Market Research: Finding the Market Gap

After determining what your current and potential customers want from transport services, the next step is to determine what other opportunities exist in the marketplace. This market potential is called the market gap— needs in the marketplace that may not be best served by current suppliers.

Federal and state governments maintain publically available databases that can be data mined for market gap research. To assess the potential for an increased presence, especially in a competitive area, it may be advanta­geous to determine the geographic distribution of population demographics (ie, size and rate of growth, age distribution, ethnic mix, educational levels, etc), patterns of consumption of medical services, disease incidence, refer­ral patterns, and distribution of subspecialty services. Depending on the competitive landscape, it may be advantageous to determine the geographic distribution of subspecialty services and potential for increased presence. Often, this includes hospitals farther than the typical catchment area, where

referring physicians could be convinced that a farther travel to your facil­ity is worth the added distance. Other available tools to explore market gap opportunities include: community and regional health needs assessments, and focus groups and formal interviews with various key constituents/groups of direct and indirect customers.

In some transport environments, market gaps may not exist. When strong affiliation agreements are in place, such as with academic, managed care, or military hospital networks, new market opportunities may not be possible. In these networks, efforts should be made to augment current ser­vices and to prevent competitors from taking market share.