Market mapping

Market mapping is a business tool that compares the products or brands in a market by plotting them on a grid with two variables. It is used to analyse the competition and to spot a gap in the market. Instead of a long list of rivals, you get a picture of where each one sits and how close together they are.

Choosing the two variables

The variables must be things consumers actually care about, because those are what make a shopper pick one brand over another. Price and quality are the most common pair, but any two relevant features work, such as price and battery life for wireless speakers. So a business picks the two that matter most to the customers it wants.

Using the map to read the market

Choose two variables, position each competing product, then look for a pattern. Brands grouped in the same area form a cluster: a crowded part of the market where a new product would struggle to stand out. An empty area is a gap. It may be an unmet customer need, and so an opportunity for a brand-new product or for an existing one to be repositioned (relaunched with a different price, quality or features).

Here is the data for a market map of headphones:

The medium-price, excellent-sound space is empty. A business could aim a new range there, then set its price, specifications and marketing to land in that space rather than alongside the cluster of cheap rivals.

What a market map cannot tell you

A gap is only useful if enough people would buy there. The space may be empty because customers do not want that combination, or because making it at that price would cost too much, so demand and profitability must be checked before targeting it. The map is also drawn from the business's own judgement about where brands sit, not from sales figures, so it shows position rather than the number of customers or profit.