The Business Tools Store Blog

Launching a product, campaign, or investment? The key question is: “When will this pay for itself?” Break-even and payback analysis gives you the answer. Why It Matters Shows the sales volume needed to cover costs. Identifies how long until an investment turns profitable. Helps compare and prioritize different initiatives. The Math (Plain English) Break-even sales = Fixed Costs ÷ (Selling Price – Variable Cost) Payback period = Investment ÷ Annual Net Cash Infl …

Not all customers or market segments are created equal. Some deliver strong profits, while others drain resources, despite big sales numbers. Segmenting by profitability is one of the options to underpin your marketing strategy and investment decisions. Why It Matters Reveals your most valuable customers and market segments. Prevents over-investing in low-margin accounts. Supports more intelligent pricing and service-level decisions. The Math in Plain English Profitability = Revenue – (D …

In today’s competitive business environment, leaders need more than intuition to make strategic decisions. One of the most enduring tools for assessing market competition is Porter’s Five Forces, developed by Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School. It provides a structured way to analyze the external forces shaping profitability in an industry. Porter identified Five Forces that give rise to Market Competition. These Five Forces are: Threat of New Entrants – How e …

How do customers see your brand compared to competitors? Often, the difference between success and failure lies in how you are perceived in the market. Market Mapping (also called Perceptual Mapping) is a visual tool that shows where your business stands in customers’ minds. Perceptual maps visually show you how existing products/services are positioned in the market, i.e. in the minds of consumers, in relation to product attributes, e.g. features, price, value, etc. and the associated pos …

Blue Ocean Strategy is a powerful strategic marketing approach that encourages businesses to move away from highly competitive, saturated markets—what are called red oceans—and instead focus on creating and capturing new demand in largely uncontested markets. The goal? Make the competition irrelevant. This stands in sharp contrast to a red ocean strategy, where businesses fight to outperform rivals in crowded markets. These environments are often characterized by cut-throat competiti …