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Goldsmith Technology Commercialization Model

Step 5: Market Study

The Market Study is the next activity in the feasibility step. The objective of the market study is to quantify the market assumptions you made in the market assessment of the initial concept investigation. In other words, who exactly is the target market, what are its characteristics, what competitive products does it currently use, how many do they use, what are the price points, how is the industry structured, how is the product distributed, what are the regulatory, environmental and economic factors, what are the barriers to market entry, and what will offer you a sustainable competitive advantage? The objective here is a thorough quantitative analysis.

Definition: The process of identifying the price range at which a quantified market segment is willing to purchase the product and justifying why the target market will chose the product over the competition’s.

Objective: The objective of the feasibility step is to identify who will buy the product, how many units will they buy, and how much they will pay.

Product: The product of this step is a market study that follows the marketing section of a standard business outline format.

Marketing Activities

The marketing activities common to this step are those necessary to demonstrate that there is market justification for the product.

During the market study step, the following activities must be completed:

  • Describe the market environment
  • Identify economic and industry trends
  • Quantify the size of the market
  • Identify the market segments
  • Analyze market segment size, growth rate, competitive environment
  • Analyze business capabilities for market share, competitive position, product capabilities, resource capabilities

Milestones: Primary market research

Funding Sources: Personal finances, Friends and family

Marketing Information: The completion of the marketing study step will usually result in a thorough understanding of the market environment, the market structure, the market potential for the product, a realistic expectation of market share, and the capabilities of the business enterprise to compete.

Key Questions

Have you conducted a market study?
Have you identified factors critical to the market environment?
Have you identified the economic and industry trends?
Have you quantified the market size?
Have you identified the market segments?
Have you identified the size, growth rate & competition of the market segment?
Have you analyzed business capability for market share, competitive position, product capabilities, and resource capabilities?