Preparing a Market Study Report
Question: "I am a product marketing manager with an international corporation that designs and manufactures plastic products. I have been tasked with preparing a market study report and a competitive analysis report for one of our products. Which resources are required to prepare these reports? What are the key points in these reports? Which obstacles might I encounter when preparing these reports? "
According to Blackblot's Product Manager's Toolkit® (PMTK) methodology, a market study is conducted as part of the process of creating a business case. A business case is a tool that allows for the systematic, realistic evaluation of the product's chances for success in the market and helps determine the primary challenges confronting the line of business.
The Market Overview section in the "PMTK Business Case" template aims to identify and map the company's target market; the specific group of customers at whom the company aims its products or services. The main points that are covered in the Market Overview section are the market characteristics (market size, market growth, and any technological, regulatory, cultural, supply conditions, economic, and political trends), customer overview, market/customer segmentation, market/customer segments, market/product segmentation, and competition.
Accordingly, an adequate market study report can be prepared by completing the Market Overview section in the "PMTK Business Case" template. The key obstacle nowadays relative to any type of information is the challenge of wading through the colossal volumes of digitized content that is available at disparate online locations (free or fee-based) and finding the relevant information.
Regarding the competitive analysis report, in Blackblot's Product Manager's Toolkit® (PMTK) methodology the competitive landscape is mapped using the "PMTK Competitor Analysis" (analysis of competing companies, partially via their products) and the "PMTK Product Comparison" (tabular comparison of competing products) templates. Unless a competing company is privately owned and not disclosing any pertinent information, information about publicly traded competing companies and their products can be readily found in reports/analysis by investment or industry analysts, the country's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website, and in competing company reports. As usual, the key challenge is sifting through mounds of digital and printed content in an effort to glean meaningful information.
For more information, please see the relevant templates in Blackblot's Product Manager's Toolkit® (PMTK).