Friday, August 23, 2013

Vertical Vs Horizontal Markets

Vertical Vs Horizontal Markets

By Lori Buenavista


Your marketing resources will only extend so far, so it makes sense to target your advertising and marketing dollars toward customers who's going to buy your goods and services. Think that's everyone? You should think again.

Vertical Markets and Horizontal Markets

In the world of marketing, businesses can be split up into two groups: Those whose customers are found in horizontal markets, those whose consumers are found in narrow, vertical markets. It's crucial that you find out where your small business falls-before you commence costly marketing campaigns.

What do those two terms mean?

Horizontal Markets: Every person, or nearly everyone would be likely to patronize your company, because your products and services are widely used.

Vertical Markets: Not everyone, or even the most of people would be likely to patronize your business. Your clients fall into narrow, specialized categories.

Some Examples of Horizontal Markets

Walmart is the perfect example of a business with a horizontal market. Its shops offer millions of products, which range from food to auto supplies to fabric to house-wares. Here are some information about Walmart: 90% of folks in the United States live within a fifteen minute drive of a Walmart store. Walmart claims that 60% of the U.S. population retailers at a Walmart store each month. Walmart has over 2 million employees. Walmart's sales total over $405 Billion. The typical Walmart Supercenter is 197,000 square feet.

One other example is AT&T. In addition to home telephone service, they offer cellular phones and plans and Internet service. AT&T has a huge portion of the market share already, and most people in the U.S. are prospective customers. In line with the Pew Research Center, 91% of adults in the U.S. own cellular phones. AT&T has 95.5 million wireless customers. AT&T owns 883,441 miles of network fiber. AT&T is ranked #12 on the Fortune 500.

A Few Examples of Vertical Markets

Vertical markets are much more narrow. Only a tiny proportion of the population would need products or services from a business using vertical marketing. However, smaller businesses, and many online businesses use vertical marketing. A few examples of businesses with vertical markets: Pet groomers, soccer equipment stores, metal recyclers, wedding boutiques, baby boutiques, and funeral homes. Rather than marketing to everyone, small businesses benefit by selecting a few vertical markets and marketing directly to the potential consumers in those markets.

For instance: A pet groomer would want to focus marketing efforts only toward individuals who own pets. Although not all of us who own pets would use a grooming service. A pet groomer might do some research and find that: people with particular dog breeds use grooming service a lot more than others. Someone who owns a Yorkie could use a groomer once every seven days; someone with a Labrador may never patronize a groomer. People in specific income ranges use grooming services. Paying for professional services such as grooming may require a higher income than average. Individuals who take pets in for weekly grooming might focus much more on their furry friends than the average animal owner. A pet groomer, then, might profit from selecting several dog breeds that most need frequent grooming, then acquiring an email, or address list of people who personally own those breeds, and sending marketing directly to those folks.

Why Focus on Vertical Markets?

Sending your advertising message to vertical market clients instead of marketing to everyone helps you save time and money, and gets your message sent to people who are serious about your products or services.




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