Controlled store test-marketing, if affordable, can provide test results that reliably simulate real-market conditions and buyers. These methods can reduce risk and test-market costs as well as save time.

Secondary research involving the study of information generated by your own company is "internal" research. Here we're talking about information that was gathered for purposes other than marketing — for example, it may have been gathered for financial or management purposes. (If it was gathered for strictly marketing purposes, it would be considered primary research, not secondary.) The most commonly available internal company information includes:

All businesses, large or small, need to know key information about their marketing environment, competitors, and target buyer/users. Smaller businesses may not be able to afford to purchase ACNielsen data for their industries at a cost of thousands of dollars per month. However, total market size, major competitors by category, and target buyer/user profile information is often available free from industry publications and trade associations.

Primary research is concerned with the design and implementation of original research; that is, data collected from the source. The advantage of doing primary research is that you can get information on the specific question or problem you need answered, not information that merely applies to your industry or type of business in general.

How big is your market? Is it large enough to sustain your business and competition? What is the growth trend for the next five years? Once a market has been identified, what is the size of the actual market that you can compete in? The actual market segment that you can sell to may be a small fraction of the total market. Each total market must be examined in light of:

Secondary research is something every student has completed at one time or another, usually by doing library research with books and periodicals for a school report. This is usually the cheapest and easiest type of research for small businesses to conduct. However, it may be less reliable than primary research because the information you obtain was not developed with your particular problem or situation in mind.

Today the world is defined by the term "information age." All businesses require accurate and timely information to be successful. Whether your company is large or small, the right amount of financing, equipment, materials, talent, and experience alone are not enough to succeed without a constant flow of the right business information.

Do you know who your buyers are? Do you understand why they buy your products or services? Assuming that other factors in making the product available (distribution) and known to the buyer (advertising and promotion) are in effect, influences on the buyer may be catalogued by:

If your customers are primarily the ultimate consumers or end users of your product or service, identification is generally done in terms of demographic and lifestyle factors.

If you sell to other businesses, who turn around and resell your products and services, your buyers are predominantly channel buyers. Examples of channel buyers from the grocery and drug industry are:

Today's marketing environment is influenced by the global marketplace and the explosion of the information age to a degree unprecedented in history. To be fully prepared, a company must recognize and understand:

Competitive spending trends may or may not be a significant influence on your company's marketing spending plans to support products and services. However, in a market where there are one or more large competitors, the amount of money your competitors are willing to spend will impact:

Once you know the identity of your most direct competitors and have a good idea as to your second- and third-tier competitors as well, you should give some thought to which actions they are likely to take in the next year or so. Estimates of competitors' future activity depend on your knowing and understanding their objectives, strength in the marketplace and resources. This important intelligence is key to your company's:

Obviously, your most important objective as a small business is to survive and make money. Realistically speaking, there may be times when you'll decide, after careful analysis, that the competition in one area is simply too hot. Here are some situations that may indicate that the cost of direct competition is unwise and ineffective, from a sales and marketing perspective:

The information age has increased the number of opportunities for new businesses and products and has tremendously increased the speed at which new products are developed and introduced into the marketplace. As a result, the information age has also increased the need for businesses to be thoroughly familiar with their competitors.

Your competitors are not always who you think they are.

You should be very aware of your first-level competitors— in many cases, you'll know them by name and may even belong to the same business associations they do. If you don't know much about their business operations now, make sure that you do soon! It's to your advantage to know as much as you reasonably can about the details of their businesses. Study their ads, brochures, and promotional materials. Drive past their location (and if it's a retail business, make some purchases there, incognito if necessary). Talk to their customers and examine their pricing. What are they doing well (that you can copy) and what are they doing poorly (that you can capitalize on)?

FargoGas: "Fastest gas in the West!"

Conceptually, all of marketing is based on the idea that you must thoroughly know the environment in which your business operates in order to successfully promote and sell your product or service.

Part of the challenge of marketing is figuring out which distribution method to use for your business. As soon as you decide which business or product category to compete in, distribution decisions must be made based upon what your competition is doing.

Many small companies believe there is little they can do to really position their products and services because they spend little or no money to promote their products to their target buyers.

There are many ways for a business to be unique, from small pricing, packaging, and service differences to significant feature and benefit contrasts with the competition.

Businesses based on the idea of providing less expensive products and services to customers can be extremely competitive. One problem such companies face is that the customer base is not loyal and will rapidly switch to another company depending upon what is on sale.

If the universe of all potential buyers is your "market," then the market can be divided up into sections or "segments" based on any number of factors. For example, you might divide up your customers by age group and find that you sell most of your products to people aged 18 to 34. You might divide them up by family size and find that you sell most of your products to married couples with young children. You might divide them up by economic status and find that you sell most products to people with an annual income of about $50,000 to $100,000. You might divide them up by geographic location and find that you sell most of your products to people living within two specific zip codes.

Most marketers know that "20 percent of buyers consume 80 percent of product volume." If you could identify that key 20 percent and find others like them, you could sell much more product with much less effort.