What is a vertical in business?

There are so many different kinds of vertical markets because they represent specific consumer needs. Examples of just a few vertical markets are organic groceries, cannabis-related products, heavy manufacturing, aerospace technology, forms of insurance, and microchips.

Verticals in business may sound counterintuitive at first. You would generally think that a business would want to market its product or service to as many people as possible, right?

The flaw with this goal is that to make a product or service apply to everyone, you instantly make it marketable to no one. If a company takes this flawed principle in its full course, its service or product becomes too general or shallow to effectively serve any consumer.

Verticals allow for a company to hone its purpose or purposes, and to seek to become the best producer and supplier in a field that has more limited competition than a more broad and general market.

Vertical markets are heavily concentrated and this gives way to opportunities for different companies, who would typically be competitors, to work together.

An example of this is Apple and Samsung. These two companies are competitors in several technology spaces, such as smartphone technology. However, Apple contracts Samsung for the glass that is used to make iPhone screens.