In marketing, market cultivation refers to all measures to supply a market with products/services in the best possible way with regard to other market participants and market volumes. The companies as suppliers must ensure that their products/services can be sold on the relevant market by means of appropriate marketing measures.
To do this, they need to develop strategies known as market development strategies. The aim of these market strategies is to identify the needs of the customer groups identified by market analysis and to satisfy them with the corresponding products/services. Market cultivation is aimed at the systematic cultivation of sales markets through the use of marketing instruments and serves the purpose of market development, market development, market penetration and market exploitation. All available means must be used in such a concentrated manner as to achieve the highest possible impact on the market.
A distinction is made between two main market development strategies, namely undifferentiated and differentiated market cultivation. Undifferentiated market development (market unification) is based on the assumption of a largely homogeneous market and ignores differences between the individual market segments. It offers standard products to customers. An example of this strategy is the supply of soft soap. This soap can be used to clean the floor, wash cars, dishes or laundry, as well as fight aphids.
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Differentiated market cultivation (market segmentation), on the other hand, considers the sub-markets as heterogeneous sales areas, takes into account their individual differences and takes a target group-oriented approach. A demand-oriented product is presented to all identified market segments. The product-based approach identifies which products are missing from the market. The missing products are then developed until they are ready for the market. This strategy can be seen, for example, in the detergent market, where there is a suitable detergent for every purpose, either in powder or liquid form (heavy-duty detergents, colour detergents, mild detergents, detergents for white or black laundry, wool detergents, eco-detergents, etc.). Since this strategy requires the development and manufacture of a large number of different products, it is only of interest to large companies.
In the case of selectively differentiated market cultivation, small and medium-sized enterprises can also try not to cover all market segments (as in the case of differentiated market cultivation), but to concentrate on selected segments. For example, not all pharmaceutical companies conduct research in all medical indications, but select individual areas (such as cardiovascular diseases, pain diseases). On the one hand, they limit research and development costs and, on the other hand, they concentrate on basic and applied research in the selected subfields.
In concentrated market cultivation, a company focuses on only one product and tries to become the market leader or technology leader in that product. For example, a heating engineer can choose pellet heating from the various types of heating and concentrates his research and development exclusively on this type of heating.
