As articulated by Aaker and McLoughlin (2010), market analysis is a crucial part of developing the marketing strategy, since it evaluates the attractiveness of the market, thus enabling the identification of the opportunities and threats. They propose seven dimensions of market analysis: submarkets, size and growth, profitability, cost structure, distribution systems, market trends, and key success factors. Moreover, they suggest to start the market analysis with identifying the total sales volume of the industry. In the case of the antifouling paint, the starting point will be to search for the sales data of the existing antifouling paint.
Comparatively, Day (1981), classifies the method of …show more content…
To illustrate the market positions, they present the hypothetical market structure, as pictured below. According to the hypothetical market structure, a market leader occupies 40 percent of the total market, followed by market challengers with 30 percent of share, the next 20 percent belongs to the market followers, and the last 10 percent is owned by the market nichers (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Each market position needs different strategies to cater different challenges in the competitive market environment. These strategies are implemented by organizations in a highly competitive environment, where building strong brands is …show more content…
Market nichers are usually small companies that seek high profit margin by delivering premium products or services to a specialized market that is overlooked by larger companies, while maintaining low production costs. Kotler and Keller (2012, p. 330) suggest that ‘the nicher achieves high margin, whereas the mass marketer achieves high volume’.
A successful market nicher recognizes the needs of their customers better than the other companies, thus its products are offered at a premium price, resulting in higher return on investment. In order to survive, it is essential that a market nicher has the ability to not only create the niches, but also expand and protect the niches. Once a niche is viewed as an attractive market, it can be attacked by competitors or the market leader, causing the initial market nicher unable to compete with its specialized resources, which have no alternative uses. For that reason, it is necessary for a market nicher to continuously create its new niches or multiple niching in order to increase the chance of surviving the competition. These market nichers’ strategies are suitable for small, entry-level organizations, when they have to utilize their limited resources to gain a small but profitable market share (Kotler & Keller,