What is a Business Vertical? | Industry Verticals Examples
What is a Business vertical?
Business vertical is a term that is used to describe a subset of a company that focuses on specific products or services.
Definition of Business vertical is a business or economic activity that focuses on one main product, service, group of products, expertise, geographic area, or customer base. In the context of a company, this is represented by two or more divisions. A vertical market focuses on a single product, service, group of products, or expertise. For example, all of a company’s jewelry stores are focused on women’s jewelry
Another definition: “A business that focuses its efforts on a particular market segment is known as a market-oriented business. It is a business that specializes in a particular market segment. It is also a major subdivision of a market or industry from the point of view of the seller or purchaser.”
Industry Verticals
What is Industry Vertical
Industry vertical is a term that refers to the industry in which a company operates. For example, a company that has an industry vertical of “Software” would offer products designed for use by software manufacturers.
They may also offer products designed for use by the end-users of software, such as a “Software Maintenance” product.
Examples of Major Business Verticals
- Accounting and Auditing
- Banking and Financial Services
- Finance – Banking, Investments and Insurance (including consumer credit)
- Investments – Securities (including underwriting, brokerage, and mutual fund)
- Insurance – Life and Property.
- Business Specializations – There are other verticals, such as Marketing, Retail Sales, Sales-Related and Support (including services and support related to IT), Research and development, Maintenance and Facilities (including building maintenance).
A business vertical can be further divided into specializations to help the business to improve quickly its ability to serve its customers. This specialization will help the business to remain competitive against its competitors.
For example, a company that sells office furniture might have separate groups for each type of office furniture, such as desks, cubicles, and lamps.
Sometimes, the company might focus on selling one product or service, such as insurance or accounting. The idea is that each group has unique expertise that allows the company to better serve customers or clients and specialize in the products or services it provides based on a particular product.
Industry verticals are becoming increasingly important for companies as they look to focus on specific markets and customer categories.
Firms with expertise in specific industries such as financial services, technology, retail, and the public sector offer a competitive edge in several ways.
- First, firms within an industry often have greater brand equity in their specific market.
- Second, they can offer products and services that are not available from other similar firms. For example, an online retailer with expertise in the financial services industry may be able to offer interest-bearing accounts or other financial products that are not available from a retail chain store.
- The third advantage of industry specialization is the ability to create knowledge-based assets, such as patents and trademarks.
- Fourth, firms can gain an advantage by tailoring their products and services to meet the specific requirements of their industry market. For example, a retailer specializing in the computer repair business may be able to design products better than a general electronics store. Also, each industry has its own body of knowledge that may provide a competitive advantage to firms with greater experience or expertise in that specific field.
Vertical Market
Vertical Markets are markets that specialize in a specific product or service. The market has narrowed their focus and they have become experts in one specific area. This can be a specific industry, niche, or subject.
A vertical market is a focused marketing strategy for a single industry. This strategy targets primarily the products and services which are used by a particular group of customers.
For example, a company may strictly market its products to the construction industry, or to the hospitality industry. The success of such a company would depend on the industry it is targeting.
There are many types of vertical markets such as educational, clothing, financial, medical, and many more. Creating a vertical market for a company has many benefits.
It is a way for a company to have the best product and service in a specific area. It also has a way to create a monopoly so that it can get the best price for the product and not worry about competing companies.
This market segment can be geographically based, function-based, or demographically based.
For example, if you wanted to design a product for barbers, you could target an individual state (e.g. Arizona), a function of the business (e.g. marketing), or a demographic (e.g. men aged 21-40).
Vertical marketing
Vertical marketing is the marketing of products or services in a specific vertical industry of interest to an end-user. For example, a company that has an industry vertical of “Software” would offer products designed for use by software manufacturers.
Vertical marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on a particular division of marketing — business vertical, like education or financial services, or on a particular market segment, such as small businesses or consumers.
Vertical marketing pools similar products and services into groups and assigns each group to a specific brand. Vertical marketers then develop an overall strategy and individual plans of action for each brand in the group — for instance, consumer segments under the umbrella of their company.
The key to successful vertical marketing is specialized knowledge. It is important to remember that vertical marketing is a kind of marketing that focuses on a particular market segment or market area.
Vertical marketing is only as successful as the knowledge and resources available to meet the specialized needs of the product or service. A vertical marketing strategy provides an opportunity for companies to create a synergistic relationship with potential customers, which leads them to more efficient ways of delivering products and services.
The goal of vertical marketing is to find those individuals who are potentially interested in taking advantage of the company’s products and services. A vertical marketing company focuses its efforts on those who may be interested in the particular product or service.
In some cases, vertical marketing is also a form of niche marketing — that is, it isolates a specific market or market segment — but it can also be developed around a given product or service.
The typical catalog retailer, for example, has separate catalogs for each of its major business lines (such as sporting goods and Baby Depot) and uses each to reach an individual set of customers with its message.