Market Description

Before you start any sales and marketing activities you should establish a solid knowledge of the market by making a market description.

If you don't have a feeling of whom your customers are it becomes difficult to choose the right way to approach them.

Who are the customers
There are a lot of questions that could be asked in order to establish a picture of your customer.

• How many customers can there potentially be?
• Do they live in the neighbourhood or in the urban area, in the province, in the country, in Asia or all over the world?
• Are they men, women, old people or children?
• What do they do in the spare time?
• What is the limit they are willing to pay for the product?

You should know as much as possible about your potential customers. If you know the name and address of the customers then you have come very far in your marked research.

Know your competitors in the market
In the market you also find competitors. You have to find out what you are up against. On what level is the quality of the competitor’s product? What is the price? How big is their turnover? How is their marketing and web site? How is their product development? Where are their weak points?

Iceberg
If you look at an iceberg, 90% of it will be under water with just 10% visible to the human eye. This you can compare with the description of the market and the marketing material. You need to spend a lot of time researching the market and thinking about the best way to approach the customers.

After weeks of researching you might end up making a five page web site and 300 business cards. 90% was spent on research, and 10% on appearance.