Market mapping is a really useful way to get a clear picture of who your competitors are and spot new opportunities for your business to grow. It helps companies figure out where they fit in compared to others, looking at things like price, quality, or how many customers they reach. But creating a market map isn’t just about putting some dots on a graph. If you do it wrong, you could have faulty strategies and waste many valuable resources.
Using Vague or Irrelevant Axes
One big mistake people make when creating market maps is choosing weak or irrelevant things to plot on the axes. If the vertical and horizontal axes don’t capture what’s important to your customers or your industry, the whole map won’t be very helpful. For instance, using terms like “innovation” or “brand perception” without explaining exactly how you’ll measure them adds subjectivity and confusion. It’s much better to use concrete, measurable factors for your axes, such as price point, market share, or the specific features a product offers.
Picking the wrong axes can result in poor positioning or even completely misjudging your competitors. Ensuring these axes match your business aims and customers’ preferences is crucial. This way, your map will show the true picture of your market, not just guesses or internal biases. The aim here is to make your strategic decisions clearer, not more confusing.
Overlooking Key Competitors or Market Segments
One common mistake is leaving out important competitors or market segments when analyzing. Often, teams only look at the direct competitors they already know, ignoring newer companies, smaller niche players, or indirect rivals. This means you end up with an incomplete picture of the whole situation, and you might miss chances to stand out or grow your market share.
When putting together a thorough market map, it’s important to consider both the obvious and the newer threats that might be lurking. Make sure to include companies of all sizes and types—even those outside your usual industry—if they affect what your customers decide to buy. If you leave these players out, your strategy could become off-base, and you might miss some crucial insights. That’s one of the tricky Disadvantages of Market Mapping: if you don’t do it carefully, it can cement a narrow, old-fashioned view of the market instead.
Relying on Outdated or Assumed Data
You know, the best market maps rely on accurate and current information. One common mistake people make is depending on old market research, just going by internal guesses, or using incomplete data sets. When that happens, the map you get might show how the market used to be, not how it looks. And in industries that change quickly, even a gap of just six months in your data may lead you to the wrong conclusions.
It helps to check your information against trustworthy sources like market reports, competitor websites, customer surveys, or third-party tools. Don’t forget to update your map fairly often, especially if you’re using it for things like launching new products or planning strategy. Always test out your assumptions and tweak them when necessary. Think of market mapping as an ongoing process, not a single task you do once; it should grow and change along with your business and the market around you.
