Market reach

Market reach
See also
Value drivers Areas of marketing Market dynamics Direct distribution Social network marketing strategy Marketing advantage Image of the company Marketing information system Analysis of customer

Market Reach is the approximate number of potential customers, which is possible to reach through an ad carrier or promotional campaign.

Market refers to a place, where forces of supply and demand meet and where buyers and sellers interact in order to exchange goods or services for monetary value or barter. Market also includes instruments that help determine the price of particular items or services, systems responsible for communicating offers and distribution tools.

Reach is defined as the number of potential customers that have been exposed to advertising or promotional message. Reach is often understood incorrectly, as the number of people that have actually seen the advertisement or promotional message. It shows the number of people that were exposed to the advertising channel, not the ones that have necessarily read or seen it. It describes the number of potential views. For example, if 1000 people drove by the billboard, 500 of them noticed it and just 200 read the promotional message, the reach number would be 1000, because it represents the maximum potential number of advertisement views. As a manager, it is greatly important to understand your company's market reach, because it gives an idea how much the enterprise can grow in the future and whom it can reach with its products or services.

Broadening market reach

Broadening market reach means taking actions, that will allow more customers to get access to company's products, or generally new products that were previously unavailable for certain market groups. It also means increasing company's or products' recognition on new markets or within new target groups. Companies decide to broaden their market reach in order to seek profit and business opportunities in new, not yet explored markets.

Ways of broadening market reach

There are number of ways of broadening market reach. For example:

• Entering foreign markets
• Investing in nationwide advertising campaign through social media channels
• Exploring new target groups

Mentioned above are examples of expanding company's market reach. Company only decides to take actions mentioned above, when expected outcomes are significantly bigger than incurred costs. Because expanding to new markets presents a set of threats to every company, the process has to be accompanied by deep analysis, e.g. SWOT analysis. Such analysis helps company to prevent failures, minimize risks and it also makes managers aware of different external and internal threats.

References

• Alejo R., (2010). Where does the money go? An analysis of the container metaphor in economics: The market and the economy "Journal of Pragmatics" V. 42, I. 4, 1137-1150.
• Arora A., Gambardella A., (2010). Chapter 15 - The Market for Technology. "Handbook of the Economics of Innovation", V. 1, 641-678.
• Guler I., Guillen M. F., (2017). Home Country Networks and Foreign Expansion: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry. "Academy of Management Journal" V. 53, I. 2, 319-410.
• Jong J. P. J., Freel M., (2010). Absorptive capacity and the reach of collaboration in high technology small firms. "Research Policy", V. 39, I. 1, 47-54.
• Waltz E., (2018). With a free pass, CRISPR-edited plants reach market in record time. "Nature Biotechnology", V. 36, 6-7.

Author: Jan Kaptur