Customer Insights and Market Analysis Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Marketing Managers, Customer Experience Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-M-074

Before you join: Participants should have practical exposure to marketing, sales, customer experience, product management, business development or market research.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Customer and market decisions often fail because teams rely on internal assumptions, broad demographic labels or incomplete sales feedback. Marketing teams need evidence on who buys, why they choose, what prevents purchase, how needs differ by segment and where competitors hold an advantage. Without a disciplined approach to customer insight, product launches, campaigns, propositions and channel investments can target the wrong demand or make weak value claims.

This course teaches participants to define market questions, build customer and market evidence, segment audiences and turn findings into commercial decisions. Participants work with market sizing, PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, STP, customer journey mapping, Jobs To Be Done, survey design, qualitative research and competitor analysis. They learn how to assess data quality, distinguish correlation from causation, interpret customer feedback and present insights that support prioritised action.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, research-design workshops, survey interpretation and decision simulations. Cases can be adapted for banking, public services, telecommunications, retail, healthcare, NGOs, business-to-business services and consumer markets. Participants leave with a reusable customer insight plan, market analysis framework, segmentation model, research brief and stakeholder-ready insight presentation structure.

The course suits professionals responsible for marketing decisions, customer experience, product development, sales planning, service design or market research. It is particularly useful for teams moving from campaign reporting and anecdotal feedback towards evidence-based customer and market decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Define decision-focused customer and market research questions
  • Conduct market sizing using top-down and bottom-up methods
  • Apply PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces to market attractiveness
  • Develop actionable customer segments using STP criteria
  • Design qualitative and quantitative research briefs and instruments
  • Map customer journeys and identify moments that influence choice
  • Interpret customer evidence using basic statistical and thematic analysis
  • Present prioritised insight recommendations through an evidence-based decision narrative

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce stronger evidence for marketing and customer investment proposals
  • Move from broad audiences to defined, prioritised customer segments
  • Write research briefs that answer specific commercial decisions
  • Challenge unsupported customer claims using structured market analysis
  • Communicate customer findings credibly to senior stakeholders

For your organisation

  • Improves targeting accuracy for campaigns, propositions and channel investments
  • Reduces product and service decisions based solely on internal assumptions
  • Creates consistent customer insight methods across marketing and commercial teams
  • Identifies underserved segments, unmet needs and market growth opportunities
  • Strengthens the evidence trail behind customer experience improvement priorities

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame customer and market questions around a defined business decision.

  • Decision trees linking customer evidence to commercial choices and investment decisions
  • Distinguishing business symptoms, research questions, hypotheses and measurable information needs
  • Voice of Customer sources: complaints, sales calls, service logs and reviews
  • Evidence hierarchy for internal data, primary research and external market sources
  • Biases affecting customer interpretation, including confirmation bias and availability bias
  • Research ethics, informed consent, confidentiality and responsible data collection

Participants can assess market size, structure, growth and commercial attractiveness.

  • TAM, SAM and SOM calculated from credible demand assumptions
  • Top-down market sizing using published data, ratios and adjustment factors
  • Bottom-up market sizing from customer volumes, purchase frequency and price
  • PESTLE analysis identifying external forces shaping market demand and supply
  • Porter's Five Forces assessing rivalry, substitutes, buyers, suppliers and entrants
  • Market attractiveness matrix combining growth, margin, risk and strategic fit

Participants can identify the needs, motivations and constraints that shape customer choice.

  • Jobs To Be Done interviews separating functional, emotional and social progress
  • Buying criteria ranked by importance, performance and perceived supplier differences
  • Customer decision journeys from trigger through search, selection and post-purchase evaluation
  • Barriers to adoption including risk, effort, price, trust and switching costs
  • B2B buying units mapped across users, influencers, buyers and approvers
  • Behavioural economics concepts: loss aversion, choice architecture and social proof

Participants can construct actionable segments and select priority target audiences.

  • STP framework connecting segmentation, target selection and market positioning
  • Segmentation bases: needs, behaviours, value, attitudes, geography and firmographics
  • Segment profiles built from size, needs, accessibility, profitability and growth
  • Prioritisation scorecards comparing segment attractiveness and organisational capability
  • Personas grounded in evidence rather than stereotypes or assumed demographics
  • Positioning statements defining target customer, frame, benefit and reason to believe

Participants can design and evaluate qualitative research for customer discovery.

  • Research briefs specifying decision, audience, objectives, method and output
  • Depth interview guides using funnel questions, probes and neutral wording
  • Focus group design addressing recruitment, moderation, group dynamics and bias
  • Ethnographic observation capturing context, workarounds, behaviours and environmental cues
  • Purposive sampling selecting participants with relevant experiences and characteristics
  • Thematic analysis coding transcripts into patterns, exceptions and evidence statements

Participants can create decision-ready surveys and interpret core quantitative outputs.

