Answer to Question 1
tabulation
Answer to Question 2
Strategic questions include the following: Does this market segment fit with who we are? Are we going to be able to satisfy this segmentcan we pull it off? What are our strengths? What resources do we have? What is our experience, what is our corporate culture, and what are our current brand personalities? According to all these indicators, which segment(s) could we serve best?
The possibilities can be described with a simple figure with columns labeled attractive market and not so attractive market and rows labeled we're great at this and we aren't particularly good at this.. In the upper left, if a market segment looks attractive, and serving that segment fits our corporate abilities, the pronouncement is simple, Go for it For example, if we manufacture athletic clothing, and we learn that corporate volleyball teams are growing in popularity, and they need team shirts with their logos, we can do that and likely be successful.
In the lower right quadrant, if a segment doesn't look promising and it doesn't fit naturally with us anyway, we let the opportunity go. For example, e-books are taking off, but with varied platformsthere are still uncertainties ahead. Furthermore, just because our company manufactures PCs, it doesn't mean we'd have any particular advantage at the e-book technology or distribution. So, let's not bother.
In the lower left quadrant, the scenario is that the market looks sweet but we're not particularly capable (e.g., video games are profitable and growing like crazy, but we produce thumb drives). A key question would be whether we can develop sufficient capabilities (e.g., hire teenage boys to do programming and pay them in thumb drives). Depending on how far the newly required capabilities are from our current in-house expertise, taking this path could mean a huge investment (time and money). Maybe that's an investment we wish to make. If we're private or have patient shareholders (?), we may have the time to develop new skills (e.g., hire new people, create new channels, whatever it's going to take). Or, maybe it's an investment we'll have to make, if some trend suggests that the segment is growing.
In the upper right quadrant, there is another dilemma scenario: what if the market doesn't look so great, but we are awesome in creating products of this sort? The key question in this case is whether we can develop a market. Can we get a segment to understand the benefits of what we provide? This strategy would also require investing, but in different things: in marketing research to understand the customer's level of knowledge and points of resistance, in possible product modifications to make it more appealing, and in advertising to educate the customer about these stupendous products.