How to do market research when launching your business (with a competitive analysis)

Market research helps you check that your project meets real demand, spot your competitors and decide where to position yourself, before investing time and money. And good news: you can carry out a serious one with no budget.

Let me tell you what surprised me most when I launched my business: the number of things you don't think about. You have your idea, your offer, your drive, and along the way you discover everything that revolves around it. Market research is precisely the step that brings these blind spots to light before they cost you dearly.

What I did for my own launch

Before launching my services, I applied the method I now offer my clients. I went through my competitors' pages to understand what they offered and how they presented it, then adjusted my services accordingly. I also looked closely at their communication: what they publish, on which networks, in what tone. And I did all the targeting work, to know precisely who I am talking to.

The result is not a perfect document filed away in a folder. It is decisions: what I offer, to whom, and what I don't offer.

What is market research for?

According to the service-public.fr page on market research in a business creation project, it helps assess whether a project is likely to be profitable. It describes and analyses four elements: the offer, the demand, the environment and the sales strategy.

In practice, it answers questions that look simple:

• Who needs what I offer, and why?
• How do these people solve their problem today?
• Who are my competitors, direct and indirect?
• What in my environment could make my market grow or shrink?

The 4 steps to carry out market research

Bpifrance Création suggests a four-step approach. I go through it with my advice for applying it when you are starting out.

Step 1: define your market

Describe in a few sentences the market you are targeting: what you sell, to whom, where. It sounds obvious, but it forces you to decide.

A point of caution raised by Bpifrance Création: don't confuse the customer (the one who pays) with the user (the one who uses the product). For a toy, the parent pays and the child plays. Your message won't be the same for both.

Step 2: analyse the demand

How many potential customers do you have, how do they buy, what motivates them and what holds them back? This is also the time to segment, that is, to split your market into groups that resemble each other, then choose the one you will target first.

Step 3: analyse the offer and the competition

This step consists of observing what already exists in your market. Identify the businesses that offer similar products or services, but also those that meet the same need in a different way.

Don't stop at the fact that they exist. Look concretely at what they offer: their services, their product ranges, their prices, their terms of sale and the additional services they provide.

The goal is to understand how the offer is structured in your market, what seems to work and what could be improved. This is also what will help you spot any gaps and think about how you can stand out.

This is the competitive analysis, which I detail just below.

Step 4: analyse the environment

A new regulation, a technological change or a shift in habits can open or close your market. Bpifrance Création recommends the PESTEL method, which reviews six types of factors: political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal.

In practice, take the time to look at what is happening around your business. Are consumption habits changing? Is your sector subject to new regulations? Could new technologies change the way your customers buy or use your products and services?

The idea is to anticipate changes that could affect your business, but also to spot opportunities to seize.

Doing your competitive analysis

A competitive analysis is one component of market research. It means identifying the players who already meet your customers' needs and comparing their offers. The goal is not to copy them, but to spot where you can do things differently.

Identify three types of competitors

• Direct competitors: they offer the same thing as you, to the same audience.
• Indirect competitors: they meet the same need in a different way.
• Substitutes: what your customers do instead today, including doing nothing or doing it themselves.

Look at their offers, but also at their communication

When I did my own analysis, I didn't stop at the service pages. Looking at your competitors' communication is just as instructive: which topics keep coming up, what tone they use, which content gets reactions. You will see what your target expects, and the spaces nobody occupies.

Also take the time to look at how they present their services, the arguments they put forward and the way they highlight their strengths. Two businesses can offer similar services but speak to very different audiences with completely distinct positionings.

My table template

You won't be surprised: I do all of this in a table. Here is a simple version to get started.

My favourite row is the weaknesses one. Read your competitors' negative reviews: they are customers expressing dissatisfaction, and sometimes needs that the market does not meet well enough.

Where to find reliable, free information?

• Desk research: official websites, trade press, published studies, social media, industry blogs.
• Field research: questionnaires and interviews with future customers, industry professionals and support organisations.

Service-public.fr also lists free or low-cost organisations that can help in France: the CCI and CMA, business creation support networks (Réseau Entreprendre, BGE, Initiative France, France Active, Adie), France Travail and the Bpifrance Création resources.

Research carried out without a budget can already provide valuable information. Its reliability, however, depends on the quality of the data collected, the diversity of the people surveyed and the relevance of the sources used.

The mistake I see most often: staying focused on yourself

If there were only one thing to remember from this article, it would be this. The biggest mistake is not stepping back from your market and staying too focused on yourself: your idea, your offer, what you feel like offering.

It's human, we are passionate about our project. But your customer doesn't compare your offer with your original idea. They compare it with everything they already know. Useful market research is research that makes you look outside.

The other pitfalls to avoid:

• Only looking at your direct competitors, when the real competition is often elsewhere.
• Only asking people close to you, who mostly want to please you.
• Piling up data without drawing conclusions. As a self-confessed perfectionist, I know this trap well. The goal is decisions.
• Doing it once and for all. Your market moves: go back to your table regularly.

In short

To do market research: define your market, analyse the demand, observe your competitors (their offers and their communication) and your environment. Combine desk research with conversations with real potential customers. And above all, lift your head out of your project to look at the market as it really is.