Researching the market

1. Embracing market potentials


2. Understanding the competition


3. Finding your customers


4. Defining customer requirements


5. Publications

Understanding the competition:
A big piece of cake or just the crumbs?

Question to consider:
Who are your potential competitors - and within which market areas are they particularly strong? What are the marketing concepts of the current competitors and which marketing areas have they ignored? With which methods and how expensively do the current competitors operate? How do your products or services compare with those of your potential competitors?

Our response:
We investigate every available source of information for you and give you a full menu of resources,
methods and systems to consider. And remember, you may be better off snacking on delicious crumbs
while your competitors choke on big chunks of the market.

Defining customer requirements:
What do they want?

Public opinion polls provide data for demand analysis, with the ultimate goal of accurately predicting the purchase
behaviour of your target groups and quickly identifying any modification in buying patterns.

Question to consider:
What do the customers of your products or services expect? Are the opinions and the behaviour of your customers most
influenced by technical innovations - or do traditional values play an more important role? How do political, economic
or social factors affect the buying patterns of your customers? How can your product or service enhance the customer’s
desired self-image?

Our response:
We analyze purchase behaviour and the social influences on it, position your performance pallet, execute segmenting studies,
analyze the processes of opinion formation and tell you whether your customers are satisfied with you or not--and why.
Everything that happens in the marketplace can be explained. There are no “ghosts in the machine”. There are reasons for
everything: for changing consumer habits, changing purchase behaviour, four-unit deformations of the market shares,
image gains and losses, absolutelyly everything.

Embracing market potentials:
What’s in it for me?

Good question! No entrepreneur should enter the marketplace without already knowing the answer. Our
research finds potential market niches for you.

Question to consider:
Which market areas look favorable for your products or services? Have these areas already attracted intensive
competition? Which areas are dominated by a few large competitors? Do newcomers miss opportunities in these areas because they lack knowlege and thus fear excessively high costs? Which areas have been mostly ignored by industry and trade? How can you locate these rarely found and most desirable market areas with good potential and few existing competitors?

Our response:
We start our research in the area of market opportunity. From this research we determine boundaries and
possibilities for our clients. We can therefore advise you on the potential success of alternative marketing
concepts. We may even advise you to distance yourself from a course of action which seems very promising.
Join us in an ecological business adventure.

Finding your customers:
Sharpening your focus!

Your sales resources, unless unlimited, must be used to contact the specific group most likely to need and
want what you have to offer. The most important decisions you make will depend on the analysis and
identification of` your target customer base. The following questions are just a few of the many you must
be able to answer.

Question to consider:
In which age group are the buyers of your products or services? What is their educational status?
Do your customers belong to certain occupational groups? Where do your customers live - in your
city, in your country, in your continent, or in the whole world?

Our response:
As we identify your target customer base we analyze your past performance in the market, critique
your current sales techniques and develop alternative marketing initiatives.

Publications If you wish to learn more about the scientific background of our research methods in detail, please read our publications. download:
	The Attitude-Behaviour-Relation: The State of the Art, in: How Advertising works and how Promotions work, ESOMAR, Amsterdam 1991
	Results and Perspectives in Image Measurement and Interpretation, in: The Challenge of Branding today and in the Future, ESOMAR, Brüssel 1992
	Ecology-oriented purchase behavior: Series of publications of the BVM No. of 25, selected lectures to market. and social research: Selection and orientation, Offenbach 1996.
	Beauty and the Business: Marketing and Research for the Environment, in: The Power of Knowledge: From Research Findings to Marketing Intelligence ESOMAR, Berlin 1998
	Wieviel Bio wollen die Deutschen: psychologische Analyse des Marktpotentials für Produkte des ökologischen Landbaus. Im Auftrag der ZMP und CMA, Bonn 2/2002 - order -