Market potential

The market potential ( english market potential ) into the economics and marketing in a particular market a maximum salable sales volume or the maximum achievable sales volume of a good or a service .

General

The specialist literature does not use the term consistently and sometimes equates it with the market volume . The latter, however, represents the actual sales volume or the actual sales revenue in a specific market within a specific period and forms the upper limit for the market potential, while the market potential also includes the unexploited market volume:

${\displaystyle {\text{Marktpotenzial}}={\text{Marktvolumen}}+{\text{nicht ausgeschöpftes Marktvolumen}}}$

The market saturation in turn shows how far the market potential has already been exhausted. The market potential is the potential, purchasing power-based absorption capacity of a market for a specific good. The market capacity , on the other hand, is the general absorption capacity of a market without taking purchasing power into account. When determining the market capacity, the focus is solely on demand .

calculation

The market potential is composed of the number of buyers appearing in a certain market, their purchase quantity and the frequency of purchases ( purchase frequency ) during the duration of the product life cycle :

${\textstyle {\text{Marktpotenzial}}={\text{(Zahl der Käufer)}}\,\cdot \,{\text{(Kaufmenge je Beschaffungsakt)}}\,\cdot \,{\frac {\text{Kauffrequenz}}{\text{Jahr}}}\,\cdot \,{\text{Dauer des Produktlebenszyklus}}}$

However, this demand-oriented view neglects supply-oriented criteria, such as the unused production capacities of the companies operating on the market . This is often due to the fact that market data is rarely available. Commercial civil aviation is an exception , because IATA, as the umbrella association of airlines, publishes the occupancy rates of individual airlines. It distinguishes between two business indicators for capacity utilization, namely the seat load factor ( passenger transport ) and the cargo load factor ( air freight ). In its annual report for 2015, Lufthansa reports that its seat load factor (seat kilometers, i.e. sales volumes) was 80.4% and that with 66.3% load factor (tonne-kilometers) it is Europe's leading cargo airline . This means that Lufthansa still has around 19% or 33% market potential worldwide due to underutilized capacities. This is the market potential that can be exploited in the short term. If it increases the flight frequency (flights twice instead of once a day), the market potential also increases. If the seat load and cargo load factors of the competition for a certain destination and the resulting free capacities are taken into account, the supply-side market potential can be determined.

Exploitation of market potential

In addition to underutilized capacities, the market development with its market phases is important for the market potential . The market potentials are greatest in a growth market, while they are low in a saturated market and practically nonexistent in a shrinking market . A cyclical market only shows market potential in the expansion phase and the boom .

There can also be market potential with market niches and market gaps . Market niches exist in a market with only a few providers; if there are gaps in the market, there are no providers at all, but there is demand. If a supplier ensures preferences on the demand side, he can use his market potential through monopoly competition . However, if the capacities are fully used, the existing demand-side market potential cannot be used in the short term.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden (ed.), Compact Lexicon Marketingpraxis , 2013, p. 202
2. ^ Mathias Schürmann, Marketing , 2016, p. 67 f.
3. ↑ Hermann Diller (ed.), Vahlens Großes Marketinglexikon , 2nd edition, 2001, p. 1064
4. ↑ Lufthansa Group, Annual Report 2015 , p. 198
5. ↑ Lufthansa Group, Annual Report 2015 , p. 50
6. ↑ This is only possible in the medium term, as various permits (landing rights, reciprocity ) are required for this.