Every business should determine its own criteria for success when evaluating the attractiveness of a market because every industry has its own unique circumstances. Forces that shape segment attractiveness include the following:

• Market growth (market size, growth rate, and market potential)
• Competitive intensity (the number of companies, the ease of entry, and substitutes)
• Market access (customer familiarity, channel access, and company fit)

Although an index that is based on these criteria is useful in capturing the qualitative aspects of a market situation, the profit potential must also be assessed for all of the segments that are deemed attractive based on their market-attractiveness indexes.

Part 1: Segmentation Application 

Develop a product-focused business. Please do not use an existing company or a scenario that you utilized in a previous course. You will continue working with this business throughout the course. Complete the following:

• Introduce the scenario of the business and the main product that it sells.
• Analyze customers’ needs for the target product.
• Discuss segmentation strategies that are based on 2 real competitors’ market positions.
• Devise a niche marketing strategy that would be appropriate for your company’s product.

This section of the paper should be 3 pages in length and use research from the library’s full-text databases and other quality college-level resources.

Part 2: Gap Analysis, Benchmarking, and Competitive Advantage

Complete the following:

• Carry out a gap analysis of 2 competitors. Discuss how the findings would be used.
• Develop competitor and competitive benchmarking.
  • Competitor benchmarking involves identifying a business’s main competitors and then comparing itself against them in key performance areas. Competitive benchmarking involves going outside a business’s market or industry to study a company that excels in an area where the business is deficient.
• Devise strategies to achieve a competitive advantage for the company.

This section of the paper should be 3 pages in length and use research from the library’s full-text databases and other quality college-level resources.