Market Segmentation: How to Do It and How to Profit from It, Revised and updated 4th Edition

Chapter 11

Realizing the full potential of market mapping

Summary

In Chapter 5 when we looked at using a market map to both illustrate how a market works and to identify decision-makers, it was pointed out that ‘market mapping’ as defined and developed by the authors has become an increasingly important part of the toolkit for marketers. Not only can it be used to provide an informative picture of the distribution and value-added chain that exists between final users and suppliers, it can also be used to present your own company’s performance on these routes to market and illustrate where your sales and marketing resources are allocated. This provides a useful check when evaluating your sales and marketing strategies, especially when looking at predicted changes to the market’s structure and when comparing yourself with your key competitors on where resources are committed.

A reminder: This book refers to those who produce the products or services supplied to a market as ‘suppliers’.

This chapter looks at how to capture the above refinements on a market map. You are also at the stage where you can plot your selected segments on to the market map and consider what changes may occur in the market’s distribution and value added chain during your chosen planning period. Examples of these more detailed market maps appear at the end of the chapter. A more detailed discussion about the future shape of markets, with particular reference to IT-enabled channels, occurs in the next chapter. ...