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Rapid Market Appraisal: A Manual for Entrepreneurs - English

Rapid Market Appraisal: A Manual for Entrepreneurs

This manual is a part of a serried that reflects the experiences of the ILO’s FIT programme and follows the methods practiced by Mr. Katendwa in the Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) course, a three-day course for trainers. It is aimed at those who own and operate micro and small businesses. The business probably has no more than ten employees and may have no employees. Large companies spend considerable time conducting market research. Often they employ firms to conduct market appraisals to develop and market new products. Micro and small businesses may not even consider conducting market research, and their businesses suffer as a result. This manual aims to help the small business owner conduct market research. Ideally, this manual will be used while undergoing three days of training in Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) alongside about 10 to 15 other entrepreneurs. But the manual is designed so that the course can be followed without the class if there is no opportunity to join an RMA course.

Rapid Market Appraisal is a way for micro and small-scale entrepreneurs (MSEs) to collect market information to identify and develop new products or market products to new customers. Many MSEs do not try to study their market at all. They continue making the same products as their neighbours, and everyone is competing for a smaller and smaller portion of the market. Yet, as the authors highlight, customers can provide valuable ideas on how to make better products and hot to develop new products.

Following the introduction, Chapter 2 sets out the benefits of Rapid Market Appraisal. Chapter 3 then takes a step-by-step walk through the technique. The chapter covers:

Step 1: Finding ideas for new and improved products
Step 2: Analysing your product ideas
Step 3: Preparing for market appraisal
Step 4: Conducting the Rapid Market Appraisal
Step 5: Analysing the results
Step 6: Planning for the future