Prior to the preparation of the marketing plan the entrepreneur will need to complete the industry analysis of the business plan. The primary focus of the industry analysis is to provide sufficient knowledge of the environment (national and local market) that can affect marketing. In Chapter 7 we described this information seeking process as an upside-down pyramid (see Figure 7.1). It begins with the broadest based assessment of environmental and industry trends. Then it proceeds to more local market environmental and industry trends, including competition. The entrepreneur should review this section of Chapter 7 to understand what information is included and how it can be obtained.