- Analyse the way a organisation or business markets its products or services

- Understand key marketing concepts that are important in the marketing strategy of the business or organisation

- Collect marketing research about the business from observations, interviews and desk top research.

- Apply key marketing concepts in analysing your business

- Understand the marketing challenges faced by a company

Before you begin this assessment you will need to choose a small local business within an Industry that will enhance your career development. Consider local businesses and / or Government departments that provide services to the local community. Prior to completing this assessment visit local business areas or retail shopping centres to identify a business or organisation and undertake marketing research.
Your marketing research should be based on collecting marketing information, observations, brochures, interviewing the manager or staff, taking pictures of the business and online research.

Presentation of your work should be structured on using a heading for each of your responses

Market Analysis

a) Research whether or not your industry is growing, maturing or declining. As many companies charge for the latest market information you may rely upon the latest freely available market information.

b) Acknowledge the problems and challenges of the marketplace you are entering.

c) Identify to what extent your market is threatened by newly emerging technologies and business approaches.

d) Your focus should also turn to the local scene, since local markets may or may not follow the greater industry trend.

e) Recognize the position your local competitors have taken in the local market; the clientele they serve, the product they produce, the price they expect to charge for their products and services.

f) Finally, relate your own businesses position to the position of others, reflecting on the maturity and experience of your business competitors.

Environmental Analysis

a) Conduct an environmental analysis that looks at and comments on your local area and your network of business contacts, competitors and customers.

b) Conduct an environmental analysis to look at and comment on the world in which you will be operating. Opportunities and Threats due to changing environmental conditions (like unemployment, layoffs, recession, high interest rates) directly affect consumer activity, and should be identified

c) Political and Legal.
Identify the regulations, permits, insurance, liability and taxation requirements that you must follow in order to operate your business.

d) Demographics

1) Describe the population base that exists to support your product. Identify the market size for your product, and the people that make up your product/service's consumer group. Provide information about:

2) Where they live, What products do they buy, How much they spend on similar products each year,

3) Where they shop for these products, etc. Indicate whether or not your product is geared towards a specific age group, with spending patterns and consumer demands. Indicate whether this group is shrinking, expanding or yet to be tapped into.

Identify your sources for direct purchasing by describing their locations, the frequency of your orders and the type and amount of supplies you will be ordering.

Company / Product Analysis

Explain any specialized consumer groups that can be identified apart from the general public. Identify the influence this could have on your projected sales.

a) Product Attributes
Describe the main product features, major benefits received by those using the product, current branding strategies, etc.

b) Pricing

Describe pricing used at all distribution levels such as pricing to final users and to distributors, incentives offered, discounts, etc.

c) Distribution

Describe how the product is made accessible to final users including channels used, major benefits received by distributors, how product is shipped, process for handling orders, etc.

d) Promotion
Describe promotional programs and strategies in terms of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations, how product is currently positioned in the market, etc.

e) Services Offered
Describe support services provided to final users and distributors before, during and after the sale

Customer Analysis

a) Identify your existing customers - when, where, why and how- their ages, backgrounds, values and lifestyles, etc.

b) Identify your target market, describing how your company will meet the needs of the consumer better than the competition does. List the expectations consumers have for your type of product. Since demands may be different, products and services will vary between competitors. Product range, size, quality, price, distribution and after sales service are just some of the areas where this difference occurs.

c) Identify the segment of the market that you aim to benefit from your product and area of expertise as well as your approach to selling your product or service.

d) Predict the sales potential that may be realized by tapping into and holding onto your target market, and attracting others through different strategies and approaches. These different approaches can be all done at the same time or be more incremental - obtaining a core audience for your product or service first, then expanding into the rest of the market. Identify the sales potential for each of these target groups.

Competitor Analysis

Identify your direct competition by naming their business, describing, photographs are useful, their facilities and operations, identifying their share of the consumer market, realizing support for their product and by reviewing the weaknesses of their approach.

Bear in mind that your SWOT Analysis will wish to compare and contrast your Marketing Mix with that of your competitors and therefore you will need to have researched your competitors Products, Prices, Promotions and methods of Distribution and in the case of Retail and Service based businesses their People and Presentation.

Strengths

- List the strengths of your business approach when compared to your competitors in terms of your marketing mix.
- List other assets of your operations such as flexibility, innovativeness, response to external pressures, creativity and company stability.
- Relate your experience (professionalism, duration and diversity) and the contacts you have made in all areas of your businesses operations - from suppliers to clients, government officials to business professionals.

Weaknesses

- Describe the areas of weakness in your company's operations, when compared to your competitors in terms of your marketing mix.
- Capital financing, credit, loans and other financial debts should be identified, with strategies to control their effect on your business.
- Recognize the limited impact of a new product on the market - its lack of recognition may be attributed to the company's inexperience in promotion.

Opportunities - i.e. things that have not yet happened!

- Taking advantage of changes in demographics, product range, prices, promotional activities, distribution, new technologies etc.
- Examine how proper timing, as well as other factors such as your company's innovativeness, may improve your business's chances of success.
- Relate your company's focus to a segment of the present market that is being overlooked.