Marketing risk – a section of the marketing plan that identifies the main dangers and opportunities that a product may face on the market. Potential risk to each hazard is assessed, i.e. complications arising in connection with unfavorable trends and events, which in the absence of targeted marketing efforts can lead to the undermining of the survivability of the product or even to its death. Every opportunity, as an attractive direction of marketing efforts, at which an organization can gain advantages over competitors, should be evaluated from the perspective of its prospects and the ability to successfully use it.
Marketing risk is the risk of loss of revenue because of not reaching the planned sales volume or reducing the selling price in relation to the planned. Since the profit of the project (and the profit is determined by revenue) determines its effectiveness, marketing risks are key design risks. To reduce this risk, it is necessary to thoroughly study the market, identify key factors that may affect the project, forecast their occurrence or amplification, ways to neutralize the negative impact of these factors. Possible factors: changing the market situation, increasing competition, losing market positions, reducing or lack of demand for project products, reducing market capacity, reducing product prices, etc.
Evaluation of marketing risks is particularly relevant for projects to create new production or expand existing production. For projects to reduce costs in current production, these risks are studied, as a rule, to a lesser extent. Example: When creating a business related to the provision of a service, marketing risks are associated with two characteristics: the price for services and the level of use.
Suppose that the investor has determined the price for the service, relying on its importance and necessity. Then the main factor of uncertainty is the use. The risk analysis of such a project should be based on the study of its ability to “survive” at different levels of consumption by its service. In addition, the spread of possible values should be taken from market statistics for other similar objects (or, if statistics were not collected, the dispersion of employment boundaries should be established analytically).
