Market of One
Market Alternatives
The full set of courses of action available to the customer instead of this offer.
Competitors, internal labour, a manual process, assembling several tools, delay, or doing nothing. The set of alternatives, not the single benchmark actually used.
Related concepts
Best Alternative
The principal alternative actually governing the customer's comparison. The one the offer is measured against.
Market of One
A Market of One exists when an offer is sufficiently distinct in the customer's decision that no readily substitutable alternative provides the same relevant configuration of Value.
Bundling
Bundling is the arrangement of Value elements into a configuration that makes direct comparison with available alternatives difficult.
Value
The value created and realized for this customer by the offer: the Promise discounted by Credibility and diminished by Toll.
How this concept behaves
Qualitative relationships from the framework registry. None of these are formulas.
Offer · evaluated through · Promise, Credibility, Toll, Price, Market Alternatives, Decision Context
An offer is evaluated through Promise, Credibility, Toll, Price, comparison with market alternatives, and Decision Context.
Market Alternatives · contains · Best Alternative
Market Alternatives contain every course of action available to the customer; the Best Alternative is the principal benchmark actually used.
Best Alternative · selected from · Market Alternatives
The Best Alternative is selected from the market alternatives and is frequently the status quo rather than a competitor.
Bundling · reduces substitutability · Market Alternatives
Bundling reduces substitutability by arranging Value elements into a configuration no available alternative reproduces, which makes direct comparison difficult.
Exclusivity · reduces substitutability · Market Alternatives
Exclusivity acts on the customer's effective choice set rather than on the offer's attributes: it does not require exclusive rights, only privileged access to the set of alternatives the customer can practically act on.
Where this concept is treated at length
Market of One: The Gate to Value-Based Pricing
A Market of One exists when no readily substitutable alternative provides the same relevant configuration of Value. How reducing substitutability lets Value, rather than category Price, become the basis of the customer's choice and of pricing.
Where to use this
Free Offer Diagnostic
A structured read of where your offer's own structure helps or hurts the decision.
Offer Builder
Build offers from preset choices and watch the tradeoffs move.