Project: Identify Pockets of Growth (Part 1 of 2)

LSM561: Discovering Sales Growth Opportunities

Project: Identify Pockets of Growth (Part 1 of 2)

Micro-Market Factors Workbook

Directions:

Your task is to identify geographic factors to help segment the existing 11 sales regions in Germany into effective micro-market units.

To complete the activity, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Review Factors that Can Be Used to Identify Micro-Markets

Consider this:

If you owned a large number of auto dealerships covering a large geographic area, the macro view of your territory might suggest an average growth rate of new car sales of 4%. However, further segmenting your market by factors such as (1) customer density and (2) average income could yield a more insightful micro-market segmentation that would reveal underpenetrated pockets of growth.

Here is a list of factors that can help identify micro-markets. This list is not exhaustive.

· Standard administrative or established geographic units: counties, cities, metro areas, municipal units

· Smaller geographic units: Zip Code, postal code

· Sales reps’ territory radius: The distance that sales reps can cover as part of their daily sales and customer visits

· Competitive intensity : For example, the presence of key competitors, network coverage

· Customer density: Variability in the number of customers within or across geographic areas

· Demographic data: For example, age, gender, race, family size, occupation

· Macroeconomic factors: Growth rate, economic output, growth in unemployment, inflation, savings and investment

Step 2: Select Factors to Define Micro-Market Size

Using the list of factors from Step 1 above, identify three primary factors to effectively segment the German market into micro-markets based on geographical considerations.

Feel free to suggest alternate factors not included in the list.

Provide your rationale for why these factors would be useful.

An example has been provided for you.

Factor / Rationale
Smaller geographical units / Choosing smaller geographical units such as Zip Code and pin codes would help the organization segment the overall 11 regions into a more granular view of the market and identify pockets of growth (when combined with other factors).

Step 3: Compare Your Work to the Answer Key

Open the Micro-Market Factors Answer Key and compare your work to it.

Step 4: Reflect on This Project

Answer the following questions directly in this document. Use as much space as you need.

Question: Do you suspect that “pockets of growth” exist in your own markets? Why or why not?
My response:
Question: What factors would be useful to create micro-markets in your sales market?
My response:

Step 5: Save and Submit

Save your completed Micro-Market Factors Workbook using the following naming convention: Micro-market_<your name>.doc.

For example, if your name is Victoria Montclair, you would save the file as Micro-market_Victoria_Montclair.doc.

Return to the Identify Pockets of Growth (Part 1 of 2) page in your course. Using the Submit Assignment button in the top right corner of that page, submit a copy of your completed Micro-Market Factors Workbook.

Disclaimer: While elements of Atlas’ profile and elements of the profiles of some customers and competitors are based on real entities, this entire case, materials, and information are fictional and do not represent any actual organization or situation.