How Do I Write a Market Analysis for a Business Plan?

Writing a market analysis for a business plan is one of the fundamentals for entrepreneurs who wish to embark on a business project. The process of writing a business plan involves conducting research into every related facet of the proposed business venture. This includes research into the potential customer base and market. Such information will give the entrepreneur a well-rounded view of the benefits and pitfalls of the proposed business.

The first step toward writing a market analysis for a business plan is to define the business by identifying the potential customers. If the business is defined as the sale of women’s apparel, then this will give clue to whom will be the most likely customers. The next step is to specify the potential customers, which involves a complete profiling, including the gender, age bracket, earning potential, hobbies, and type of responsibilities they may have.

While writing a market analysis for a business plan, you should conduct research into the income range of the identified customers. For women’s apparel, the customer base will be mostly women. The age bracket would depend on the styles of the different outfits produced by the company. If the outfit is targeted at a niche, then the study should be largely based on the women who comprise that group. For instance, an apparel company that only makes clothes for big and tall women has confined itself to a niche. Its market analysis will have to be mostly, though not totally, targeted toward that demographic.

Another consideration when writing a market analysis for a business plan is how much the identified customers are willing to pay for the products or services. This can be ascertained by finding out the typical earning power of the target demographic. It will be compared to their general spending habits in order to gain a clearer picture of how they may respond to the product.

After defining the customer, the next step in writing a market analysis is to define the market. Defining the market means researching the type of environment in which the business will be operating. Such an assessment will necessarily include a profile of any identified competition, a comparison of the proposed product to related products already available in the market, and a description of where and how the proposed products will be made available. For instance, if the competition is selling similar apparel for a certain amount of money include details of your own women’s apparel and whether you wish to sell above or below the price already set by existing competition.