How to perfect your market analysis online

Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. The better they understand their customers’ needs, the better their solution will be. In the third presentation of the Venturelab Webseries for entrepreneurs, Alex Just walked the participants through the foundation of a market analysis. By drawing on his experience as a serial entrepreneur (PapayaPods, IMAGO, and now RealAdvisor) and Innosuisse coach, Alex provided the webinar participants with practical tools for analyzing customers, markets, and competitors.

In case you missed the webinar with Alex, we put together an overview of his presentation to help you create and polish your pitch deck.

Become familiar with your customer
Profiling your customer means figuring out who will use your product and who will decide to buy the product. This will not always be the same person: For children’s products, for example, a toddler might be the user, but the parent makes the purchasing decision. Additionally, the customer profile includes the people who influence both the user and the buyer.

Creating a customer journey can help you answer critical questions to get the relevant insights into your customers’ behavior: 
 

• Finding a solution: How and where do customers look for solutions?
• Making the decision: How do customers make decisions and select a solution?
• Solving the problem: What are the steps and tasks that customers have to go through to solve the problem? What options do customers have to solve the problem?

The customer journey does not end at the point of purchase, so make sure that you can explain what the users can do once the problem is solved.

Understand your market
The more challenging it is to find the relevant information about your market, the better. Sounds paradox, right? But think of it this way: If you can find all the information about your market with a few clicks on Google, a lot of people have already done the work and might want or have a share of your industry. However, because it is difficult to find the necessary information, it can also mean that it is easy to get lost in details or get frustrated about not finding the exact data.

To break down the information and stay focused, try to get as much relevant information about the macro-market (amount of revenue generated in the entire industry), the micro-market (revenue generated by customer segment/profile or the transaction volume within the industry), and the addressable market (how much of these revenues the problem you solve will cost your segment). When analyzing the markets and calculating the numbers, it is critical to realize that you need a starting point that you can refine and build on. It is okay to guesstimate your numbers, especially in the beginning, as long as you can stand behind your calculations.

Know your competitor
Having a great idea does not mean that you are automatically better than your competitors. Remember that you take on companies that have been in the industry for years, so never underestimate their experience and skills. Instead, analyze them and learn from them with a positioning map that allows you to compare your product or service to the solutions of the competitors.

Defining the axes on a positioning map can make all the difference: Instead of using generic terms such as price and quality, try to define the axes according to the value that you will create. The more relevant the axes are to your value proposition, the easier it will be to understand the market. Alex mentioned the example of a fashion startup that used emotional impact and sustainability for their axes. Playing around with the size and color of the bubbles within the map can also help include other elements such as price and market size to add the specific details investors look for.

Bonus: Define benchmarks
Knowing your competitors is one thing; being able and willing to learn from your competitors is another and can give entrepreneurs additional credibility. Alex recommended creating a product hero, a growth hero, and a revenue hero with three of your competitors and using them as benchmarks for your own startup.


If you are an aspiring entrepreneur who is ready to execute their plan and bring their vision to reality, sign up for an upcoming Innosuise star-up training. 

 

Do you want to learn more skills that help you become a successful entrepreneur? Check out our upcoming webinars:
Grow your online presence (7.5.2020, 15:00-15:45)
Make your PR writing stand out (11.5.2020, 15:00-15.45)