that action will incur costs, financial or otherwise.
This kind of prioritisation will help facilitate the direction of time and money toward the most important risks.
How to forecast sales by product and/or service
A sales forecast is a month-by-month forecast of the level of sales you plan to achieve for your business. Having a sales forecast will help you avoid cash-flow problems and manage your resources properly.
Click here for a good example of a restaurant sales forecast.
Up Next
Next we’ll talk about how to present your marketing strategy.