There is no doubt that market research prior to any investment is of utmost importance in order to get a clear understanding of the industrial landscape, major players, competitors and recent trends. Without knowing the top customers and competitors as well as identifying the market success factors of the company, no one would risk a market entry. But how should this market research actually look like? Is it more than “the art to google”?
To us market research includes the generation and collection of data from market experts, corporate know-how, secondary information sources, interviews with (potential) customers, competitors, distributors as well as industrial opinion leaders.
- Project mapping & Kick-off
First of all, a briefing on the business performance, customer base and strategic targets of the company is essential. This contains also an introduction to the technical and commercial products and their application fields to get an in-depth insight into the relevant production machinery. In order to organize the project, potential interview partners, a detailed timeline, available capacities, tools and milestones have to be determined. The discussion of strengths and weaknesses of the company as well as the organizational set-up helps to get a deeper understanding of the needs.
- Market transparency
To gain an in-depth understanding of a foreign market, the dynamics of the industry have to be analysed including market size, growth potential, trends, future market development, product capacities, trade statistics and growth drivers. Get to know the local market structure with its producers, quantity and quality of exports and imports as well as local consumption. Furthermore, the regulatory environment and government programs complete the evaluation of the market attractiveness.
- Customer Potential Analysis
A systematic survey of the regional clustering of top customers and a detailed analysis of customer’s requirements and purchase criteria shed light on the existing product and service demand, decision making processes, current suppliers, the satisfaction degree and customer loyalty.
- Competitor transparency
Another inevitable part of research is the analysis of the industry with its major domestic and international competitors. Information like the legal form, shareholder structure, annual turnover and profit situation are important as well as market shares, the product portfolio, core competencies and USPs. A SWOT-analysis of the main competitors and benchmarking helps to face the market entry with in-depth knowledge and self-esteem.
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