Part
01
of one
Part
01
Am I missing any other potential target markets that I didn't consider with my orginal request?
Hello! Thank you for your request to find other potential target markets for a vaginal ice pack. I understand that you are looking for potential markets other than the ones listed in Wonder's first response. The short answer is there are several other smaller markets for which a product like a vaginal ice pack could be beneficial, including women who experience chafing for a variety of reasons, women who experience pain due to medical conditions, and women who sit for long periods of time. A deep dive of my findings is below.
METHODOLOGY
To begin my search, I thoroughly read the original Wonder response. I found it to be very comprehensive and indicative of the major markets where your product would be successful. I searched for general causes of vaginal pain and the ones that came up during my initial search were the causes mentioned in the original response. I realized I would need to go deeper to find other potential markets for a vaginal ice pack. I brainstormed conditions under which a woman might experience vaginal discomfort and came up with a several situations that could result in vaginal pain that would require cold relief.
Once I had my list of conditions, I searched each one against vaginal pain. This allowed me to find anecdotal situations that described women's experience with these conditions. From there, I researched any medical terms that came up in the anecdotal evidence to narrow the market.
Finally, after determining the causes of vaginal pain that were not already listed on Wonder's original response, I researched each condition to provide you with an estimated market size that might be available for your product.
LIMITATIONS
I was able to find statistics for the majority of conditions on my list; however, I could not locate a recent breakdown of how many women travel long distances using cars, trains, or buses. I found statistics from 2001, but I did not use them because they were so out of date. I did find data on long-distance air travel, so I used that as a representative example for long-distance travel in general.
In addition, there is very little data available on the number of women who suffer from vaginal pimples or ingrown hairs. There is some data on women who suffer from vaginal cysts, but only for one particular type of cyst. I used that data as a representative example of approximately how many women could be affected by this condition who would benefit from a vaginal ice pack.
RESULTS
Using the same definition of genitalia as in the original response, "'the organs of the reproductive system; especially the external genital organs'. For women, the external genitalia are the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, urethra, vagina and anus," I found the three broad markets that could be targets for your product. These are vaginal chafing, vaginal pain due to medical conditions, and vaginal pain due to sedentary behaviors.
VAGINAL CHAFING
Chafing in the vaginal area has several causes. One of the biggest contributors to vaginal chafing is heat. In the most recent study available on how many people prefer to live in hot or cold regions in the United States, 57% of all respondents said they preferred to reside in hot areas. The survey says that the top five states for hot weather residences are California, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas. If we look at the top 5 hot-climate states, we can then determine the number of females in these states who could be a market for your product.
California:
74,507,912 (female population)
Florida:
9,776,681 (female population)
Arizona:
3,259,929 (female population)
Colorado:
5,514,598 (female population)
Texas:
12,824,236 (female population
Of course, not all hot weather states are represented, but since these are the top five states for hot weather residences, these would be good states in which to market your product for vaginal chafing. In addition, if you add humidity to the equation, even more people experience chafing, so Southern and East Coast states are going to be prime markets during the summer.
Another cause of chafing is running. Many runners experience chafing, particularly if they run long distances or in hot weather. According to the 2017 U.S. Road Racing Trends, 9.7 million women finished racing events in 2016. These races were all 5k events and longer. Women who run longer distances are more likely to experience chafing in the vaginal area than those who run shorter distances, such as those who run for exercise only. So, marketing your product to female long-distance runners could be profitable.
One of the biggest causes of chafing in the United States is obesity. A 2014 study indicated that 38.3% of women in the United States are obese. By taking the total number of women in the United States (163.2 million) and multiplying it by 38.3%, this means that 62.5 million American women are obese. Although the study does not break down how many are considered mildly obese or morbidly obese, any woman who has extra fat on her thighs could experience chafing.
MEDICAL CONDITIONS
The original Wonder response mentioned that STDs and infections are a leading cause of vaginal pain. While this is true, there are other medical conditions that can trigger vaginal pain in women. These medical conditions are Vulvodynia; vulvar varicosity; interstitial cystitis; pudendal neuralgia (pudendal nerve entrapment); vaginal cysts, pimples, and ingrown hairs; and even Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
This condition is referred to as "chronic vulvar pain without an identifiable cause." Some women have constant vaginal pain for unknown reasons, but the main causes of Vulvodynia include injury to the nerves that transmit pain from the vulva to the spinal cord, an increased number and sensitivity to the vulva nerve fibers, and pelvic floor muscle weakness. It is estimated that 14 million women suffer from Vulvodynia in the United States.
