Market analysis

The present textbook came into existence mostly as theoretical and methodical guide in the range of complex and extensive subject matter of the market analysis. The author concentrated on the research projects based on secondary sources of information. They are commonly used in practice (also by small firms), because as a rule they are a lot cheaper than the field research. Consequently, the problems of using primary sources of information remained in the book limited only to pointing main methods. The textbook consists of five chapters. Every chapter comprises the short introduction to problems being reviewed. Discussion problems and numerical exercises can be found at the end of each chapter. Numerous cases of analytic activities are included in chapters. Some of these examples are based on the computer software available at most business schools or accessible free via Internet.

PREFACE 9 Chapter 1 MARKET AS AN OBJECT OF ANALYSIS 13 1. Definition and structure of market 14 2. Market mechanism and equilibrium 18 3. Types of market 20 4. Determinants influencing markets 22 Discussion problems and exercises 24 Chapter 2 PROCEDURE AND INFORMATION SOURCES IN MARKET ANALYSIS 26 1. Market analysis versus marketing research 27 2. Decision-making process of market subjects 28 3. Objectives and process of market analysis 30 4. Sources of market information 32 5. Secondary sources of information  review 35 6. Obstacles in the analysis of the foreign markets using secondary information sources 38 7. Selected methods of gathering information from primary sources 40 8. Data preparation 42 Discussion problems and exercises 43 Chapter 3 DIAGNOSIS OF MARKET 45 1. Content analysis 46 2. Simple description of quantitative data 47 3. Market potential 49 4. Elasticity of demand 52 5. Market share analysis 58 6. Strategic group map 61 7. Analysis of distribution intensity 66 8. Analysis of advertising intensity 70 Discussion problems and exercises 72 Chapter 4 PROGNOSIS OF MARKET 75 1. Trend projection models 76 2. Qualitative methods of market development analysis 90 Discussion problems and exercises 92 Chapter 5 SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF MARKET 94 1. Procedure of the spatial analysis 95 2. Intensity indexes’ method 96 3. Feature standardizing method (point method) 97 4. Taxonomic methods 100 4.1. Method of absolute average differences and Tchekanovski’s diagram 102 4.2. Method of the relative differences 106 4.3. Method of square of differences 107 4.4. The Wrocław taxonomy (spanning tree) method 113 5. Reilly’s law of retail gravitation 117 6. Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve 119 Discussion problems and exercises 122 REFERENCES 125 LIST OF EXAMPLES 127 LIST OF FIGURES 128 LIST OF TABLES 129