Target Market Analysis

Most B2B companies are guessing at their market opportunity (Here's how to map it systematically) Your TAM is the foundation for every strategic decision you make. Yet most businesses approach market analysis with gut feelings instead of systematic frameworks. The cost of getting this wrong: Wasted resources targeting the wrong segments, missed revenue opportunities, and strategic decisions based on flawed assumptions. This TAM mapping process transforms how you identify, evaluate, and capture market opportunities: Start With Clear Analysis Goals Before diving into data, define what you're actually trying to understand: → Market size assessment for realistic revenue projections → Revenue potential analysis for investment decisions → Strategic planning for resource allocation The 5-Step Market Evaluation Framework 1. Demographics Analysis - Who are your potential customers by company size, industry, role? 2. Geographic Segmentation - Where are these prospects located and how does location affect buying behavior? 3. Behavioral Patterns - How do they currently solve the problem you address? 4. Competition Assessment - Who else is serving this market and where are the gaps? 5. Growth Potential - Is this market expanding, contracting, or stable? Market analysis isn't a one-time project. You need to create a continuous optimization loop: → Monitor performance against projections → Refine segments based on actual conversion data → Update analysis as market conditions change → Make strategic adjustments based on new insights Why this matters: Companies that systematically map their TAM make better targeting decisions, allocate resources more effectively, and identify expansion opportunities their competitors miss. The difference between companies that scale predictably and those that plateau? Systematic market understanding versus guesswork. Your market analysis should drive every go-to-market decision you make. How systematically are you analyzing your total addressable market?

Most entrepreneurs chase the top 5 million consumers. But what if the real gold lies in 115 million households nobody's talking about it.  India's consumer landscape tells a powerful story:  5 million households with premium durables (cars, ACs, laptops) versus  115 million with basic essentials (two-wheelers, TVs, fridges). This NCCS data exposes more than numbers; it reveals untapped potential in serving aspiring households ready for their next lifestyle upgrade. Here's how this data should shape your market approach: → Target the underserved: While competitors fight for 5M premium households, there's untapped potential in 115M households planning their next upgrade. Study their buying patterns and understand their aspirations. → Build upgrade bridges: Create products that bridge basic and premium segments. Each step up-from two-wheeler to car, TV to smart TV is a market opportunity. Design clear upgrade paths. → Expand beyond metros: Premium buyers cluster in metros, but the real scale lies in Tier 2–3 cities. Build distribution that reaches aspiring households where they are. Price products for their transition journey. → Speak their language: Skip the premium pitch. Focus on practical value. Your message should connect with their immediate needs while acknowledging their growth ambitions. Success in India's market isn't about numbers alone. It's about enabling 115 million households on their upgrade journey. Winners will be brands that bridge the gap between aspirations and affordability. How are you bridging this market gap?

We've worked on 500 positioning projects. 95% of the companies get this wrong 👇🏻 When I ask each company to "describe your ideal target customer," they all do the same thing: Start listing company attributes: “Our ICP is SaaS companies based in Europe in EdTech with 1000 employees" But a list of firmographics doesn't constitute a marketable segment. Simply being a certain size or being located in a geographic region does not guarantee the companies will actually need or want your product. There's a better way to segment, and it guarantees that the people you do outreach to will at least have the NEED for your product. 1) Target customers in a "mature market" centered around existing product category You're going to build a segment starting with the companies that recognize an existing product category and are actively shopping for it OR currently have/use it. So for example, if you have launched a CRM, your target market might begin with all the companies that are actively shopping for CRMs or using CRMs right now. That way, when you pitch them your CRM, you know that it will not be irrelevant — assuming you have a compelling argument. You can use the same differentiated argument to get the shoppers to use you and those already using a CRM to consider switching to you when their contract expires. This is essentially the equivalent of buying shelf space in a busy store and looking to capture the incoming demand of the daily shoppers looking for that specific product category. 2) Target customers in an "immature market" centered around a job-to-be-done If you want a more greenfield market with less vendor-level competition, you can create a segment based on people all trying to accomplish something (something that your product makes easier/cheaper/better, etc.) Your outreach to this market will be relevant in the sense that you'll be speaking directly to something they are trying to accomplish (again, to say nothing of how compelling or uncompelling your solution is). However, this group is "immature" because they've never bought a solution like yours before. They weren't shopping for what you provide. You'll have to explain it to them and convince them you're worth of allocating budget. This is essentially the equivalent of door-to-door sales to pitch something new and novel related to something a homeowner is currently doing or struggling with.

