Variations of market share

Important Note: There are lots of ways of looking at market share – see list below.

It would be a mistake for a firm to rely upon one market share measure only. Assuming that the firm has access to competitive sales information, then a variety of market share metrics should be calculated and reviewed.

Market shares a very easy to calculate – indeed there is a free Excel template available on this site – therefore, there is minimal effort in calculating additional information.

Variations of market share

A firm should probably look to have market shares for:

  • The overall market
  • Key segments of consumers
  • Geographic areas/markets
  • By channel/retailer
  • Against key competitors
  • Relative market shares
  • Market shares over time (trends)
  • Market shares for the overall brand and individual products
  • Different definitions of the market (for example for a soft drink firm – colas, sugar/diet, all flavors, all beverages)

External website

Cluster Analysis for Marketing – provides a free template to create key consumer segments