Angie's List Company's Market

The Market

Company's Market

Angie's List is located in all 50 states in the United States and several markets in Canada. Though they are located in every state but they are not in every market within those states. Many states are missing some key markets but that would be a potential growth opportunity for them in the near future. Even in the current markets, Angie's List can still improve their overall market share. Though there is not a true competitor to Angie's List, there is still market penetration within its current markets. With its current market base of 600,000 paying customers, there is still ample room of growth both within its current markets and any new markets.

Potential Market

When meeting with Angie's List, they were able to help us define what the typical customer's characteristics are. After looking through their website, you are able to see those characteristics through some of their marketing plans. A typical customer at Angie's List is a homeowner, well-educated, has children and earns more than $100k in income. Those four main characteristics are very important for the growth at Angie's List. With the company offering so many different types of services, the most frequent type of service would be those found around the household. A couple of different examples would include home contractors for home additions, lawn services, painters, and the list goes on and on. Many homeowner's like to see personal reviews from other homeowner's that have had both a positive and negative experience. I believe that the most important characteristic for Angie's List is the household that earns more than $100k in income. The customer is more likely to pay the annual fees and pay for a higher quality of service. The chart below shows the income distribution of household's in the United States. I believe this chart is very important as the number of household's Angie's List is targeting is limited to just about 15% of the total market.

I believe that it's very important for Angie's List to understand that with a target market that is limited to just the top 15% the number of new customers is limited. As the economy is still trying to improve, new customers are hesitating to increase their yearly budget.

Current Market Trends

Over the past several years' Angie's List has seen an overall growth in business but that growth can be attributed to entering new markets. Without any public information, it's hard to determine the overall growth between new markets and those markets that they have been in over the last several years. However, though many companies have struggle the last couple of years due to the downturn in the economy, Angie's List market potential is definitely growing. With customers wanting advice they can trust, the company fulfills those needs by having the trust from complete strangers. The biggest struggle has with new potential customers is word of mouth. Those potential customers are still relying on neighbors and internet blogs for advice. One of the advantages that Angie's List has those customers are willing to pay for recommendations from actual paying members. The internet blogs cannot be trusted because you have no idea who is making the comments for positively and negatively. Any company can make positive comments about their own company.

Market Risks

There are several market risks that Angie's List has identified as critical to the company. Those risks would include internet growth, changing of the customer base, premium services, and overall trust of quality with the customers. When looking through these risks, we believe that the changing of the customer base will play in favor of future growth for Angie's List. The chart below is a 2010 survey of percentage of age group that uses the internet on a weekly basis.

Though the overall percente for age group over the