Market segmentation is often more about you than the market. Traditionally... we choose to cluster groups of people or companies based on some combination of their demographics (age, gender), psychographics (values, opinions, interests, behaviours) or firmographics (industry, company size, org structure). Personas and ICPs (ideal customer profiles) are often the output of these exercises. For example, on the B2C side your target persona might look like: Thrifty Tiffany the 34 year old mom with two kids, a cat, drives a 2014 jeep Cherokee who lives in the Northwest. On the B2B side your ICP might look more like: CFO Sam the 45 year old executive with a mid-market ($10M - $1B) aerospace company based in Virginia. While these personas might accurately represent specific niche audiences within the market, it's very likely that you'll end up lowballing the size of your potential customer base with them. Here's a better alternative. First: segment the market first by their needs. Tony Ulwick has published a lot of great content on this. By first understanding the jobs customers are trying to get done and how well their needs are being met, we can more accurately estimate the size of our market. The benefit to the business is that we then maximize the number of potential customers we have to serve. In a recent interview with Mimi Turner and Jann Martin Schwarz, Vassilis and I got to hear a related idea being born. In B2B, these needs, or jobs to be done (JTBD), are very often emotional. In B2B buying, Jann & Mimi discovered the top 5 emotional (JTBD) are 1. I felt I would be able to defend the decision, even if it went wrong. 2. I feel confident that the thing we are buying will do the job 3. I knew there would be downsides but I felt they could be managed 4. The Buyer Group were more or less aligned 5. The buying process was easy-ish No matter the product or service, using the emotional JBTD is a legitimate way to first understand and segment the market. This has massive downstream application as well when it comes to execution through the 4Ps and especially in the promotional creative & messaging. Think about CFO Sam - traditionally, we'd use his profile to mirror the creative so that it looks familiar to his workplace. We might use a picture of a guy with an airplane engine in the background and talk about the features of the product. But if we knew that creating confidence in the buying group of 15 people was the main job to be done, than the creative could appeal to all buyers in the decision making process rather than just targeting CFO Sam with the feature / benefits of the widgets. For more on this, check out our new episode on the complexities of B2B buying, our post-pod discussion or the interview on JTBD with Tony - links in the comments below.

I've been wrong about target markets more times than I'd like to admit. Early in my investing journey - founders building for US / India in their pitch slides said things like: "We target SMBs in Tier 1 cities." "Our product is for millennial professionals, 25–35." "We focus on mid-market fintech in the US." And I'd nod along. It sounded rigorous. It sounded like they'd done the work. They hadn't. And neither had I for believing it. Great Founders have tried to teach me better Demographics are a lazy proxy for the real answer. Company size doesn't matter. Geography often doesn't matter. Age bracket almost never matters. What matters is: why does this specific person, in this specific situation, desperately need what you've built? The best founders never said "we sell to SMBs." They said "we sell to ops teams drowning in manual reconciliation who've already tried Excel and failed." That's a target market. It exists in Delhi. It exists in Austin. It doesn't care about your firmographic slide. Neither do the best founders say "we target mid-market SaaS companies." They said "we sell to revenue leaders who are held accountable to a number but don't control the inputs." That person is everywhere. I'm still very much a student of this process, but I thought these insights might be helpful You can get a gist of this from a book, but never understand its true meaning until you know the pain point of the individual - the on ground reality. I figured it out by watching great founders obsess over why their best customers stayed not who they were on paper. If your target market can be described in a demographic, you probably haven't found it yet.

