Without knowing any more about what you are trying to do, I would just recommend a framework we learned at business school that I keep coming back to. It's for when you're looking at developing or altering a product. It's really just a checklist, and it's super simple, but it's effective. Can be tweaked to understand how different brands are attacking a market.<p>5Cs, STP, 4Ps<p>5Cs: Just list out a bunch of facts to get acquainted
- Context: what are the wider trends (e.g. millennial habits, etc.). This is where you start wide<p>- Customer: what 'job' is your customer trying to do? Who could that be? What is your unit of analysis: a person, an occasion, a ___ ??<p>- Company: what are you good at?<p>- Competitors: Who else is trying to serve that job?<p>- Collaborators: Who could be a partner? (Vendor, complementary service, channel partner, etc.)<p>STP:<p>- Segmentation: What are the different customer segments? What are the dimensions that make two {people, occasions, etc.} different in a meaningful way<p>- Targeting: Which are the viable and nonviable segments? Who's your target?<p>- Positioning: What is your:<p>-- POP/POD: point of parity/point of difference<p>-- Frame of reference: who are you stealing share from?<p>-- Reasons to believe: why would someone believe that you can deliver?<p>4Ps/marketing mix:<p>- Product/brand: what is your product? what's it's functionality? what's your brand?<p>- Price: level and structure.<p>- Place: distribution channels. Pull vs. push.<p>- Promotion: where will you advertise? What's your message?