Why is situational analysis important

What is a Situation Analysis? How to run a Situation Analysis in 5 steps 1. Analyze your customers Your customers or clients should be your focal point, so start by defining who this group is and what their needs and challenges are.

Created in Cacoo using the Customer Journey Map template 2. Suss out the competition Run a competitor analysis to see what others in the marketplace are doing, including their strengths and weaknesses. Competitors Work out who your closest competition is, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Company Analyze everything to do with your business, including your branding, market share, company culture, strengths, weaknesses a SWOT chart will come in handy here , products, and services.

Note how this compares to your biggest competitors. Collaborators Assess your current suppliers or distributors, influencers, marketers — in short, any external ties you have. You can also include technology and tools here. Climate Take a closer look at the market, including competitors, growth, recession, trends and opportunities, tech, and culture.

Created in Cacoo using the Marketing Mix template Political Take note of current trading regulations and government policies — as well as how upcoming elections could influence these things. Technical Assess your technology, as well as developments in the wider world. Product and services Analyzing current products or services, as well as future product launches, is a vital component of a situation analysis.

Opportunities Unmet or underserved needs represent market opportunities. A SWOT analysis is relatively simple to create and usually presents a list of information.

Create four categories: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The strengths category should include internal systems and processes that are successful, competitive advantages, and assets such as technology, patents, expertise, and cash.

Weaknesses include internal factors that keep your business from being more competitive, such as gaps in hiring or lack of funding. Opportunities are external factors that can aid your company such as regulation changes, upcoming press, and special events. Threats are external factors your company has no control over.

List the appropriate information in each category box. Brainstorming is excellent for getting ideas and information onto paper. Save the ideas from the brainstorming sessions in each applicable box, and create an overall insight for each category.

Once complete, pull together all the insights and summarize them. When performing a SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses are derived from an internal evaluation of your business, while opportunities and threats involve an external review.

Customer analysis Thorough research is critical to understanding your customers. Competitors An analysis of your main competitors will help you determine how your business measures up. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors.

She's a marketing professional and author of "Consumer Behavior for Dummies. Where are they spending their time?

After an analysis of your products, you must understand its place in the current market. Make a list of your competitors and summaries of their products. Taking a careful look at how they approach their marketing, where they place their messages and who they target in their strategy can give you an idea of the current landscape. While it may be difficult to stay objective in this analysis, reading customer reviews or consulting industry experts can assist in this process.

Distribution analysis means assessing how and where you are getting your product out. Are you easily accessible to your audience? Are you visible to potential customers? How can you distinguish yourself from competitors? Examine your other options for distribution and what factors, both external and internal, might affect strategy in the future.

Your business does not exist in a vacuum, so a look at the factors outside of your company is vital to a complete understanding of how you can better reach your goals.