Spotting a business opportunity - Topic 1.2

What is the world market?

• Where something is sold

  • A place where goods are traded between customers and suppliers

• What is being sold

  • Trade in a particular type of product

• Who it is being sold to

  • The potential customers

What are competitors?

Different businesses that sell the same products in the same market - compete with eachother over sales to customers

What may businesses look into changining about their goods/services to have a advantage over competitors?

• Price

• Customer services

• Quality

• Product range

• Location

What are the four customer needs?

• Quality

• Price

• Convenience

• Choice

How can market research data be used?

To see if a business has any problems or how it might improve

Why do businesses need to understand markets?

• To see how well they are performing

• The market size tells a business the number of individuals within the market which are potential buyers or sellers of products

• Shows the business the total value of products in the market

• Market research allows a business to find out about their market and their place in it and about their customers

How does market research help businesses?

• Make a informed decision

  • Eg what products to sell, where to sell them

• Spot gaps in the market

• Reduce risks

  • Eg not produce products customers dont want, in the wrong location and price

What is primary research? What are examples of it?

Getting first hand research from customers

• Observation, questionnaires, focus groups, phone surveys

What can be the disadvantages to primary research examples?

• May not get a reason for answers - questionnaire

• People may not respond - questionnaires

• Phone surveys - expensive

• Focus groups - quieter people may not give their opinion

What are the advantages to primary research examples?

• Cheap and accurate - observation

• Cheap and cant be used to sample large geographical areas - questionnaires

• High rate of response - phone surveys

• Faster then individual surveying - focus groups

What is secondary research? What are examples?

Looking at other peoples work to understand the market on a whole and see past trends

• Market research reports

• Goverment reports

• Newspaper articles

• Internet

What are the advantages of secondary research?

• Cheap

• Data is easily found

• Instantly available

What are the disadvantages of secondary research?

• Not always relevent to your needs

• Not specifically about your products

• Often out of date

How is social media used for market research?

See what is trending or increasing in popularity based on likes, views and comments

What is quantitative data?

Information you can messure or reduce to a number

What is qualitative data?

Information about peoples feelings and opinions

• Hard to compare but gives a in depth answer

What is market segmentation?

When people in the market are divided into groups

What are the segmentations?

• Age

• Income

• Location

• Lifestyles - enjoy certain activitys

What does market mapping do?

• Help business understand its location within the market

• Find gaps in the market

• Find competitors