Essentially, vulvar varicosity is varicose veins of the vagina. These swollen veins can cause aching, eczema, skin damage, and skin ulcers, all of which can lead to vaginal pain. An estimated 1 out of every 7 women in the United States suffers from vulvar varicosity. If there are 163.2 million women in the United States, this means that 14% or 22.8 million women have vulvar varicosity that could benefit from a vaginal ice pack like yours.
This is a bladder condition that results in pelvic pain or pressure, discomfort in the bladder region, and urinary frequency and urgency. As many as 12 million women in the United States have interstitial cystitis that could result in vaginal pain. According to the Interstitial Cystitis Association, many women who have this condition experience pain during and after gynecological exams. These women would definitely benefit from a vaginal ice pack; however, almost all women experience some type of discomfort from gynecological exams. So, while you could target the 12 million women with interstitial cystitis, you might also want to consider the 69.4 million total women who visit the gynecological office on an annual basis as part of your market.
These are actually two different conditions, but the vaginal pain symptom is the same for both. In general, "it is a severely painful and disabling neuropathic condition, affecting both men and women, involving the dermatome of the pudendal nerve. This leads to pain in the clitoris/penis, vulva/scrotum, perineum, and rectum, especially when sitting." They are both extremely rare conditions, affecting only 1 out of every 100,000 people in the United States. If the population of the United States is 326,423,337, This equates to .0001% of the population or 34 total people. Even though it is rare, it seems to be so debilitating that a vaginal ice pack would certainly help these patients find relief.
Nearly every woman gets a pimple or ingrown hair in the genital region at some point in her life. There does not seem to be any statistics of how many women get them or how often, but they can be a cause of vaginal pain. Vaginal cysts are less common, with only 2% of the female population in the United States having Bartholin cysts, the most prevalent type of vaginal cyst. Using the statistic of 63.2 million women in the United States, this means that approximately 3.2 million women have Bartholin cysts that can lead to vaginal pain. Unfortunately, there aren't any statistics on the other types of vaginal cysts, but since Bartholin is the most common, the market for all others would be under 3.2 million women.
While this is a gastrointestinal disorder, women who have IBS experience more incidents of "painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea) and premenstrual syndrome (PMS)" than those without IBS. In fact, "In one study, approximately one-third of women with IBS reported a history of chronic pelvic pain." There is some overlap of endometriosis, which was mentioned in Wonder's first response, and IBS, but even in women without endometriosis, IBS sufferers report a higher occurrence of vaginal pain than women who do not have IBS. Recent reports indicate that there are anywhere from 25 million to 45 million people who have IBS in the United States. Between 60% and 65% of those are women. This would put the total number of women suffering from IBS in the United States at between 15 million and 29 million. If one-third of women with IBS report chronic pelvic pain, then the market would be between 4.9 million and 9.6 million.
A growing cause of vaginal pain is sitting for extended periods of time. Not only can this behavior lead to irritation of the vaginal area, but it can also cause issues like chafing and vaginal pimples. The two main situations that lead to women sitting for long periods of time are travel and work.
TRAVEL
Based on recent studies, women are now traveling long distances at a similar rate to men. In 2016, there were 102.2 million people who traveled internationally. The study does not break that number down by gender, but if we know that women travel long distances about the same amount as men, we can use the breakdown of the general population to get an estimate of how many women traveled internationally in 2016. The current percentage of women in the United States is 51%. Therefore, approximately 52.1 million women in the United States traveled internationally last year. As mentioned in the "limitations" section, I was unable to find recent statistics for other modes of transportation for long-distance travel, so the number of 52.1 million women is only representative of the market for women in this area.
WORK
In general, jobs are becoming more sedentary in nature every year. As technology advances, fewer physical jobs are required. In fact, 80% of jobs today are considered sedentary. In 2015, 76.1 million women were working either full or part time in the workforce. This means that if 80% of women have sedentary jobs, then the market for women who sit for extended periods of time during their workday is approximately 60.8 million. Not all of these women are going to experience vaginal pain, but many will, particularly if it leads to one of the medical conditions mentioned above.
Of particular note for women in the workplace with sedentary jobs are female long-distance truck drivers. This might be a specific market for you to target instead of the entire workforce of sedentary employees. In 2015, 117,000 women were long-distance truck drivers. While this number declined by 20,000 from the previous report, it is still a niche market for your product.
SUMMARY
Please note that many of these categories will overlap. For example, women who could chafe from the heat are probably also gynecology patients. Women who chafe when running could also have sedentary jobs.
CONCLUSION
In addition to the markets identified on Wonder's original response I have identified 13 other potential markets for your product. Although the numbers given are estimates (particularly in the case of women living in hot regions of the United States), this should give you a decent idea of the size of these additional markets.
Thank you for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help you with anything else.