"Reconnaisance Time is Seldom Wasted"
- Sun Tzu

Preparation pays. In essence, that's the idea behind any market intelligence exercise. Only when you have the right data at your fingertips can you make sound decisions about what action to take.

Having the Facts...
If you know what your surroundings are like, you can decide what to do, and make your move. Fact-based management is also the idea behind market mapping. By slicing your current market position into measurable and manageable sections, you obtain action-orientated insight about your situation.

Generally, customers go through four main stages to gradually narrow down the choice of vendor:

a) which suppliers do I know of, b) which ones of these have products or offerings I can use? c) which ones are vendors I can work with? d) which vendor has the greatest competitive advantage?

Conversely, when you look at these stages from your own perspective, to land a deal you must make sure that

A) you have awareness about yourself - and the right image
B) you have the right technical fit from a product/services standpoint.
C) you are geared, as a supplier, to service the customer.
D) you have the ultimate competitive advantage to win the deal. Price can be an important factor here, but not necessarily the most crucial one.

Once you determine your "market share" for each of these areas, A-B-C-D, you get a very clear picture about where you are and what you must do to raise sales.

You can even, quite accurately, simulate what effect various campaign options or marketing mix modifications will have on the bottom line.

There are several approaches you can take. Our own Cross-border Market Map™ gives you vital insight about an export market. How many prospects within your export target group would consider buying from you? How many in the target group knows of you? How do your competitors rank? What's important to the target group when they buy the "product"? What's important to the target group when they select a vendor? How are you perceived?

Armed with this information, you can see whether and to what extent you should modify awareness building campaigns, which of your strengths to emphasise, whether to mention competitors' weaknesses (and which), whether you should attempt to influence the target market's choice criteria, etc.

Equipped with this knowledge, you can avoid costly mistakes and greatly improve your chances of success. If you don't have the right information to manage, it can be a costly affair. At best, it'll just cost you a lot of money. At worst, who knows -- maybe even the financial failure of your company.

Better spend a small part of your budget to ensure that you spend the remaining part wisely.

Get more info...

If you want more information, or if you have any questions or comments, call us now at 0870 745 6899, email, or use the form.

Go to overview of LEC Techniques

Go to LEC Cases in point