MKT 385 (Prof. Hess) Marketing Plan Project Research Guide

Some Questions to Investigate (from Prof. Hess)

– Did you do a market analysis and describe the target? (size, demographics, psychographics, etc)
– Who is the ideal client? (description)
– Size of the market? Is the market growing?
– Where is the market for the product/service? (physically, a map or table. Is it virtual/online)

Additional Questions to Consider

• Who are the client's Current and Potential Customers?
• What do Customers do with the client's Products?
• Where do Customers Purchase the client's Products?
• When do Customers Purchase the client's Products?
• Why (and How) do Customers Select the client's Products?
• Why do Potential Customers not Purchase the client's Products?

The potential market can be further analyzed through understanding Buyer Persona (the Ideal client) and finding where the market is through market segmentation, target market selection, and product and service positing. The market may be further segmented through demographics, psychographics, geography, and other distinguishing factors.

"Buyer Persona tells you how to influence a decision; Segmentation tells you where the Persona presents" (Adele Revella, the founder of Buyer Persona Institute)

Mind the GAP: Using Buyer Insights to Drive Product Development, Design Market Strategy, and Develop Sales Plays (Buyer Persona Institute)

Buyer Persona Infographic: How to Create Insightful and Actionable Buyer Personas (Buyer Persona Institute) and Example Buyer Persona

Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done”. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54–60.

• Mintel Academic database: find information about market size, market segments, consumer attitudes and behaviors, and market trends. 
• RKMA Market Research Handbook: data from various consumer surveys and studies to understand consumer behavior and consumer marketing and market research for specific industries.
• Directory Databases (such as Reference Solutions) can be used to identify where customers are based on geographic, demographic, and psychographic features and can be used to generate business leads in some cases. 
• Psychographic Segments from ERSI - Examples of 67 psychographic market segments.
• Demographic Statistics from the census bureau - can be used to understand the local communities and consumer markets.

Why Use Mintel: Mintel's reports are based on primary consumer surveys and will help you understand buyers' behavior, consumer attitudes, habits, preferences, motives, and how they make buying decisions for major consumer goods categories and their market segments.

How to Use Mintel: To efficiently search Mintel, change all content types to Reports and change the view to List view. It shows all the reports we subscribe to and have access to. Then narrow the results by category, trend driver or demographics, or by search. Select and download the full report. Infographics or slides can be used for presentation.

RKMA Market Research Handbook Series

Why Use RKMA: RKMA contains aggregated consumer market research and data on consumer behavior, consumer marketing, it will help you understand and segment the market and identify effective marketing approaches and strategies. 

• Business-to-Business Marketing 2023
• Consumer Behavior 2023
• Consumer Marketing & Advertising 2023 
• Consumer Use Of The Internet & Mobile 2023
• Entertainment & Leisure Market Research 2023
• Restaurant, Food & Beverage Market Research 2023
• Retail & E-Commerce Market Research 2023
• Sports Marketing 2023
• Travel & Tourism Market Research 2023
• U.S. Cities & Communities 2023

Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA): Search millions of private and public businesses for information on the competition, business demographics, and target markets. Reference Solutions step-by-step guides, webinars, and training materials are available to help you better understand how to use the search features and produce a strategy at home, on the go, or at the Library.

Get Access to Reference Solution: Contact Librarian/your professor to Use Group Card No. or Get A Chester County Library Card

Reference Solutions Consumer Lifestyle Heat Map Example for Do-it-yourselfers in Chester County:

• ESRI Tapestry Segmentation

  Example Segments for:

• 1A Top Tier
• 1B Professional Pride
• 1D Savvy Suburbanites
• 2D Enterprising Professionals
• 8A City Lights

• American Community Survey Narrative Profile

Narrative Profiles are short, analytic reports derived from the ACS 5-year estimates. Each Narrative Profile covers 15 different topic areas and provides text and bar charts to display highlights of selected social, economic, housing and demographic estimates for a selected geographic area.

• Census Business Builder

Select the type of business or search by industry keyword or NAICS code. Create a report for local business profiles, which include:

• Potential Customers
• Demographic Characteristics
• Business Summary
• Consumer Expenditure
• Social Economic Characteristics
• Housing Characteristics