market leader

market leader (plural market leaders)

1. A product that is chosen by more consumers than any of its competitors.
   • 1995, Klaus Günter Grunert, Hanne Hartvig Larsen, Tage Koed Madsen, Market Orientation in Food and Agriculture, page 235:

     The aim of the sophisticated type of own label is to present customers with a product which has at least as good a quality as the brand of the market leader.

   • 1996, D. F. Williams, S.D. Williams, W.H. Schmitt, Chemistry and Technology of the Cosmetics and Toiletries Industry, page 114:

     Another useful technique, known as a sequential monadic, is, at the next stage of development, to have target consumers use both the prototype formula and the market leader or competitive benchmark product.

   • 2000, Roman Keilhacker, A comparison of the main Direct Marketing Media and their future prospects in the age of the new millennium:

     According to Roba's CEO, Roba's most important product groups are: children-beds, chests, shelves, highchairs (market leader), playthings of wood, Inletsets, children's seating groups, playpens, mattresses, sand-boxes (market leader), blackboards (market leader), safety gates and vending stalls.

2. A company that manufactures or markets a market leader or that outsells all other similar businesses.
   • 2003, Paul Sloane, The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills:

     The lesson is that when you are competing with a strong market leader you should not necessarily attack head on, but try to change the rules of the game: for example by approaching the customer from a new direction.

   • 2009, Per V. Jenster, Klaus Solberg Søilen, Market Intelligence: Building Strategic Insight, page 59:

     A fragmented industry where no one firm has a significant market share tends to be more fiercely competitive than one which is a clear market leader who is in a dominant position. The lack of a clear market leader may be explained by the fact that the industry is emerging and is in a condition of considerable turbulence and uncertainty, or it may be seen in more mature industry where there are low entry barriers and few advantages to size.

   • 2011, Jagdish Sheth, Winning Back Your Market, page 95:

     Knorr, a Swiss company, is the dry soup market leader in Europe.