Vertical Industry Analysis

The U.S. market for product and service offerings is too often treated as a coherent whole. In fact, it is made up of a number of key vertical segments that have critical differences in terms of structure and needs. In terms of macro-economic data, there are 19 commonly recognized vertical segments, but for most product and service offerings, some of these are grouped together to yield 13 major industry segments: Construction Manufacturing Wholesale trade Information technology Retail trade Utilities Financial services Educational services Transportation and warehousing Entertainment, accommodation, and food services Healthcare and social services Public administration Other services Each of these key vertical segments have different structures in terms of the number of firms and establishments, the distribution of these firms in terms of size (both employees and revenues), ownership, overall concentration (or lack thereof), average profitability and cost ratios, and the nature and degree of competition. Data of this sort is an important first step in building a forecast for product and service offerings, and depending on the specific offering, it may be necessary to further segment the major vertical. For example, an offering aimed at the financial services industry may (or may not) encounter important differences between the banking, insurance, and real estate sub-segments. Even more to the point, these differences between the segments present themselves in terms of: Overall opportunity: Specific product and service offerings will usually have varying levels of attractiveness to different vertical segments. Go-to-market strategies: What are the most effective means of introducing new products or services to particular vertical segments and educating them about the potential advantages? What are the key “hot buttons” for each vertical (i.e. cost savings and cycle time improvements)? Sales and distribution strategies: Which are most effective for each vertical segment: direct sales, sales through value-added partners and licensees, or sales through multi-tier distribution? Service requirements: These can also differ between the key verticals. In short, segmenting your marketing and strategic planning activities along these vertical segments is vital to achieving full success, and InfoTrends can help you accomplish this. We combine a deep understanding of the available secondary sources with our own proprietary data and in-depth knowledge of key differences between these verticals (gained from our professional staff’s extensive experience) in terms of our various practice areas in the business communications and digital imaging marketplace. Contact InfoTrends to discuss how we can help you with your vertical industry analysis. Source: http://www.infotrends.com/public/Content/MRD/Projectdescriptions/verticalindustry.html