OK – back to my original quest! The second component to your marketing strategy is Situation Analysis. So what is included in this section. Well, there are several things:
1. Market Summary – in your market summary you need to define who your market is via demographics, psychographics, need trends, etc.
2. SWOT Analysis – this is where you have to be very honest with yourself and clearly define your company’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as your opportunities and threats. Most of these are self explanatory. Threats is one that often needs to be clarified – threats are those situations which you have no control of. For example, the economy.
3. Competition – you need to clearly define your direct and indirect competition. This section might even include “secret shopper” type information that you’ve collected while shopping your competition.
4. Product Offering – include specific information about your product/service offerings. This information should be specific and detailed. You might even want to put photos of your product in this section.
5. Keys to Success – this section should include specific things that you believe are required in order for your company to be successful. All the marketing programs that you develop should support these success factors.
6. Critical Issues – your critical issues are things that your company must have in order to be successful.
Remember as you are working on your company’s situation analysis – it is critical that you are honest in your analysis. A strategy is no good if it is based on a fantasy! This is time to be “real” because you are going to be basing marketing programs on this information and research. If this information is not based on reality, then the programs that are developed will not be successful and the business will be jeopardized.
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