The goal in scanning is to build a large list of opportunities. By crytalizing individual opportunities, by defining them in a brief format, you bring creative focus to potential solutions. More robust solutions, or Options, are stimulated when scanning has been rigorous. Scanning requires both analytical and creative thinking and tasks, each mixed in a synergistic soup working together. This step involves idea generation , qualitative and quantitative market studies and cababilities assessments.

Our Power Decisions Blog article, Owning a new 'market space' or product category" gives further insight as to how we think about opportunities and how they provide the seed bed for strategic options.

To link marketing research tools to this decision stage, go to
Decision-Research Matrix .

Marketing Consulting Services :: Overview

Marketing Strategy Consultants

As marketing strategy consultants, our firm will work with you and your company and management team in a professional product launch, branding research, or market sizing or targeting engagement. Since each client company or firm is unique with its own set of issues and opportunities, we often begin our relationship with a decision identification and clarification engagement – what we call Decision Mapping. This identifies the most relevant problems, opportunities, and issues most relevant, and serves to clarify the decision agenda. We believe this is a crucial step to ensure as consultants to your company, that our research or marketing strategy engagement meets your specific management requirements. Further, Decision Mapping saves both time and money as it sharpens focus as to the exact work which needs to be accomplished in our remaining consulting or market research work for your company.

Experts in Marketing Strategy

As experts and specialists in marketing and market research, we are well qualified in these strategy arenas: positioning, segmentation, product launch, new product development advertising strategy, corporate and product naming, company branding, brand equity measurement, pricing, brand development, brand strategy, product concept testing, identifying opportunities, and targeting positioning.

Functional Marketing Research Experience

Our consulting company has deep experience working with large and small firms, although typical clients include Fortune 500, Fortune 100, or middle market companies. Our team members have been involved as executives and board members of technology venture start-ups, conducting research and assessments used by private equity, and venture capital firms.

Industry Consulting and Market Research Experience

First, we are not industry specialists or experts. Our philosophy is that we bring a tool kit of analytical and management skills to the table. You bring deep industry knowledge of your business. The blending of our functional and management expertise, and your knowledge of your own business and industry, makes for a productive decision-focused engagement.

Here are some examples from industries we've served with management strategy consulting and marketing research...

→	Retail Retail market research involves understanding the impact of the channel factors in consumer choice and perceptions. Retailers face growing changes as now online retail delivery attracts more serious buyers across a broad range of categoreis. We've conducted studies for online companies, catalog merchandisers, traditional retailers such as specialty chains, department stores, financial services retailers, big box discount chains, and national supermarket chains.
→	Telcom As convergence of communications technologies between fixed broadband and mobile wireless telecom communications continues over the next few years, convergence will be a defining crucial issue. Our telecom and wireless communications market research engagements are practical, accurate, and reflective of the particular client needs and the nature of the target market. We implement a wide range of communications B2B and consumer marketing studies — from new product development to market sizing studies.
→	Business-to-Business: B2B B2B marketing studies are focused, practical research efforts to enhance the fast-paced decision-making requirements of the B2B marketing environment. Industrial and B2B manufacturing and wholesale marketing research studies are designed to be practical, accurate, and reflective of the particular client needs and the nature of the targeted market. We've conducted scores of industrial B2B studies for manufacturing firms engaged in sales of chemicals, heavy equipment, technology products, software systems, plant procesing equipment, computer systems, farm equipment and implements. Industrial B2B market research, as in consumer research, requires decision-clarification up front, tight goal definition, rigorous research design, and meticulous field research data collection.