Marketing Opportunity: Definition, Advantages and Examples

Updated June 24, 2022

Companies need to generate new marketing opportunities to grow their business and increase revenue. Using a variety of market analyses can create strategic business plans and identify new marketing opportunities. In this article, we discuss what a marketing opportunity is, detail how to take advantage of marketing opportunities and list some examples of how to analyze the market for opportunities.

What is a marketing opportunity?

A marketing opportunity is a qualified sales lead who a sales team reviews and identifies as someone in potential need of a product or service. Marketing opportunities create the foundation for driving sales and are more likely to end in a successfully closed sale. Often better than other types of sales leads, marketing opportunities are already qualified as the customer having a problem that you have the solution to and the customer has verified they have the resources to purchase that product or solution.

However, no matter how broad the appeal of a product or service, not every person will purchase it, which is why it's so important to identify and take advantage of marketing opportunities. Companies work diligently to identify marketing opportunities, starting with a global overview of the market potential for their product or service and narrowing it down to individual actionable marketing opportunities for sales. Companies conduct marketing opportunity analyses to determine if they can introduce new products, sell more products, attract more customers and achieve company growth.

How to take advantage of marketing opportunities

Here are the steps for taking advantage of marketing opportunities:

1. Search for new marketing opportunities

Business always has a degree of instability as products and services have shorter life cycles, new competitors emerge and business models change. This instability requires businesses to search for growth and profitability through new marketing opportunities. Some types of analyses that can help businesses find new marketing opportunities include:

Direct competitors
Indirect competitors
Purchasing situations
Consumer environment
Foreign markets
Complimentary markets
Consumer segmentation

2. Assess company outlook

Understanding the direction, goals, resources, capabilities and strengths of a business can help it identify and analyze the market for opportunities. Many companies use the SWOT analysis method, which stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. This powerful yet simple tool can help companies to identify and list key SWOT areas, creating an awareness of these potential opportunities and the ability to plan and take action.

3. Identify and meet consumer needs

Businesses take advantage of market analysis and find new marketing opportunities by identifying consumers, assessing their needs and finding ways to meet those needs. Many business models accomplish this by focusing on brand value propositions, supply chains, direct and indirect competitors, existing regulations and the overall sales environment.

Related: What Do Marketers Do?

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Examples of marketing opportunities

Here are some examples of how you can analyze the market in order to identify and take advantage of new marketing opportunities.

Direct competition analysis

It's important to analyze the demand, purchasing and supply of not only your business, but competitors' businesses. Knowing your competition can help you evaluate marketing opportunities. For example, offering an additional service that your competitor doesn't offer or getting your price point below that of a competitor's may create a market opportunity for your business. Consider asking questions like:

What is the competitor's value proposition?
What advantages does your business have over the competition?
Which brands in the industry are growing the most?
Which products in the industry are getting the most attention?

Indirect competition analysis

You can establish competitive advantages with indirect competitors using indirect competition analysis. This type of analysis can provide new market opportunities for growth and additional insight by analyzing and breaking into substitute industries.

For example, vacation resorts may search for new marketing opportunities in consumer groups already supplied by other types of vacation lodging. Resorts can research how many people vacation at hotels, bed and breakfasts, boutique inns and other accommodations. They can also research which vacation locations are in high demand, how much these alternate lodgings cost and what their occupation rate is. The resort can then use this information to figure out how to persuade customers to switch from these other vacation lodgings to their business.

Purchase situation analysis

Looking at purchasing decisions, like payment methods and distribution channels, can tell your business how consumers make purchases and what your business can do to sell your product accordingly. There may be a marketing opportunity, such as providing purchasing alternatives like different means of payment, to bring in new customers. Consider asking questions like:

How do consumers pay for their purchases?
Where do consumers make their purchases?
When do consumers buy our services or products?
Are consumers getting our services and products at the right time?

Environment analysis

Changes in the consumer environment, like scientific or technological developments, are marketing opportunities that generate new business. One example is how the growth of smartphones and the internet created new business models and opportunities. Environmental marketing opportunities can also arise from regulatory framework changes, like when the requirements for company labels or nutritional labels change. Market research and analysis can help identify changes in the consumer's environment that may become marketing opportunities for business growth.

Foreign markets analysis

Exploring sales in other countries can lead to marketing opportunities, especially if the business is already established in a saturated or mature market. Market opportunities in foreign countries grow at different rates for many reasons, like local habits or economic development. It can help to know a product's per capita consumption, the size of the market and competitor information for a specific country to indicate the product's life cycle, maturity and business potential. Monitoring more developed countries might reveal potential marketing opportunities or suggest a need for new services and products absent in the current market.

Complimentary markets analysis

Many companies have complimentary companies in the market, for example, a company that sells smartphone cases compliments the company that actually sells the smartphones or a company that sells light bulbs compliments the company that sells lamps. Companies can benefit from monitoring their complimentary companies' performance and products for trends in the market or investment decisions. Insight into complimentary companies can produce new marketing opportunities.

Consumer analysis

Marketing opportunities can come from identifying consumer segments with similar characteristics. Some characteristics are hard variables, like gender, education, income, age, location and occupation. Other characteristics are soft variables, like attitude, motivation, lifestyle and values. Hard characteristics might help you estimate information like the amount of potential customers on a certain day or in a certain location. Soft characteristics might help you estimate information like what motivates your customers to make purchasing decisions. Identifying these customer segments leads to a better understanding of product and service demands which can create new marketing opportunities.