Hilton Hotels and Resorts
Market Analysis
A clear understanding of the market is an essential prerequisite to writing the marketing plan. Without a clear sense of the market you can’t possibly have any indication of your ability to compete. Begin this analysis with a brief summary of the company and the market it is competing in. A summary of the market is often useful; particularly for those readers who have no knowledge of the market.
Industry Analysis
In this section, you should answer the following questions:
What is the size of the market?
What percent do you currently have and what percent do you want to capture?
What is the growth prospect for this market? As the market increases, how will this affect your market share?
Longer term, how can you expand your markets? If you are selling worldwide, how will you address international markets?
Target Market
No single business can be everything to everybody. Most businesses focus on target markets — subsets of the overall market. You will need to define your target markets, determining such factors as population, the overall level of business activity, and your geographic region. For this section you need to write a description of your target market or markets. This should be a brief summary of the markets either by summarizing demographics of consumers or attributes of business customers (business-to-business marketing).
Customer Profile
Who is expected to use your product or service? What will they use it for? Why do they buy the product? If you are already selling your products or services, who is currently buying them and why? One way to write the customer profile is to organize it by demographics or lifestyle descriptions.
Major Competitors and Participants
This section should also include a summary of the competitors and participants in the industry. Unless you have found a brand new market niche, chances are your market has already been penetrated by competitors. List all of your known competitors. Here are some questions to answers:
Are you competing with companies comparable in size, or much larger?
Are your competitors profitable?
What competitive advantages do you have?
What are your competitors’ relative strengths and weaknesses?
Can you anticipate the emergence of new competitors?
Ace my homework – Write my paper – Online assignment help tutors – Discuss the current and expected competitive market. Is the market competitive? If not, why not? Be sure to rate your competitors’ market share, their financial strength and how their products compare with yours. What are the barriers of entry to the market that you wish to serve (i.e., how easy is it to get started in this business?)
Your competitive evaluation will help you demonstrate your role in the market and identify areas of the market that are not being sufficiently addressed.
Market Segmentation
What are the demographics of your target customer? If you are selling to individual consumers, what is their age, sex, income level, education, race, occupation, lifestyle, and number of children at home? Are they married, single, or retired? Where does the target customer live? Where will the business be located and how does that affect your target segment?
If you are selling to businesses, what kinds of businesses are purchasing your products (SIC codes, etc.), what is their sales volume, and how many employees do they have?
Research and Development
You should detail the steps involved in your R&D process, including new product or service design and existing product extension and improvement. Ace my homework – Write my paper – Online assignment help tutors – Discuss how much you spend on R&D and any significant changes in that strategy. For example, if you plan to increase R&D investment for the upcoming operating cycle then you should note and explain that. Ace my homework – Write my paper – Online assignment help tutors – Discuss your R&D priorities and how those priorities are in line with your company’s mission or vision statement. If you have significant product or service testing plans, explain those. Since many readers of a business plan have a great deal of interest in your future plans, product or service testing would be of great interest. Explain what your current plans are for new product development and list key R&D milestones. Some of the things a reader might be interested in include:
Research and development work conducted to date including prototypes (pictures help), lab results, product testing results, etc.
· How much will be needed in the future?
Any substantial R&D investment needed to be successful.
How do your competitors rate in the R&D area? What are they spending? How does it compare?
Does the business require substantial R&D to be successful? How do your competitors rate in this area?
