1. Part 1-Finding your market

2.  Target market  Individuals or companies that are interested in a particular product or service and a willing and able to pay for it  Identify your target market  Individuals or companies  Age, income, location, lifestyle OR industry, location  Need or want satisfied  Number of potential customers  Where do they currently get similar product  Price point  Differentiation

3.  Groups of customers within a large market who share common characteristics  Customer profile-description of the person that is likely to purchase your product  Demographics-age, marital status, family size, ethnicity, gender, profession, education, & income  Psychographics-tastes, opinions, personality traits, lifestyle habits  Use-base data-how often they use a particular service  Geographic-where they live and how far they will travel to do business

4.  System for collecting, recording, and analyzing information about customers, competitors, goods and services.  Primary data-information collected for the first time ex. surveys, observations, focus groups  Secondary data-research collected for some other purpose ex. government publications, books, web sites, trade magazines and journals, newspapers

5.  Define the question  Determine the data needed  Collect the data  Analyze the data  Take action  Evaluate the results

6.  Direct competition-business that makes most of its money selling the same or similar products in the same market  Indirect competition-business that makes only a small amount of money selling the same of similar product in the same market  Large retailers  Able to keep larger quantities of products in stock  Do not rely on a single product line  More resources to devote to advertising

7.  Identifying and examining the characteristics of a competing firm  Steps:  Make a list of your competitors  Summarize the products and prices offered by your competitors  List each competitors strengths and weaknesses  Find out the strategies and objectives of your competitors  Determine the strength of the market

8.  Listen and respond to feedback(continually)  Superior service  More convenient hours  Easy return policies  Store specific credit cards  Personal notes or cards for b-days, thank you’s  Frequent buyer programs