Organic growth is one of the most difficult goals for companies to sustain. Companies have a number of options for driving organic growth, from launching new products to targeting new customers. However, companies must decide which market they should pursue.
Should they focus on their current market? Or is now the time to explore an adjacent or a wholly new market? This is exactly where marketing growth testing can help. Market growth tests help you evaluate growth options through a variety of lenses, including:
- Customer needs
- Industry trends
- Competitor activity
- Regulatory environments
One valuable type of research to identify the right path to growth is a market dynamics test.
What is Market Dynamics?
Market dynamics are a type of research that evaluates overarching market changes for growth opportunities. Market dynamics tests help companies position their offerings for success by determining which factors affect supply and demand. When conducting the test, companies should ask three key questions.
Question One: Is Customer and End User Demand Growing?
An important step in market expansion is determining whether there’s a demand and whether it’s growing. Companies should reference market research reports on their chosen industry to determine how the marketplace is expected to grow.
Companies can also look for market growth indicators. For example, increased acquisitions of smaller companies with similar products could indicate a trend toward scaling investments and expanding capacity.
Companies should also seek customer data that’s specific to their offering from market research reports. For example, a manufacturer can assess the market demand for sustainable products from their target market.
In addition, companies can collect feedback directly from customers by conducting online focus groups and surveys.
Focus groups are valuable for determining customer demand. They’re also useful for identifying unknown factors that might affect market positioning. Surveys can reach a wide range of participants and ask a variety of questions to predict the offering’s popularity. You can measure customers’ purchase intent and identify features to include that would make your offering more attractive to end users.
Question Two: What is Driving Current Demand?
Price, customer experiences, and other factors uncover current market dynamics and provide insight into the future demand for an offering. Customer and end-user tastes and preferences rule demand. Products or services with strong customer preference will perform better than those that inspire negative or ambivalent reactions.
The average end user’s income also influences whether your price is too high. Overhead costs and the number of buyers also predict your product’s potential, along with how to position it.
Conducting a market demand review is valuable for companies to understand what drives buyer and end-user demand. In the review, gather the trends that could shape buyer demand. Determine whether the cumulative effect will be to grow, shrink, or leave demand flat. Companies should also focus on the drivers and limiters of demand, including the relevant economic indicators discussed in the next paragraph.
Question Three: What Forces Make This Market Attractive/Unattractive?
Supply and demand, government influence, international trade, and speculation and expectation all affect your market. An oil firm, for example, will be affected by the available oil supply and government tariffs. When building a business plan, these factors are vital to consider to anticipate how they may be affected.
Study current fiscal policies to determine the economic forces affecting the market, including the impact on interest rates and pricing. Research whether international transactions are stimulating or leaving the market and their economic effect on the countries involved.
Investigate how customers, investors, and politicians react to projections about the market’s future. Will they promote the market? Invest in companies? Spend their money on offerings?
Finally, evaluate supply and demand for your offering is needed and whether it will stand out from your competitors.
