Question

You have been given the task to evaluate a market opportunity for a firm. Give specific examples of the dimensions you would use to determine the attractiveness of a given market. (Strategic Marketing)

Answer 1

Answer- Evaluation of market opportunity for a firm-

Today's business environment is characterised by rapid advancement in technological and scientific attributes of a products and services. The characteristics and quality of product and service keeps on changing continuosly. Hence, it is important to change business models accordingly in order to keep up with the changing scenerio of the market. In order to identify and grasp the market opportunities, the business model of a firm has to be evaluated by identifying various factors which are discussed below-

1. Segmentation of consumers-

To identify market opportunities, it is important to first identify the common characteristics that consumers share and then segment or group consumers based on the common characteristics. The variables to segment consumers may differ from product to product and service to service. The most common variables include age, gender, place of residence, educational level, occupation and level of income, lifestyle, attitude, values ​​and purchasing motivations. After segmentation, the demand pattern of the groups must be identified.

2. Examine purchase situation-

Another factor to be noticed in order to uncover market opportunities is to examine purchasing situations. Purchasing situation here means to identify when people buy product or services, what kind of product or service they need, where do people purchase the things from, the distribution channel for the products and what is their mode of payment etc. By analysing these, new shopping opportunities, offers and other benefits can be offered in order to attract more and more consumers.

3. Identify the competitors-

It is important to analyse the competitors i.e. the supply condition of the particular good or service in the market. Knowing the players in the market and their strategies is helpful in identifying strategies and making changes in business plans accordingly.

4. Analysing substitutes and complementaries-

Business should also keep an eye on the performance of other companies which produce substitute and complementary goods. Before making investments, the firm should study the trends in the complementary and substitute goods market.

5. Foreign markets analysis-

Another factor a firm should give importance to is to expand their market base into foriegn countries. To do this the firm must keep observing for any opportunities that arise in foriegn markets. Gathering information on the foriegn markets, demand pattern of people, product quality, distribution pattern etc will help in uncovering new opportunities in the foriegn market.

The dimensions to determine the attractiveness of a given market-

In order to increase the attractiveness of a given market, Strategic Marketing is an effective method. In strategic marketting, a firm aims to maximise its own attractiveness in order to gain more consumers. There are three key principles/questions in strateegic marketting-

1. Which markets to compete with?
2. What the basis of the firm’s competitive advantage?
3. When and how the firm will enter each market?

Let us consider the market for Samsung products, In order to starategically market, apple must first decide which markets it must compete with like, apple, redmi etc. After that it must identify the factors in which it has advantages over others. Finally it must decide how to expand its market by grabbing customers from the other markets.