Most marketers get this wrong: they think they should have one target audience. They shouldn’t. Take Peloton. Who is their audience? "People who want to work out at home"? Too broad. "Fitness enthusiasts"? Not specific enough. Peloton doesn’t have one target audience. Because the best marketers think in 5 levels of audience, depending on the need. Here’s how each one works for Peloton: 1. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 → 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. This informs the direction of your long-term strategy, shaping product development, expansion plans, and brand positioning. For Peloton, for example, this is the entire at-home fitness market, which informs decisions such as expanding beyond bikes into treadmills, rowing machines, and even strength training. 2. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 → 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫. This defines your value proposition and the choices you make to deliver it. It influences features, pricing, and the overall experience. For Peloton, these are high-income professionals who value convenience and community, which leads to value prop components that include live and in-store classes, premium hardware, and a strong brand image. 3. 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 → 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭. This determines how you talk about your product. It tailors messaging to different customer needs and objections. For Peloton, this means crafting different messages for busy executives (workout efficiency), new parents (flexibility), and ex-gym-goers (competitive training), all within that high-income professional market. 4. 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 → 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞, 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧. This dictates where you invest in attention. It prioritizes channels, placements, and creative strategies. For Peloton, this is people actively searching for "best home exercise bike", rather than just general fitness enthusiasts. 5. 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 → 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭. This decides when and how you engage. It helps match content to the right moment: brand-building for early-stage buyers, conversion-focused ads for those ready to purchase. For Peloton, this means running educational content for people researching and direct-response ads for those closer to buying. Most companies fail because they collapse these layers into one. The best brands don’t speak to just one audience. They layer these targets to control the narrative and own the market. If your marketing isn’t working, the problem might not be a message problem but a targeting problem.

It’s clear—tons of brands are diving into OOH for the first time, and I get it: it’s not the easiest medium to figure out. It's complicated. It's fragmented. Every week, I get questions from marketers asking where to start, how to start, and most importantly, how to choose the right market. Choosing the right locations can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right data, you can make informed decisions that drive real impact. Here’s how to do it: First-Party Data: Tap Into Your Own Insights: *Shipping Addresses: Start with your top customers. Where are your biggest orders coming from? These regions are your prime candidates for OOH. *CRM Data: Map out where your repeat buyers are concentrated. Loyal customers are already brand advocates—you want them seeing and sharing your campaign. *Loyalty/Subscription Data: If your recurring revenue is strong in cities like Denver or Portland, focus your efforts there to amplify your brand presence. Social Engagement & Sentiment: *Where is your brand already gaining traction? Analyze social media data to identify areas with high engagement or organic mentions. These are often strong candidates for market expansion. *Geotagged posts can also show you where customers are naturally talking about your brand—leverage those locations for your campaign. Mobile Ad ID (MAID) Data: Track Audience Movement: *Use anonymized MAID data to map where your target customers live, work, and play. This data lets you visualize commuter patterns, weekend habits, and hotspots where your audience is most active. *For example, if your audience commutes from the suburbs into downtown, prioritize placements along major commuter routes or near transit hubs. Competitor Insights: *Research where similar brands are running their OOH campaigns. If they’re heavily focused on one region, ask yourself why. Are you missing an opportunity? *Competitor analysis can also help you avoid oversaturated markets and find untapped areas where your audience is underserved. By combining these layers strategically, you’re not just placing ads—you’re creating a campaign that connects with your audience in the moments that matter most.

In mature industries, the market tells you what it wants. In emerging ones, you have to teach it what to want. That’s why most founders in new sectors mistake noise for demand. In emerging industries, the market isn’t written down anywhere... it’s built in real time. That’s what makes it exciting… and dangerous. When I ask founders who their market is, they often show me demographics: “We target coastal cities with populations over 1M…” That’s not a market. That’s geography. A market is a pattern of behavior, people who repeatedly act in a way you can predict. Until you can observe, measure, and segment that behavior, you’re not scaling… You’re guessing. Here’s a framework I use with ventures we support: 1. Observe the behavior. Where does real money already move? Study transactions, not trends. 2. Validate the intent. Find early adopters who experience the pain so deeply they’ll pay for speed, not features. 3. Prioritize the segment. Don’t chase total addressable market (TAM). Focus on total addressable urgency (TAU), the people who must act now. When you find the overlap between behavior, intent, and urgency, that’s your real market. Founders who learn to see this pattern early can raise faster, market smarter, and scale predictably because they’re not selling to everyone; they’re serving the few who already believe. If you can’t describe your market in three sentences, you don’t have one yet.

