What Is Market Opportunity Analysis? (2022 Updated)

all about market opportunity analysis

“What is market opportunity analysis? Market opportunity analysis (MOA) is a market research technique that helps to determine the market potential for certain products or services.

Market opportunity analysis (MOA) is a market research tool used to help identify, prioritise and qualify market opportunities. This type of analysis can be done for new or existing markets that you are considering entering into. MOA helps identify the market size, growth rate and market share of the industry and any other factors like customer needs and the competition within the market. With this information, you will know if it’s worth your time to enter into this market or not.

What is Market Opportunity Analysis?

 Market Opportunity Analysis (MOA) is the process of identifying, analyzing and prioritizing business opportunities. It helps you define key areas where your organization can focus its resources to deliver maximum sales results. MOA provides help in deciding where to play and how to win. The emphasis should be on “where” rather than “how.” How often do we see companies trying different ways without knowing whether they are even playing in an area that will bring them returns? MOA clarifies which markets have higher potential for growth so companies can invest more time, money and energy into those opportunities while exiting market areas where market growth prospects are not good enough to warrant further investment.

Sometimes, companies may have different views on market opportunities. MOA will help them understand the available market potential and make an informed decision about which markets they should play in or how they should play in selected markets to maximise their returns from those markets. It helps management focus its resources on high-potential areas that offer a sustainable competitive advantage, deliver strong financial results and meet business objectives (such as revenue targets) within a given time frame. Market research studies conducted by market intelligence firms can be used for market opportunity analysis. These studies provide detailed insights into trends shaping your industry, changing customer requirements and evolving competitor strategies across market segments.

The market research reports also help you analyse market attractiveness, market position and market penetration for your organisation’s products or services concerning the competition based on their market performance over time, sales results of major players operating in this market and other relevant parameters. 

Market insights are available from various sources such as government publications, industry reports & surveys published by organisations like IBEF (Indian Brand Equity Foundation), ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce), FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) etc., trade journals/ magazines, annual reports/websites/press releases published by leading companies involved in that particular business domain and so on. These can be used effectively to gain market insights for market opportunity analysis.

Supermarket online shopping. Shopping basket on a laptop.3d illustration
Supermarket online shopping. Shopping basket on a laptop.3d illustration

Who should conduct the market opportunity analysis?

A market opportunity analysis is a valuable tool for any marketer. It can help you determine whether or not your product idea has the ability to scale and generate revenue, as well as if there is an actual market gap that needs filling. 

This might be something that companies with enough resources could consider hiring their marketing team to handle internally. Still, most small businesses may not have those kinds of budgets available, so they will want to turn their attention elsewhere instead. Marketers should look towards outsourcing opportunities to save time, money and complete market research quickly without having to take up too much of their working hours. The company’s service must also provide actionable insights which are easy for marketers who aren’t data-driven by nature to use when developing marketing strategies. 

The marketer should clearly understand the results to make an informed decision about whether or not they can move forward with their product idea and pitch it to investors, customers, etc. If the marketer doesn’t clearly understand what kind of market is out there, they may end up wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere on something more promising for business growth. For example, if marketers are considering creating products/services for small businesses but through market opportunity analysis finds out that bigger companies spend more money (which means potentially larger profits) than smaller companies. It might make sense for them to focus instead on launching products/services specifically designed with big business needs in mind rather than wasting time on market research.

Comparison the graphs on laptop. Team workers have meeting and talking about planning their business
Comparison the graphs on laptop. Team workers have meeting and talking about planning their business

How to carry out a market opportunity analysis

If you’re a marketer, market opportunity analysis may be a part of what you do. Marketers have to keep up with the market and analyse it to determine how they can sell more products or services based on market trends. This market opportunities analysis will help marketers identify new markets and recognise existing ones ripe for development. The following tips provide direction around conducting this type of study: 

– Have an open mind about different industries beyond your own – You need to know who’s buying from whom, where the product is being sold and used, etc. Researching these aspects helps you better understand how your industry works and gives insight into other markets that might benefit from similar types of products/services. 

– Analyse market trends and data – When you understand market opportunities, it’s easier to identify market segments that could benefit from your product/service. It also helps you better predict potential sales volumes and whether or not they would be profitable for your firm. You can use several different methodologies such as the Delphi technique, conjoint analysis, factor comparison methods (eCFA), etc., regardless of which one you choose.

– Be upfront about what information is needed – While conducting a market opportunity assessment is an important part of understanding how customers conduct their business with others in their industry, some elements may need to be considered when setting up these types of experiments. 

