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Before you begin investing any time and effort into marketing strategies for your wholesale product business, you need to think through your ideal target market. The last thing you want to do is pick an industry as a target market with a small target audience. And most people don't realize that there are several factors to consider when identifying their perfect target audience. Therefore, the six primary factors to consider are listed below. Once you’ve worked through each of them, you should have a far clearer idea of exactly who’ll be reaching which will allow you to be more effective in your sales and marketing.


1. The Size Of The Total Market
You have to begin by exactly defining your market. Are you going to go by your trade association’s definition? It may be that definition is too broad or too narrow. For instance, if you sell electronic learning toys, is your market the entire toy industry, specifically electronic toys, or laterally education products?

2. The Size Of The Market Interested In Your Product
Within your overall market as you’ve defined it, what is the market segment who will be specifically interested in your product? Using the example from the previous point, of all the consumers in the market for electronic learning toys, how many are likely to consider your product? If 10% of the market for electronic learning toys is composed of educational institutions, will they be likely to consider your product or more likely to pass it over in favor of an established line?

3. The Size Of The Market Accessible By Your Distribution Channels
How much of the market will you be able to reach through your chosen method of distribution? If the majority of consumers buy from retail stores, how much of that market could you reach through direct mail? If your competition primarily uses a sales force, how much of the market would you be able to market to via telemarketing?

4. The Size Of The Market Who Buy Competitors’ Products
After you’ve identified your direct competitors, gauge the size of the market segments they reach. Is it profitable enough to support another company? Should you redefine your market to go after one they’ve overlooked?

5. The Size Of The Market Your Company Can Serve
How many customers or much production can your company realistically serve? If you can only supply a few hundred customers in a market of millions of consumers, you’ll need to market accordingly. The only thing worse than not enough demand is too much of it.

6. The Size Of The Market Your Company Can Reach Through Advertising
With your given marketing strategy, budget, and personnel, how much of the market will you be able to reach? Is it more than you can supply, or is it insufficient to reach your break-even point? How does the information relate to your current strategy?

You see, there are a number of considerations when truly considering your target market. The truth is the number is influenced by the answers to all of the questions you ask here. However, by carefully examining these factors, you’ll be much better prepared for success!