Market Research and Analysis for a Financial News Service
This paper presents a market research and analysis section of a business plan for a proposed mid-tier financial news and data website. It identifies the target market as high-net-worth individual and institutional investors, profiles their demographics, and examines industry revenue trends showing a flat, consolidating market. The paper discusses buyer behavior, market segmentation by product type and distribution outlet, and competitive dynamics among major players such as Bloomberg, Thomson-Reuters, the Associated Press, and News Corporation. It concludes by outlining a competitive strategy centered on a simplified user interface, straightforward pricing, and Web-based delivery as key differentiators for a new market entrant.
- Target Market and Customer Overview: Demographics of high-net-worth individual investor subscribers
- Market Size and Trends: Industry revenue data showing flat, consolidating market
- Buyer Behavior: Risk-averse buying driven by regulatory restrictions
- Market Segmentation and Targeting: Revenue breakdown by product type and distribution outlet
- Competition and Competitive Edges: Fragmented rivals and UI simplicity as differentiator
- Estimated Market Share and Sales: Market share percentages for major industry players
- Ongoing Market Evaluation: Strategy for monitoring competitors and maintaining niche position
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What makes this paper effective
- Uses concrete quantitative data — revenue tables, market share breakdowns, and demographic percentages — to ground each section in evidence rather than assertion.
- Moves logically from target customer identification through industry sizing, buyer behavior, segmentation, competition, and monitoring, covering each standard market analysis component in sequence.
- Identifies a clear, actionable differentiator (simplified UI and pricing) that is tied directly back to observed competitor weaknesses.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of secondary market research sources — including proprietary industry databases (Inside Market Data), trade publications, and news articles — to build a structured market analysis. By triangulating across multiple sources (Bowie, Browne, Buxton, Davis), the author supports quantitative claims with attributable references, a technique common in business plan research sections.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized into seven labeled sections following a standard business plan market analysis format: target market demographics, industry size and revenue trends (supported by a data table), buyer behavior, segmentation by product and outlet (supported by a pie-chart summary table), competitive landscape, market share by major player, and an ongoing monitoring strategy. Each section is brief and data-forward, consistent with the executive-summary register of a business plan document.
Target Market and Customer Overview
The target market for the proposed mid-tier financial news service is individual and institutional investors who can afford to pay the monthly premiums. Individual investors will have a net worth of over $300,000 and will also hold an existing portfolio of stocks, bonds, and annuities they are actively managing. Demographic data for the target market was derived using Quantcast online tools to analyze Bloomberg.com, which is considered a primary competitor to the new service.
The target market is predominantly male (74%), over 50 years of age (48%), without children (85%), earning over $100,000 per year (45%), and holding a graduate degree (37%). This is a serious investor who is nearing retirement and is willing to pay for insightful analysis. Investors in this segment are also interested in how news aggregation services are customizing financial data to their unique needs and in the financial analysis tools being made available to individual investors (Muntermann, 2009). They are further interested in how the consolidation of the financial reporting industry will impact their ability to make investment decisions (Davis, 2009; Edgecliffe-Johnson, 2009).
Market Size and Trends
Based on an analysis completed using Inside Market Data sources (Bowie, 2009), the following data on industry revenue, gross product, employment, imports, and domestic demand has been compiled. As shown, this market is flat in terms of growth and is facing continued consolidation. The most critical differentiator in this environment is the ability to deliver content quickly and effectively over the Internet at low cost. By achieving this level of operational efficiency, a new market entrant could gain significant market share despite the low overall growth of the industry.
| Metric | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry Revenue ($Mil) | 2,360 | 2,515.6 | 2,490.4 | 2,390.8 | 2,414.7 |
| Industry Gross Product ($Mil) | 1,287 | 1,318 | 1,265.1 | 1,202.4 | 1,214.4 |
| Employment (Units) | 11,624 | 12,535 | 12,034 | 11,552 | 11,668 |
| Imports ($Mil) | 60.1 | 61.4 | 62.2 | 63.2 | 64.1 |
| Domestic Demand ($Mil) | 2,030.1 | 2,202.8 | 2,193.2 | 2,109 | 2,130.3 |
Source: Bowie, 2009
References
Bowie, M. (2009, May). IMD reference: Bloomberg takes lead share. Inside Market Data, 24(34), 1, 3.
Browne, A. (2006, September 11). China adds restrictions on news, financial data. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.2.
Buxton, P. (2005, May). Straight from the source. Revolution, 30–34.
Davis, A. (2009, October). Bloomberg to buy BusinessWeek. Mergers & Acquisitions Report, 22(42), 14.
Edgecliffe-Johnson, A. (2009, April 27). Bloomberg broadens its portfolio. Financial Times, 16.
Muntermann, J. (2009). Towards ubiquitous information supply for individual investors: A decision support system design. Decision Support Systems, 47(2), 82.
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