In addition, one way that this can be done is by using SWOT analysis. A SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This involves analysing your company’s internal factors or “strengths” as well as external factors or “opportunities.” It should also include any threats or weaknesses associated with each opportunity identified. 

This method will allow marketers to understand what their own business does best in terms of its current situation while simultaneously identifying new ways to grow within other markets/segments – all through anticipating the future market environment where these changes may occur (or not).

– Strengths: What are our strengths?

– Weaknesses: What are our weaknesses?

– Opportunities: Where can we market ourselves to new customers/markets?

– Threats: Should we market ourselves in other markets or stick with the current market segment?

The market opportunities analysis must include a SWOT assessment. This can be conducted by evaluating what your business does best compared to other market competitors while anticipating the market environment where these changes may occur (or not). When conducting this market opportunity analysis, it is imperative that you keep an open mind and constantly ask yourself how market trends will affect your company’s decisions regarding its strengths, weaknesses, threats or opportunities for growth within new markets/segments. By doing so, you are much more likely to avoid making any costly mistakes with regard to planning future marketing campaigns or product development efforts when reacting solely on gut instinct rather than fact-based evidence of market conditions. 

A strong understanding of the realities associated with the current market landscape enables marketers to make market-based decisions that are more likely to succeed.

It is important to keep an open mind and constantly ask yourself how market trends will affect your company’s decision regarding its strengths, weaknesses, threats or opportunities for growth within new markets/segments. By doing so, you are much more likely to avoid making any costly mistakes with regard to planning future marketing campaigns or product development efforts when reacting solely on gut instinct rather than fact-based evidence of market conditions.

Enjoying the benefits of being connected
Enjoying the benefits of being connected

Five benefits of conducting market opportunity analysis

The market opportunity analysis is a very important task to complete when starting any project. It helps you understand your market space, potential competition and how big the market could be for your product or service. Here are five benefits of doing market opportunity analysis:

– You can build out more features by understanding what customers need 

– Helps with collaboration as everyone knows where the market opportunities lie and where we should focus our attention on first 

– Market research costs less than developing new products that no one will buy 

– Identifying specific niches that may not have been thought about before this increases revenue from your customer base 

– Knowing if there’s an existing company that already dominates within their industry means you can either sell to them or try and take market share away from them.

What type of opportunity is this?

The market opportunity analysis is a tool that helps to determine whether the company should go ahead with developing and launching its product in the market. It includes an analytical approach, which will help you identify your target market, competitors in this market, market size estimation, market trends etc.

This type of analysis can be used for new or existing markets when starting up a business. 

It will contribute to making well-informed decisions regarding marketing strategies by providing accurate information on possible future performance, thus creating opportunities for sustainable growth within the industry and increasing profitability, among other things!

To conduct such an analysis successfully, one needs a thorough understanding of what they are looking for and some skills required from both financial planners/analysts and market research analysts.

Market opportunity analysis is designed to identify market attractiveness, estimate market size and competition level, the competitive advantage of your product/service, etc. It helps you decide whether there is enough demand out there before investing more resources into developing something that no one might want at all? This way, you make sure that the market exists, products are needed & money is being made before spending more time and resources.

Examples of market opportunities analysis

There are many opportunities in the market with both challenges and solutions.

The market for mobile apps is a great example of this. Many people have ideas about what they want but lack the time or ability to create it themselves. Someone else can easily come along and offer their skill set as part of an app development company that specialises in creating high-quality applications quickly at affordable prices due to economies of scale (the larger number of products created). This allows them more flexibility on cost since they can sell large quantities without having too many overhead costs like sales teams etc. It’s important to know who you choose as your partner and how well you do market research beforehand so ethical business practices are followed. This market opportunity analysis example will help you look at your market in a new way and possibly find ways to better reach out to customers looking for what you offer.

To market an app successfully, you need to take advantage of market opportunity analysis. This cannot be done without a lot of knowledge or experience in the market itself. There are several different things you should do when trying to identify market opportunities within your target market. 

– Identify what other people have tried before and why they failed or succeeded 

– Analyse their successes/failures by identifying specific reasons for success or failure beyond just luck 

– Think outside the box – don’t assume everything has already been thought about because it probably has! Consider using metaphors to understand problems better, rather than simply looking at numbers 

Friends shopping shoes online
Friends shopping shoes online

In Conclusion

The MOA process can help you identify, analyse and prioritise business opportunities. It provides a framework for decision making to help companies define where they should play in the marketplace to focus their resources on areas with higher potential for growth. Companies often invest time, money and energy into trying different ways without knowing whether or not these are markets that will bring them returns when it would be better spent focusing on an area of high potential. Have you used any form of Market Opportunity Analysis? What has been your experience?

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