Product & Company Analysis 101 – Key Concepts & Tips

Company & Industry Analysis

products & services, brand, competencies, constraints

What is company analysis?

Another core marketing activity for a business of any size (from a startup / small business to a large corporation) is taking a hard look at (i.e. an independent, objective review of) the full range of your products and services, developing or revisiting the business case for each offering.

While reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s offerings, attention is also focused on identifying and evaluating the company strengths, core competencies, as well as any weaknesses, issues and risks.

What are some best practices & tips for company, product, and industry analysis?

Invest in sharp resources and time to evaluate the strengths of each of your market offerings, the core benefits, use-cases or applications, value proposition, USP, branding. An external perspective can bring much needed objectivity – and challenge / verify unstated assumptions and organizational blindspots.

Similarly, taking the time to assess the strengths and improvement areas for the company and brand as a whole. Identifying, from even a high level analysis, those areas that are either enabling or obstructing the path to greater success.

It is also very useful and important to take a wider look, beyond your company’s attributes, at the industry that you are a part of.  Industry analysis can be done using a variety of strategic analysis tools and frameworks – including some classic ones, such as:

• Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis
• BCG Growth Share Matrix
• GE-McKinsey Attractiveness Matrix
• Ansoff Matrix
• Good-old Industry Research
  (Key developments, trends, statistics – market size, market share, growth rates.)

What are the key benefits of company, product, and industry analysis?

The power of these analyses is not in creating attractive powerpoint presentations to impress external audiences (or even internal!) – but in surfacing key questions, issues AND opportunities – that result from simply looking at your business from different angles – and with a fresh perspective.

A solid, up-to-date understanding of your product portfolio and brand is not just for your customers or funding partners. A well-documented summary of this information is extremely valuable for your internal staff– both for product design & development as well as marketing & promotion.

And since the US / world economy and its players, from new startups to small businesses / SMB firms to large corporations, are all evolving (or dying off!) as they face the winds of changing trends on a daily basis, it should be a no-brainer that these types of business and marketing analysis are performed and utilized on a regular / ongoing basis – at most, every couple of months.

Company & Industry Analysis 101