Who needs your programs, products or services and at what scale? Where are potential clients looking for solutions to their organization’s problems? What are the concerns and interests of the industry?  What thought leaders contribute new knowledge of best practices?  Who are credible mission-driven partners that can add value to your programs, services or products?

Market research and due diligence is conducted in order to help your company understand what existing or emerging markets want, need or believe in terms of programs, products or services. Surveys, questionnaires, interviews, facilitated discussions and online information gathering provide the information necessary to synthesize, draw conclusions and inform marketing and positioning strategy.

It is often helpful to perform a competitor analysis to see how other organizations are adapting or not adapting to changes in the market and emerging context in terms of their communication materials, product specifications, website design, price points, service packages and messaging to target audiences. By benchmarking your programs, products and services with those of your competitors, it is easy to identify emerging trends, the average industry response to those trends and the best-in-class offerings.

Recology, a waste operator with a mission of zero waste, wanted to distinguish their services from those of their competitors in a proposal for the operations of a regional waste management system. With Good Company’s market research and sustainability due diligence recommendations, Recology won the 9-year $38 million operations contract based primarily on their superior materials recovery plan and sustainability measures. View the scoring summary.

Good Company, in partnership with EnviroIssues, surveyed, interviewed and facilitated discussions with over 400 business sustainability program participants, conducted market research on similar programs and interviewed the 10 most innovative and successful sustainability business program managers for local governments across the country to evaluate the existing business assistance programs, identify best management practices and prioritize new program recommendations for the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability business assistance programs including Recycle at Work, Portland Composts! and BEST Business Center. View the 2010 program evaluation survey results. View our team’s evaluation and market research opportunities report.