  • Survey objectives translated into variables, questions, response scales and analysis plans
  • Question wording avoiding double-barrelled, leading, loaded and ambiguous questions
  • Likert scales, Net Promoter Score and customer satisfaction measurement choices
  • Sampling frames, sample sizes, response rates and non-response bias
  • Cross-tabulation comparing customer groups by needs, behaviour and satisfaction
  • Confidence intervals and statistical significance interpreted for business decisions

Participants can map journeys and prioritise customer experience improvement opportunities.

  • Journey maps documenting stages, actions, channels, emotions and customer expectations
  • Moments of truth identified through consequence, frequency and emotional intensity
  • Service blueprints connecting customer actions with frontstage and backstage processes
  • Pain-point prioritisation using impact, effort, prevalence and strategic importance
  • Customer effort analysis for handovers, repeat contacts and process complexity
  • Closed-loop feedback processes linking customer comments to accountable service actions

Participants can compare competitor offers and identify defensible proposition opportunities.

  • Competitor intelligence sources: websites, tenders, reviews, sales feedback and reports
  • Feature-benefit analysis distinguishing product attributes from customer-valued outcomes
  • Perceptual maps comparing brands against customer-relevant choice dimensions
  • Value proposition canvases matching customer pains, gains and offer components
  • Category entry points identifying situations that trigger customer demand
  • Competitor benchmarking across price, service, channels, claims and experience

Participants can turn mixed customer and market evidence into prioritised recommendations.

  • Triangulation comparing qualitative, quantitative, operational and external evidence sources
  • Insight statements linking observed evidence, customer meaning and business implication
  • Root cause analysis using five whys and cause-and-effect diagrams
  • Correlation, causation and confounding factors tested before making recommendations
  • Opportunity prioritisation using impact, confidence, effort and strategic alignment
  • Assumption logs recording uncertainties, evidence gaps, owners and validation actions

Participants can present a clear customer insight case and plan its application.

  • Pyramid Principle structuring messages from recommendation to supporting evidence
  • Insight presentations using charts, customer quotes, journey evidence and implications
  • Chart selection matching comparisons, trends, distributions and relationships
  • Research readouts separating facts, interpretations, assumptions and recommendations
  • Stakeholder maps identifying decision-makers, contributors, challengers and implementation owners
  • Ninety-day application plans scheduling research, analysis, decisions and review points

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Customer and market research brief template
  2. TAM, SAM and SOM market-sizing model
  3. Segment prioritisation scorecard
  4. Customer journey map template
  5. Competitor benchmarking matrix
  6. Ninety-day customer insight application plan

Who should attend

  • Marketing Managers — need evidence to prioritise segments, propositions and campaigns
  • Customer Experience Managers — need to identify customer friction and service improvement priorities
  • Product Managers — need validated demand evidence before product and feature decisions
  • Market Research Specialists — need structured frameworks for linking research to commercial action
  • Sales Managers — need clearer buyer insight for account planning and value propositions
  • Business Development Managers — need market attractiveness analysis for growth decisions

Skills and tools covered

Market opportunity assessmentCustomer segmentationResearch designJourney mappingCompetitive analysisInsight communication

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, Porter's Five Forces, STP framework, Jobs To Be Done

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case work, group exercises and structured analysis of customer and market evidence. Participants assess realistic research briefs, market data, customer feedback, competitor claims and journey evidence. Simulations require teams to make targeting, proposition and investment choices from incomplete information. Facilitated discussion tests assumptions, data quality and decision logic. Each participant develops an application plan using a live customer, market or proposition question from their role.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to marketing, sales, customer experience, product management, business development or market research. They should be comfortable discussing customer needs, commercial objectives and basic business data such as sales volumes, revenue or survey results. Prior experience of formal market research, statistics, customer segmentation or analytics software is not required. The course explains relevant quantitative concepts in business terms and provides structured frameworks for qualitative analysis. Participants benefit most when they bring a current product, service, market or customer question from their own work.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You need practical familiarity with a marketing, sales, customer experience, product or business development role. Formal research training, advanced statistics and specialist analytics software experience are not required.

Bring a current customer, market, campaign, product or proposition question where better evidence would improve a decision. Relevant materials such as customer feedback, sales reports, existing personas or competitor information can help, but are optional.

It is designed for managers and specialists who make or inform customer-facing commercial decisions. It suits both business-to-consumer and business-to-business roles, including regulated and public-service settings.

This course concentrates on finding, assessing and applying customer and market evidence before decisions are made. Marketing strategy courses focus more broadly on planning choices, while digital marketing courses focus on channels, media and campaign execution.

You can use the research brief, market-sizing model, segment scorecard and journey map on an active business question. The final application plan helps convert the course methods into defined research and decision actions.

The programme contains ten modules taught in sequence across five training days, each running from 08:30 to 16:30 with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, analysis, group work, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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