One of three critical assessments that fuel Strategic Planning, a Market Assessment starts with determining the boundaries of an organization’s current market. Historically, markets have been defined as least partly on the basis of geography, and where this is the case, advanced mapping and analytics software can help you visualize your market and market presence in some exciting new ways. With internet sales channels and an increasingly global market place, there are other dimensions to consider, including customer demographics, psychographics, and sociographics. A thorough Market Assessment considers not only historical and current, but also projected market conditions as well as market share. Another powerful tool, Portfolio Analysis, combines information about market share and total market growth in a quadrant analysis that helps organizations understand the potential for each product / service line. By combining all of this information, a Market Assessment will help you understand not only how you are doing, but how you could be doing.