In this chapter, we have discussed various tools and methods to gather market, product, and organizational data to provide a more holistic view of your market and opportunity, which are as follows:
- SWOT: An articulation of the organizations internal and external forces which aid in understanding your strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace, as well as the opportunities and potential threats you face
- Porter's Five forces: A more focused and detailed view of the forces within a market which will have an effect on your ability to be successful
- Growth-Share Matrix: A more detailed look at your own product portfolio and allowing you to understand those products that should be invested in, those products you should "milk", and those products you should jettison
- Segmentation: A deeper look at your customers market with an understanding of how to identify which segments you should target for your products and research
- Competitive Analysis: A more detailed understanding of your competition and the value they bring to the market
While you may not see the immediate application to our VoC research, it is through an understanding of these key elements that you will be able to both understand the feedback you receive from your VoC, but also how to present your finding in the context of your current market when presenting to your senior leadership by taking the analysis detailed in this chapter and the next to building your internal business case in Chapter 9, Completing the Circle – Using the Customers Voice in Your Organization.
In the next chapter, Gathering the Customer Needs for Your Product, we will build upon the foundation we created within this chapter, but will dive deeper into quantitative and qualitative tools that are more specific to VoC research. We will explore basic concepts like measuring customer satisfaction and surveys through and including more complex VoC concepts like conjoint analysis, lead user analysis, and ethnography.