Provide an overview of the Situation Analysis. No more than ¼ page. No marks are allocated to this section but this will help you to focus your work.

Consider the following:

·         The purpose of this situation analysis. (e.g. It is about the dental industry/travelling industry in Canberra.)

·         Important aspects of the situation analysis such as competitors in your chosen location (E.g. Belconnen, Gungahlin) and identified market segment.  

Provide an overview of the industry:

·         Size ( turnover, employees numbers)

·         Growth ( per year)

·         What are the factors of success in this industry ( access to resources such as capital or labour, understanding of customer needs, technology, patents etc)

Good source of information include MINT database, consultancy reports on industries from

KPMG, PWC, Accenture, Ernst and Young, BCG,Forrester, Gartner, industry associations

Journals and Magazines- eg. RetailWorld, B&T and government department (productivity commission, Departments of industry, tourism, innovation

Government website such as www.australia.gov.au and www.abs.gov.au.

PESTEL analysis: Analysing uncontrollable factors that impact on the industry including political force, economic force, sociocultural force, technological force, and legal force.

Examine the relevant political forces affecting or potentially affecting the organisation. Political factors require considerations of political stability, government policy, trade agreements, and taxation arrangement. The specific political forces most relevant to your organisation will vary depending on if your business is domestic or international in nature.

Describe the macro-environmental economic forces that influence the organisation and the market. For example, you may discuss the impact of interest rates, economic growth, consumer confidence, income levels, saving levels, the availability of credit, unemployment levels and exchange rate. These are suggested considerations. You may choose factors that are relevant to your industry to discuss.

Describe the sociocultural force in the organisation’s market. Social and cultural forces that may influence the organisation include religion, subcultures, multiculturalism, beliefs, attitudes and population trends. Organisations operating internationally may face various sociocultural forces in each of their country-specific markets.

Consider how technology can be used to offer better value to customers. This should include an examination of how technology may support innovation across various aspects of the marketing mix. Technological change offers significant opportunities and threats and should be examined based on research evidence.

Consider how ecological and environmental factors such as weather, climate, and climate change could possibly impact on your business.

Identify legal and regulatory forces that govern many aspects of an organisation. Legal force include legislation in place locally such as the Trade Practices Act as well as international conventions and agreements.

Examine the micro-environmental competition factors including the type of competition (e.g. pure, monopolistic, oligopoly, monopoly, and monopsony) and competition at each level (e.g. total budget, generic, product, and brand). You need to exam the major competition in the industry in Australia wide and competition situation in ACT based on your research evidence.

1.  Who are your competitors?

2.  Are they direct competitors or indirect competitors?

3.  What are their market shares and growth trends?

4.  How are they different or similar to your business in terms of operation and marketing mix?

5.  What are their competitive advantages?

6.  What is your competitive advantage compared to major/direct competitors? (E.g. access to finance resources, skilled employees, location, and so on.)

7.  How effective is your competitive advantage? You may discuss the following aspects:

·         Service quality, positioning, resources, location, and growth potential.

Discuss your chosen target segment in ACT based on your understanding of the competition. Describe the needs and wants of the organisation’s actual and potential customers/clients. This should include current needs and wants, customer preferences, possible changes to needs and wants and the extent to which the organisation can influence customer preferences.

·         How will you segment the market? (Consider using a combination of segmentation variables such as demographic, lifestyle and behavioural segmentation.)

·         Single target market or multiple target market?

·         How large is the target market? ABS quick stats is helpful in quantifying the size of your target market.

·         Demographic and/lifestyle changes

·         Where are they located? (use ABS data)

It is important that the description of the target market/segment is as specific as possible.

For example, if it has been determined that the target market is urban 25-30-year-old single males, this needs to be what is stated, as opposed to a more general description such as ‘young single men’. You need specify the size of the target market such as how many 25-30-year-old single males are in Belconnen based on ABS data.

Information on how to effectively segment markets is introduced in Chapter 6.