Tips for Conducting Market Analysis

I've spent 12 months ruthlessly testing AI tools for market research at Impact Theory. What did we learn? We identified market opportunities 6 months before competitors. We 10X'd our research capabilities. We turned market analysis from guesswork into science. But most people get AI market research completely wrong. They're passive. They wait for the perfect prompt. They expect AI to do the work. Those who are killing it with AI take a different approach. I use what I call the "Market Intelligence System": Step 1: Problem Verification Use this prompt: "List the top 5 urgent and painful problems faced by [your target market] with supporting evidence from Reddit, Amazon, Facebook, or other real sources." Step 2: Competitive Gap Analysis "Identify primary competitors and evaluate their strengths, weaknesses. Highlight clear opportunities to meaningfully differentiate my product." Step 3: Market Demand Assessment "Assess current market size and potential for growth. Evaluate key trends indicating increasing or declining demand with evidence from search volumes, surveys, industry data." Step 4: Pricing Intelligence "Suggest realistic pricing strategies and benchmarks. Analyze customer willingness to pay based on real data." Step 5: Validation Framework "Recommend actionable validation experiments to verify all base assumptions. List early warning signs of potential product-market misfit." The nuclear question: "What do people who disagree with these trends say? What are their best arguments?" This process takes me from zero market knowledge to expert-level intelligence in hours, not months. In a world where everyone has access to data, the advantage goes to those who know exactly how to extract insights from it. Most are drowning in information. Be the one who turns data into decisions. I built a free GPT that walks you through the whole process in 30 minutes. It will give you a step-by-step roadmap to launch your business. Try it out here: https://buff.ly/WQHxGFU

Actual footage of me working on positioning with no customer interviews, call recordings, and muddy crm data 👇 Yes, you can get some market intel/social listening going but it’s hardly enough. Not ideal, but here’s how I did it anyway last month (and it landed well): 1️⃣ Talk to folks in customer-facing teams ↳There is so much internal undocumented knowledge. Handpick folks from sales, customer success, customer support, services, solution engineers, product, if they have a lot of customer facetime. ↳If there are multiple segments, regions or products at play, get representation from all of them. 2️⃣ Ask similar open-ended questions ↳Who - get as much detail as you can about their ICP, preferably without using that term. Examples: -“Who tends to be a ‘good’ customer? And by that I mean high adoption rate, engaged, gets the most value, etc" Be specific, don't let them guess what you meant by 'good' -“When you speak to a prospect / onboard a customer, what tells you they’d be a great fit?” These folks can tell very quickly if someone is likely to buy. But you have to ask. -“Who is typically involved in the sales cycle/solutioning/onboarding?" This is a must for messaging too. ↳Why - ask about the pains/situation ↳How - how are they selling now, what they wish they had. It's useful for messaging but also to clarify how they’re thinking about it. 3️⃣ Ask about distinct capabilities and alternatives ↳The insight you get from them will be way deeper than only relaying on whatever you get from Perplexity. But use both. Form a hypotheis, ask follow up questions. 4️⃣ Dig deeper when trends emerge ↳If you heard the same thing from a few people in different teams/regions, you can start assuming it’s true. ↳Instead of continuing to ask the rest the exact same thing, ask them to confirm what you understood from previous conversations. ✋ If they have a different take they’ll correct you. 👍 If they agree they’ll confirm. Either way, now you can dig deeper. s/o to Jen Allen-Knuth for this trick. She teaches to use it in sales convos but I find it incredibly valuable also in this context. 5️⃣ Get specific ↳Don’t let anyone get away with generic statements. Ask for examples. Recency bias is better than unfounded simplistic claims. 6️⃣ Layer in as much other info as possible ↳Examples: - CRM data, even if aggregated - Competitive intel - Financials (where’s the revenue actually coming from, who are the biggest customers, etc.) ↳It’s useful for 2 things: - Rationalize things you see - Poke holes in what you hear Not easy, but not impossible.

Looking to expand and discover new opportunities? Start by doing a thorough market analysis.  Whether you're looking to enter new markets or expand into new categories, market analysis is extremely useful. Here's how you can use it: 1. To understand market demand by recognizing emerging trends and shifts in consumer behavior. 2. To analyze reviews and purchasing patterns to tailor your offerings. 3. To study your competitors' strengths and weaknesses to identify market gaps. 4. To compare your products with others to improve your value propositions. 5. To conduct market entry feasibility studies to assess market size, growth potential, and entry barriers. 6. To identify risks and develop mitigation strategies. 7. To pinpoint regions with high demand and low competition through regional analysis. 8. To understand cultural preferences and local regulations for proper localization. 9. To develop new products based on customer needs and potential for new categories. 10. To optimize your marketing strategies to reach new markets effectively. Market analysis provides essential insights for e-commerce brands to make informed decisions, minimize risks, and succeed in new markets or categories. How has market analysis helped you discover new opportunities?

Market research is the foundation of every successful DTC product. Here’s how I do it: 1. Start with customer surveys—ask your existing customers what they like, what they don’t, and what they wish you offered. 2. Analyze competitor products—identify gaps in the market and opportunities to differentiate your product. 3. Use social media listening—monitor relevant hashtags, comments, and discussions to see what your target audience is talking about. Read Reddit threads related to your customers and competing products—it'll help you understand what your audience is dealing with and what they're wishing for. 4. Leverage customer feedback—dig into reviews, support tickets, and product returns to identify pain points. 5. Test with small focus groups—get a hands-on understanding of how your product meets or misses customer expectations. 6. Run A/B tests—test different versions of your product or marketing approach to see what resonates best. Effective market research has helped my brands develop products that not only meet customer needs but also stand out in the DTC space. It's the closest thing you can get to a free CAC reduction.