Topics
market shares, marketing metrics, market research, analysis
Teaching Notes
- Overview: In this activity, students will review a simple table containing market share and sales information, in order to interpret the marketplace. The purpose of this exercise is to for students to learn how to interpret market share data and describe aspects of the overall market, as a result.
- Teaching Level: Intermediate – some basic understanding of market shares is required
- Suggested Structure: This task can be run either as an individual task – or as a small group discussion
- Approximate Timing: Allow 20-30 minutes (depending on students’ analytical ability)
Review the activity below or download the PDF student worksheet
Student Worksheet: Using Market Share Information
Student Discussion Activity
Below is a table containing market share, sales, and price premium information. Your task in this exercise is to the review the data the five brands in the marketplace and then address the questions at the end.
As part of this activity, you should attempt to interpret and understand the data provided and consider the difference between unit and revenue market share.
| Brand | Unit Sales | Unit Market Share | Sales Revenue | Revenue Market Share | Price Premium |
| A | 10,000 | 32.3% | 10,000 | 30.3% | 0.94 |
| B | 9,000 | 29.0% | 11,000 | 33.3% | 1.15 |
| C | 5,000 | 16.1% | 6,000 | 18.2% | 1.13 |
| D | 4,000 | 12.9% | 4,000 | 12.1% | 0.94 |
| E | 3,000 | 9.7% | 2,000 | 6.1% | 0.63 |
| Total | 31,000 | 100.0% | 33,000 | 100.0% | 1.00 |
Student Discussion Questions
- Which brand is the market leader according to UNIT market share?
- Which brand is the market leader according to REVENUE market share?
- Why is there a difference between these market share rankings?
- Do you think it would be better to be the UNIT or the REVENUE market share leader? Why?
- Review the price premium metric. How do you think that it is calculated?
- What does the price premium tell us about the relative strength of the brands?
- From the information provided, can you calculate the average price of each brand?
- In this market, to what extent do you think that price is a strong and effective marketing tactic to gain market share?
