Market environment analysis

Skill atrisorb/marketing-mastery-plugin/skills/market-environment-analysis

Run a rigorous external and internal strategic analysis for a brand — PESTEL/STEEP macro scan, Porter's Five Forces industry structure, Porter's Value Chain internal audit, then synthesize into a weighted SWOT and convert it into an actionable TOWS matrix. Use whenever the user needs a situation analysis, competitive/industry analysis, "should we enter this market", SWOT, TOWS, five forces, value chain, or the analytical foundation for a marketing or business plan. Push to use this before writing strategy, since strategy without structural analysis is guesswork.From its SKILL.md

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npx -y skills add atrisorb/marketing-mastery-plugin --skill market-environment-analysis

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SKILL.md

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Market & Environment Analysis

Strategy is the fit between what the outside world offers and threatens (external) and what the firm can actually do (internal). This skill produces that fit analysis end-to-end: macro-environment → industry structure → internal capability → SWOT → TOWS actions. The output is not a list of adjectives; it is a set of strategic moves justified by structure.

Trigger

User asks for a situation analysis, market/industry analysis, competitive structure, market-entry assessment, SWOT, TOWS, Porter's Five Forces, value chain, or the analytical base for a plan. Also trigger when a strategy request lacks any structural grounding — do the analysis first.

Inputs

Gather what's available; research or reason through the rest and label assumptions.

Focal firm/brand and its offering
Market / industry boundary — define it explicitly (product scope, geography, customer type). Most bad analyses come from a fuzzy market definition.
Purpose — entry decision, defend position, annual plan input, investment case
Known competitors, suppliers, customers, substitutes (if any)
B2B or B2C — changes buyer-power dynamics and value-chain emphasis

If tools are connected, use web search / an SEO or market-intelligence MCP to pull competitor, funding, and market-size signals; otherwise reason from what the user provides and flag confidence.

Process

Work the layers outside-in, then turn inward, then synthesize. Keep every claim tied to evidence or a stated assumption.

1. Macro-environment scan (PESTEL / STEEP)

Scan the forces the firm cannot control but must anticipate. Use PESTEL (or the STEEP variant); for each factor capture the trend, its direction, and the so-what for this brand — an unactioned factor is noise.

Factor	What to examine	Capture
Political	Regulation risk, trade policy, government stability, procurement rules	Trend + implication
Economic	Growth, rates, inflation, FX, purchasing power, industry cycle	Trend + implication
Social	Demographics, values, lifestyles, sustainability expectations	Trend + implication
Technological	Enabling/disruptive tech, digitalization, automation, R&D pace	Trend + implication
Environmental	Resource scarcity, emissions rules, circularity pressure	Trend + implication
Legal	Liability, IP, data/privacy, labor, standards	Trend + implication

Rate each factor's impact (high/med/low) and urgency (now / 1-3 yr / horizon). Carry the high-impact ones into SWOT as opportunities or threats.

2. Industry structure — Porter's Five Forces

Assess how the structure of the industry sets the ceiling on profitability. For each force, judge strength (low/medium/high) with the reasoning, then state what it means for strategy.

Force	Stronger (worse for incumbents) when…	Implication to note
Rivalry among competitors	Many equal players, slow growth, high fixed costs, low differentiation, high exit barriers	Basis to differentiate or consolidate
Threat of new entrants	Low capital needs, weak brands, easy channel access, no scale economies, low switching costs	Where to build barriers
Bargaining power of buyers	Few large buyers, undifferentiated product, low switching cost, buyer can backward-integrate, price transparency	Lock-in and value levers
Bargaining power of suppliers	Concentrated suppliers, unique inputs, high switching cost, supplier can forward-integrate	Sourcing/vertical strategy
Threat of substitutes	Attractive price-performance alternatives, low switching cost, changing needs	Innovation urgency

Add a read on complementors / ecosystem where relevant (platforms, APIs, integrators) — for digital and B2B businesses the sixth "force" of complementarity often dominates. Conclude with the overall attractiveness verdict and where the profit pools sit.

3. Internal audit — Porter's Value Chain

Map how the firm creates margin, activity by activity, to locate real strengths and cost/differentiation drivers. For each activity note whether it is a source of competitive advantage, parity, or weakness.

Primary activities:

Inbound logistics — sourcing, receiving, storing inputs
Operations — transforming inputs into the offering
Outbound logistics — distribution and delivery
Marketing & sales — demand generation, channels, pricing, brand
Service — installation, support, retention, success

Support activities:

Firm infrastructure — management, finance, quality systems
Human resource management — recruiting, skills, incentives
Technology development — R&D, process/product tech, digital
Procurement — buying practices across the firm

Link the chain to advantage: a genuine advantage is an activity (or a linkage between activities) that is valuable, rare, hard to imitate, and organized to exploit (VRIO). Flag which strengths pass VRIO — those are the ones strategy should be built on.

4. Synthesize — weighted SWOT

Consolidate into SWOT, drawing Opportunities/Threats from steps 1-2 and Strengths/Weaknesses from step 3. Avoid the classic failure of a flat, unprioritized list:

Keep each item specific and evidenced ("38% share in Area 3 vs. 25% category average," not "good market position").
Weight each item high/medium/low by impact.
Ensure Strengths/Weaknesses are internal and relative to competitors; Opportunities/Threats are external. Misfiling is the most common SWOT error — police it.

5. Convert to action — TOWS matrix

A SWOT that stops at four lists is inert. Cross the factors to generate strategies:

	Strengths (S)	Weaknesses (W)
Opportunities (O)	SO — Attack: use strengths to seize opportunities	WO — Build: fix/partner to capture opportunities
Threats (T)	ST — Defend: use strengths to neutralize threats	WT — Avoid/Retreat: minimize exposure, exit, or divest

For each populated cell, write 1-3 concrete strategic options. Then prioritize across all cells by impact × feasibility, and mark the 3-5 moves that make the shortlist.

Output

Executive Summary

3-5 sentences: industry attractiveness verdict, the firm's defensible advantage (if any), the single biggest opportunity and biggest threat.

Macro Scan (PESTEL/STEEP)

Table of high-impact factors with direction and implication (drop the low-impact ones to an appendix).

Industry Structure (Five Forces)

Force-by-force strength rating with reasoning + overall attractiveness and where profit concentrates.

Internal Audit (Value Chain + VRIO)

Where the firm has advantage / parity / weakness; which strengths pass VRIO.

Weighted SWOT

Four quadrants, each item weighted and evidenced.

TOWS Strategic Options

Populated matrix + a prioritized shortlist of 3-5 moves, each with rationale and rough impact/feasibility.

Confidence & Gaps

What would sharpen the analysis (data to pull, assumptions to test).

Follow-up

Ask: "Would you like me to:

Turn the TOWS shortlist into a sequenced marketing plan?
Deep-dive the competitive set into positioning maps and battlecards?
Pressure-test the market-entry case with sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM)?
Feed this into the brand lifecycle diagnosis to set stage-appropriate priorities?"