Before developing any given marketing strategy it is important to conduct some form of analysis. This should form an essential part of any business or marketing plan and should be reviewed over time to ensure that it is kept current. Many of my clients often ask me what factors are important when doing this. The following is just a raw marketing 101 introduction to what to take into account when conducting an analysis and provides a checklist if you will of the most important factors to take into account.

The elements worth considering include:

• Product Situation

  What is my current product? You may want to break this definition up into parts such as the core product and any secondary or supporting services or products that also make up what you sell. It is important to observe this in terms of its different parts in order to be able to relate this back to core client needs. Feel free to also discuss here which of your client’s needs your product is meeting.

• Competitive situation

  Analyze your main competitors – who are they what are they up to – how do they compare – feature/ benefit analysis. What are their competitive advantages?

• Distribution Situation

  Review your distribution Situation – how are you getting your product to market? Do you need to go through distributors or other intermediaries?

• Environmental factors

  What external and internal environmental factors are there that need to be taken into account. This can include economic or sociological factors that impact on your performance.

• Opportunity and issue analysis

  Which requires conduction a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats). Things to write down her are what current opportunities that are available in the market, the main threats that business is facing and may face in the future, the strengths that the business can rely on and any weaknesses that may effect the business performance.

I know for most of you marketing gurus this may be simple knowledge however it is important to realise that sometimes even the smartest forget the core fundamentals.