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BUSM 4010 Professional Business Plan Development: Industry & Market

Before You Get Started

Who are the customers? If you customers are individual people, use market research reports to find segmentation, consumer preferences, and buying patterns. If your customers are businesses, use an industry report to find the size of the market, market drivers, and geographic concentration.

How do companies like this work? Industry reports provide general information about the industry - all the companies that sell the same product or service. Reports also include largest companies, suppliers, emerging trends and regulatory changes, performance benchmarks, and key business issues.

Industry Reports

Industry reports provide general information about the industry - all the companies that sell the same product or service. Reports also include largest companies, suppliers, emerging trends and regulatory changes, performance benchmarks, and key business issues.

Target Market

Who are your customers?  If you customers are individual people, use market research reports to find segmentation, consumer preferences, and buying patterns. If your customers are businesses, use an industry report to find the size of the market, market drivers, and geographic concentration.

Market Research Reports

Market Research for Specialized Industries

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Market vs Industry

 

Image is text that reads market equals customers (buyers) and industry equals competitors (sellers)

Trade Publications

Trade associations (also called trade groups, industry groups, business associations, etc.) are often the only place to find current statistics or trends for an industry. These associations often publish journals, newsletters, reports, etc. geared towards people in the industry and thus can be very useful for learning the vocabulary of an industry, the key players, and current issues or trends. 

These databases are the best sources for trade publications:

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