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Market Attractiveness actually given?

Launching Caskets in North Africa - 1st Round BAIN case
New answer on Jul 28, 2021
2 Answers
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Richard
Premium
asked on Jul 27, 2021

Hey,

the solution stresses several times that the market is attractive regarding size.

However the market is 100% saturated. All 500k caskets demanded each year have a company delivering them. We have no indications about growth.

So based on the information given, entering the market results in cutthroat competition. Each market percentage gained is lost by another player. Thus high marketing expenditures and resistance from existing players should be expected. 
Shouldn't the takeaway from this be that the market shows low potential to win?
Or does the size and profitability justify the risk of entering?

Kind regards

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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 28, 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi Richard,

Be careful here. You can't just say "all 500k caskets demanded each year have a company delivering them". This isn't how economics or supply/demand works...it's a scale.

Rather, 500k caskets are currently produced and sold at x price.

If a new entrant comes in, they'll either sell at the same price but take over market share from someone OR they'll sell at a lower price and raise the supply/demand meeting point (to, say, 600k).

The market is not "100% saturated" in this case. 

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Anonymous replied on Jul 28, 2021

Hey,

I agree with Ian, the market is not 100% saturated - at the beginning of the case solution you can see that the current usage of caskets is 50%, that actually means thath there is another 50% untapped that a new entrant could target, investigating why they are not using caskets now

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Yohanne on May 29, 2022

Well, I thought the 50% differentiates funerals that use caskets vs. other means (e.g. cremations). Therefore, there isn’t necessarily a 50% untapped market.

Ian gave the best answer

Ian

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