How Do You Determine Market Size?

How Do You Determine Market Size
Our market size analysis eBook shows how to effectively determine your market size

Market size analysis evaluates market volume, market share, and market potential along with the number of potential buyers in a market segment. To determine market size, a fully triangulated research approach will produce premium market insights.

In our latest eBook, we outline how to effectively determine your market size in five steps. Discover why and how Martec uses multiple research techniques to fully triangulate market size, share, and competitive activity. Also explore why knowing both the size of your market and your relative share within that market has never been more important. With more than 35 years of market research experience, we’re sharing the key items to review to determine market size.

>> Download our market size analysis eBook today.

How Do You Determine Market Size?

Step 1: Determine your needs and objectives

Market sizing can help you understand a number of market issues and trends, including:

  • Which markets and market segments have been positively or negatively impacted by an event?
  • Why some markets or market segments experience growth during a downturn?
  • How much has your market, and those you supply to, contracted recently? Is a rebound likely?
  • How well-positioned are your competitors? Can you leverage competitive weakness into share gain?

Prioritize the information you’re seeking. This will help you organize the findings.

Step 2: Assess whether you need a fully triangulated market analysis

The fully triangulated methodology is the premium approach to market sizing. However, it may not always be necessary to do all three legs of the triangulation stool.

Tips:

  • B2C companies with access to transactional data could make do with supporting secondary/multi-client reports.
  • Companies with high market share may not need bottom-up information… building the market from the top-down, with supporting internal sales data, may provide enough insights to effectively size the market.
  • Some companies already have end-customer survey data on hand. Incorporating this data into market size analysis can provide insights necessary to triangulate the market without conducting additional survey work.

If information about the market is sparse, we highly recommend the full triangulation approach.

Step 3: Review available published information

The first leg of the triangulation methodology can include a variety of published or available information sources, including multi-client reports, internal sales data, or other existing data. Most market size analysis studies begin with an exhaustive review of published articles and reports to provide preliminary intelligence on market dynamics.

However, published reports sometimes can be highly inaccurate, and the practice of applying an assumed growth rate to research completed several years ago can further complicate the process. Consult a research expert about which high-level insights from these sources could be included.

Step 4: Evaluate bottom-up insights

Bottom-up insights answer the question: “How much was purchased?”

These insights often are captured through a survey of industry participants including decision makers, purchasers, and users of your product or service. The insights gathered provide a baseline understanding of purchase incidence, spending, brands purchased, channels used, and more.

In the eBook, key survey questions along with survey design tips are provided.

Step 5: Conduct top-down analysis with primary research

Did you know many markets break down into 20% of businesses controlling 80% of the market?

Martec conducts in-depth qualitative interviews with market leaders, industry experts, and value chain participants about the specific market or product being evaluated. Expert responses provide a high-level understanding of market size, share, dynamics, and trends. These interviews also can provide valuable insights into industry drivers, competitor activities, M&A activity, and overall market conditions.

Primary research provides golden insight nuggets, invaluable to market size analysis.

So What? Now What?

Market sizing can be challenging under any circumstances. The uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic has served to further complicate these endeavors.

While the direct impact of COVID appears to be easing, the long-term effect of the pandemic is still being felt in various industries and supply chains. Despite disruptions, this event has provided opportunities for many companies to increase their market share, make strategic acquisitions, and expand into new markets.

Whether in crisis mode or during stable economic conditions, fully triangulated market size analysis can provide the insights needed to make key strategic decisions and provide valuable intelligence on current and emerging markets.

Ready to learn more? Download our eBook today:

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