Professor Robert Rothberg
Prepared by Roberta Tipton
September 21, 1998
Points to Ponder for Strategic Marketing Research
How do you define a market? (Buyers and sellers)
In practice, only the sellers are easy to identify.
Consumer products are easier to research than industrial products.
Total size of market (real or projected)?
What is real? What is guesswork?
Is this product a reality yet? Does it replace or cannibalize another existing product?
Is this product new or mature? Where is it in the product cycle?
Players and competitors (actual or potential)?
What size are the companies?
In what countries do they operate?
What are their corporate histories and cultures?
How do they do business? (Very hard to discover if you are not in the industry.)
Market shares? (Guesswork much of the time)
Who are the real or potential suppliers and customers?
Use demographic sources if researching a consumer product.
Use industry sources if researching a business to business product.
Stratmar.htm