The UK is a sizable, ever changing, competitive market - and success here can result in substantial sales and revenues for a new market entrant.

To take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the UK, it is vital to carefully study your own market sector in the UK, so that the precise market gap can be identified and the correct strategy developed.

For those companies who are considering entry into the UK market we offer a tried and tested evaluation and launch programme:

STAGE 1 Gap Analysis

This first stage of work is an initial review on the potential for your product or service in the UK, hunting for relevant market gaps. We regard it as the first of a series of checks. If there seems little or no opportunity, we will have identified this for you early on and at a limited cost before you make a major investment in UK marketing.

Similarly at this stage we also check on all the regulations and Trading Standards issues related to your market in the UK so that you are fully informed of any possible business constraints.

Our work in this stage:

Market Potential

• Market size and Dynamics
• Current Products and Services available
• Market Pricing
• Current and Potential Customers

Competitors

• Who they are
• What products and services they market in the UK
• What marketing/sales approaches they employ
• Their marketing expenditure levels and breakdowns

Regulations

• Overall product/services regulations
• Trading Standards Issues
• Brand Registration Issues
• Any Marketing or Sales Restrictions

At the completion of this stage we produce a full written report and give you our views on the potential opportunities and how these might be realised.

As a guide, costs for this stage are normally between £2,800 and £4,000. The analysis falls into two parts. Firstly, one of our business team gathers all the relevant market data and conducts a study of this and the products competing in the sector. The full consultancy team then considers all the information and from their experience develop their recommendations on potential market gaps that may be exploitable with your product or service.

The timing for the Gap Analysis is about three to four weeks, dependant on the availability of market data.

STAGE 2 Buyer Research

The next stage concentrates on specific research with your potential customers. Through this we can gain detailed feedback and views on your product or service, prior to you considering launching in the UK.

We either conduct this research via telephone interviews, where we can get a general overview, or in some instances we are able to arrange informal 'non-selling' appointments with key buyers in which we can cover a wide range of topics including the potential for your product and any potential hurdles that they may envisage.

This research has proved invaluable to clients in the past, as it has allowed them to direct their strategy at meeting the needs of buyers.

Once again we produce a full written report and the senior researcher who has conducted the programme presents the report verbally so that any issues can be fully discussed at the time.

This second stage of work completes the evaluation process and will give you a clear idea of the opportunity open to you.

This is not an expensive piece of work and can cost as little as £800 for the telephone interviews or £1,500 for the face-to-face sessions.

We can often complete this research in four weeks but it should be noted that buyers can be difficult to get hold of and appointments may be spread out over a longer period.

STAGE 3 UK Business Plan

Having completed the evaluation programme and having worked closely with you over this period, we will now be in a position to produce the first draft of a UK Business Plan for discussion with you.

The Business Plan will normally cover:

• Objectives
• Co-ordination with Company Corporate Stance
• UK Sales Forecasts
• Budgetary Policy and Pay Back
• Branding
• UK Product Positioning
• Pricing Policy and Trade Margins
• Resources Requirements
• Business Development Strategy
• Marketing and Sales Approaches required
• Any Test Marketing Plans
• Distribution Strategy
• Administration (warehousing/invoicing/customer servicing/delivery etc)

Our charge for a UK Business Plan is £4,500 and the first draft of this can usually be ready within one month. The UK Business Plan comes in written form and is also presented to you by the lead consultant.