Market Research
The Challenge
Assenty is an event technology business based in Salford, UK. Assenty has developed a web-based application which facilitates real-time engagement between event planners and their audiences. The application was originally designed for use in face-to-face events but, like many other businesses, Assenty now needs to expand its services for remote and hybrid events.
Our Associate Research Consultants, an interdisciplinary team of PhD researchers from academic institutions in the UK, were tasked with conducting market research to identify target markets, enable Assenty to produce a unique selling proposition to targeted markets, and generate insights and actionable recommendations for the marketing, positioning and the future development of the event technology.
Objectives
1. Identify Assenty’s key competitors and understand their products, services and marketing approaches.
2. Identify the range of potential clients for Assenty’s services, generate insights into clients’ requirements, and how these can be met.
3. Analyse the current functionality of Assenty’s application and produce recommendations for improvements based on the market research, to maximise its potential in the market.
Approach
1. Conduct an exploratory literature review to understand more about the current event technology industry, including an analysis of business documentation provided by Assenty.
2. Use the internet to identify Assenty’s competitors and conduct a competitor analysis, identifying the services they offer, the tools they use, product features and they ways in which they are marketing and positioning themselves.
3. Combine information from Assenty, the literature review and desk research to develop potential customer profiles.
4. Design and deliver semi-structured interviews with sample of potential customers to understand their perceptions and requirements and complete a market segmentation analysis.
5. Use the information generated through the literature review, competitor analysis and market segmentation to evaluate Assenty’s current product features, identifying what works well and areas for improvement.
6. Apply research findings to an analysis of Assenty’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT Analysis), to understand how it can capitalise on potential opportunities and mitigate threats.
7. Synthesise all findings and generate evidence-based insights and recommendations for Assenty to inform the future development of the application and approaches to marketing.
Impact
The project team delivered actionable recommendations to Assenty relating to:
1.The design and development of the application to enhance the user experience and product features, in line with customer requirements and competitor analysis.
2. Branding and marketing approaches to increases Assenty’s visibility and impact in the market.
3. Approaches to targeting specific customer profiles.
4. The development of new pricing structures to increase customer engagement and sales
The insights and recommendations have provided Assenty with a deep understanding of the competitor landscape, how their current product compares to others on the market, who their potential customers, what they want. Understanding current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats enables Assenty to identify its unique selling point and focus its finite time and resources for the greatest business benefits – reducing risk and exploiting opportunities for growth.
In partnership with
Doctoral Training Partnerships
Funded by
