what is a horizontal market 
a horizontal market is diversified so that the products created are able to meet the needs of more than one industry a horizontal market is one in which the output good or service is widely used and in wide demand and so the producers bear little risk in demand for their output producers do however typically face a great amount of competition within the industry understanding horizontal marketsthe profitability for companies producing goods in a horizontal market is determined more by internal rather than external factors as their products are commonly used an example of a horizontal market is the demand for pens across any and all industries pens are used in basically all industries and so success or failure for pen producers is determined by internal decisions and factors rather than macro events businesses that operate in a horizontal market system seek to appeal to a wide demographic that is not really niche for example a reseller of general office furniture is probably not going to target sell to other companies that specialize in office furniture rather they re going to target all types of businesses that maintain offices accounting firms travel agencies insurance agencies etc their market is anyone who needs office furniture examples of companies in horizontal markets include conglomerates and diversified manufacturing companies horizontal markets vs vertical marketsvertical markets are the opposite of horizontal markets in that they focus on a very niche sector or demographic for example this could include a manufacturer of solar panel technology that produces nothing else these types of firms usually sell their goods to solar contractors and installers in other words those they sell to are usually businesses that compete against one another defined by a demographic feature that applies to different kinds of businessesbroader than vertical marketsusually cooperative and seeking joint opportunitiesan opportunity to market to a general audiencea group of businesses that share the same industryalways specific and cannot cross industriesoften competing against each otheran opportunity to market to a specific audiencespecial considerationsalthough the types of markets have clear differences a business s operations can often be characterized as serving both horizontal and vertical markets at the same time for example a shoe company can market horizontally to the area in which it is located it could also market vertically to anyone considering a new pair of shoes a children s book publishing company can market horizontally to literate people or vertically to children and parents knowing which horizontal and vertical markets your company wants to serve can be helpful to its marketing success by defining your markets you can better advertise and serve your markets needs whether generally or specifically 