AQA A-level Business | Unit 3.1.3 Market Mapping
Map a real market, find the empty spaces, then decide whether an empty space is really an opportunity.
Consumer markets like groceries, chocolate, cars and coffee are some of the most competitive around. A few big names fight over millions of shoppers, while budget and premium brands hold their own corners. Every so often, someone asks the same question: is there room for a brand new name?
Margo Vance
Head of Strategy, Northstar Strategy
"Every market has a shape. Your job is to find it."
You have just joined Northstar as a junior analyst. A backer wants to launch a brand new name into one of these markets, and Margo has handed you the first job: map the market as it really is, find where it is crowded and where it is empty, then tell her whether any empty space is worth chasing.
Pick the market to map:
Supermarkets: grocery market share from widely reported trackers (Kantar style data via Statista), early 2026: Tesco around 28%, with Aldi and Lidl together close to 20%.
Chocolate: Cadbury (Mondelez) is the largest UK chocolate brand; premium names such as Lindt and Hotel Chocolat are among the fastest growing (industry reports, 2025 to 2026).
Cars: new car registration figures (SMMT, 2025): Volkswagen the best seller, BMW the leading premium brand, with the market above 2 million new cars.
Coffee shops: branded coffee shop data (Project Café and similar, 2025 to 2026): Costa the largest chain at close to 4 in 10 outlets, with premium and specialty cafés growing fast.
Where each brand sits on a map is illustrative and based on widely recognised positioning. It is used only for neutral analysis. No endorsement or partnership is implied, and no brand is ranked as better or worse overall. Example data, as of May 2026.
AQA A-level Business | Unit 3.1.3 Market Mapping
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AQA A-level Business | Unit 3.1.3 Market Mapping
Halos show where brands bunch together. The dashed circles mark corners no one is filling.
Margo Vance
AQA A-level Business | Unit 3.1.3 Market Mapping
Margo Vance
An empty space on the map is not the same as a gap in the market. Some corners are empty because almost no one wants what would go there, like paying a high price for something basic. Others are empty because they are genuinely hard to deliver at a profit, like offering real quality at a low price.
A market map does not hand you the answer. It helps you ask the sharper question: if this space is open, why is it open, and could we be the ones to fill it?
The thinking this builds
This activity supports the AQA A-level Business specification, Unit 3.1.3 Market Mapping: building and reading a market map, spotting clustering and gaps, and judging whether a gap is a real opportunity. Linked ideas include barriers to entry, economies of scale, brand loyalty, and the choice between competing on cost or on quality.