Targeted TAM is the new TAM Analysis - Here's the EdTech Playbook That Actually Works and Helped me and my Co-Founder scale from $0-$50M with no outside investment. After 17+ years scaling and growing in EdTech and working with 500+ districts, I'm seeing too many founders, boards, and investors spending months (sometimes YEARS) on Total Addressable Market analysis that don't drive focused GTM strategies followed by realistic and attainable growth goals. The Problem: Generic TAM analysis creates false excitement and unrealistic goals. Also, many times these are 'off' based on many factors sometimes just as simple as the team members developing it, just simply don't understand or don't have direct K12 EdTech Market experience. The New Analysis: Targeted Addressable Market (TAM) - the new EdTech standard. Here's How Smart EdTech Founders Size Their Real Market: - Step 1: Define Your UNIQUE Product Fit Intervention solutions SEL & mindset programs Virtual staffing support Credit Recovery Courses Core Curriculum Benchmark or Supplemental Assessments NOT "all K-12 education" -Step 2: Identify the SUBSET with Matching Budgets Which districts actually spend on YOUR product type? What's their historical allocation patterns? Where's the budget line item that funds solutions like yours? -Step 3: Connect to REAL ICP Data District size requirements Enrollment thresholds Geographic concentrations Actual purchasing behaviors C-Level and District Level Decision Making Suite The Analysis Outcome? A GTM Strategy Grounded with Realistic and Attainable Growth and Bookings Goals: - Realistic revenue goals boards can believe in -Focused ICP targeting instead of "spray and pray" - Clear budget alignment with district spending patterns - Attainable milestones for short, medium, and long-term growth Real Example: This isn't theory - it's how I scaled my EdTech company. We ditched the "$50B K-12 market" slides and built targeted market analysis that kept us laser-focused on product-to-NEED fit (which evolves constantly, by the way). We bet on 'Student Outcomes Above All' as our Northstar. Managing UP: Realistic market expectations with our board Managing DOWN: Team belief that leadership understands the real opportunity The Result? 50% YoY growth, 150% Net Revenue Retention, scaling to $50M in revenue. Just completed another one this week with a strategic partner. Instead of chasing a generic market, we identified their actual $2.3B targeted opportunity with clear ICP criteria and budget mapping. Bottom Line: Your board wants excitement about market size AND confidence in your ability to capture it. Targeted TAM delivers both. EdTech Founders: Stop building TAM castles in the sky. Start building targeted strategies that drive real revenue. This is just part of what we do RP Impact Partners, believing that taking 2 steps back to analyze your Targeted TAM gets you playing from ahead of the game. Measure twice, cut once. RP 🚀

If you think your customer is “everyone,” you’re wasting your money. Obviously you need customers to have a viable business. But who are they? Where are they? How will you find and correctly target a juicy market? You have no idea how many times I’ve heard some variation of, “Our target market is the mass market, obviously.” Sorry, Charlie. No matter how big you think your idea might get, you CANNOT begin with anything containing the two-word, company-killing term “mass market.” Why? Logic: You can't begin by targeting something that by its nature is so broad that .. it can’t actually be targeted. There are no specific behaviors and attributes to hone in on. That means you can’t test OR validate it. And what are you in desperate need of? Low-risk testing. Things you can try out that might attract the right people. “Mass market” is like saying the whole school is potential best friend material. You can see how that’s just a bit overconfident, right? A mass market is something you may acquire down the road, if that’s appropriate to your product or service. But this can only happen after (like, way after) you’ve succeeded with the market segments that you’ve carefully chosen. So, who will you target first? To figure that out, you have to identify what you believe are your top Jobs To Be Done, which I’ve touched on in the past. Then, it’s time to theorize about your juicy market segments. I call these JAMs, or Juicy Addressable Markets. Instead of focusing on things like: 🔵 Irrelevant demographics 🔵 Estimates or gut feelings 🔵 Generalities 🔵 Things that don’t relate to the job the product is meant to do Instead, focus on two things: behaviors & attributes. Why? Because you can only find, target, and test based on specific behaviors and attributes. A behavior is: Driving kids to daycare An attribute is: Single moms If it’s too broad, keep digging. If you can’t find it - you can’t use it. Your JAM segments are NOT based on needs, motivations, or problems. Why not? These things belong in your JTBD statements. If you create customer segments based on needs, motivations, or problems, then you’ve conflated your potential market with the Job to be Done. If you do that, you won’t be able to match JAM segments with the corresponding Job. This matters because your number one Job needs to have the most and/or biggest segments in order for your business to be viable. And you won’t be able to determine that if you conflate the two. In today’s carousel, I’m breaking down how to find and target the specific JAM segments that will help you drive conversions, lower CAC, and save money. --- Follow me, Katie Deloso 🎬, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product. #b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg #icp