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A Market Analysis for
Adobe
Brian Haney
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing
11/20/22
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this market analysis report on Adobe, it considers Adobe’s current financial situation.
It looks at the financial growth and success reported in 2022 as well as projected earnings. This
report discusses new advances to expand the Adobe Express product line as well as the benefits
of the acquisition of a web design application known as Figma. The report includes
recommendations on how to target Gen z and Millennials and new ways to gain an edge on
Adobe’s major competitors in the web-based design market.
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OBJECTIVE
How can we grow Adobe Express to be the leading web design tool for creative design
work against competitors like Canva.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The primary information gathered in this report is mostly internal, directly from Adobe’s
reports and findings in 2022. Some secondary information gathered was external and gathered
from the internet and the Full Sail library database and was all gathered during November 2022.
RESEARCH AND KEY FINDINGS
Adobe is a digital application company that created PDFs and offers products with
creative design, digital documentation, and analytical software. Over 90% of the world’s creative
professionals use Adobe Photoshop. More than 8 billion electronic and
digital signature transactions were processed through Adobe Document
Cloud in 2021. Adobe was named a leader in 40-plus categories in digital
creation, content management systems, customer analytics, and digital
software suites like the Adobe Creative Suite. (Adobe Blog, 2022).
Adobe achieved record revenue of $4.43 billion in its third quarter of the fiscal year 2022, which
represents 13 percent year-over-year growth or 15 percent in constant currency. (News. Adobe,
2022).
Adobe Express is a simple mobile web app to make quick logos, flyers, presentations,
and videos for creators to make on the fly. The idea behind Adobe Express is for non-
professionals to have a template-based tool that enables creation and collaboration that anyone
can create with ease. Adobe Express’s biggest competitor, Canva, is currently valued at $40
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billion and states that 85% of the world’s largest companies are using its platform opposed to
Adobe Express. (Fast Company, 2022) The biggest difference between Adobe Express and
Canva is that you need to pay $10 a month to use Adobe Express. Not only the pay wall, but
those who are unfamiliar with Adobe products find Adobe Express much harder to use than
Canvas simple user face which provides more ease of access than Adobe Express.
Adobe announced a program at Adobe Max called “Adobe Express for Education”,
which is a new leading all-in-one tool for students to create in for free for 43 million K-12
students and teachers globally. (Adobe Blog, 2022). Adobe express is aiming to be the number
one creative tool for education globally. Mala Sharma, VP & GM of digital media education at
Adobe states “Adobe is committed to empowering the next generation of workforce-bound
students with the tools and skills needed to succeed in today’s increasingly digital, creative
economy,”. (Adobe. Blog 2022) At the beginning of 2022, Adobe acquired Figma in a 20-
billion-dollar deal with the intention of bringing both communities together and reducing
competition in the web-based design market space.
CONCLUSIONS
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Adobe is used to being the leading design application on all fronts for a long time now.
Competition will be good for Adobe as it is leading to expansion and growth. With challengers
like Canva, Adobe must find new ways to dominate the market and they’re choosing to do so by
offering Adobe Express for education for free from k-12 globally. This will drastically increase
users and force younger audiences to get comfortable with Adobe Express at the same time. With
the acquisition of Figma, Adobe has cornered the market and is now in a two-horse race for
dominance in the web design market.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Currently there are a lot of unknowns in the preference between applications of Adobe
Express and competitors. A survey should be conducted when finishing a project with Adobe
Express asking users about the quality of the product or if they’re likely to use a competitor. This
would allow more focus on how to better improve the application.
An Influencer marketing campaign should be done highlighting Adobe express the
simplicity of the application. Currently, Adobe Express is being limited by a $10 paywall but if
Adobe can influence consumers into thinking Adobe Express is the best and easiest option on the
market then it will see an increase in growth. Now that Adobe is being offered to schools around
the world, we want to target the Gen Z and Millennial market, young business leaders and those
trying to start a new brand. 72% of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers and 56% have
purchased a product after seeing a post from someone they follow. (Morning Consult, 2022)
Running an Influencer marketing campaign is the best way to bring in the market, highlighting
how simple it is to use Adobe Express and how fast it can be done. An analysis would be done
monitoring impressions, views, and direct link downloads.
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Adobe also needs to listen to reviews and adapt to the needs of its consumers. Adobe
express is not the cheapest or the easiest application to use versus Canva. With the acquisition of
Figma, Adobe and the Figma design team can work together to develop a more user-friendly
platform and use Adobe's expertise in 3D, video, vector, imaging, and fonts to bring a stronger
version of Figma to life.
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REFERENCES
Adobe Express for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2022, from
https://www.adobe.com/education/express/
Adobe Fast Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://www.adobe.com/about-
adobe/fast-facts.html
Adobe reports record revenue in Q3 fiscal 2022. Adobe. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022,
from https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-Reports-Record-Revenue-in-
Q3-Fiscal-2022/default.aspx
Adobe to acquire Figma. Adobe. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-to-Acquire-
Figma/default.aspx#:~:text=The%20combination%20of%20Adobe's%20and,of%20Adobe'
s%20Digital%20Media%20business.
Djudjic, D. (2022, October 13). CANVA now has four times more active users than Adobe. DIY
Photography. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.diyphotography.net/canva-
now-has-four-times-more-active-users-than-adobe/
New Adobe Express Innovations Make Content Creation Easy, Fun and More
Productive. https://advance-lexis-
com.oclc.fullsail.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:66N1-DXY1-
DXY3-007G-00000-00&context=1516831.
Influencer report. Morning Consult. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://morningconsult.com/influencer-report-engaging-gen-z-and-millennials/
The rise of CANVA, the $40 billion design Juggernaut - Fast Company. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 21, 2022, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90721894/canva-design-
platform-most-innovative-companies
Team, A. C. (n.d.). Adobe Express reaches over 43 million students and teachers globally as a
top creativity tool for Education. Adobe Blog. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2022/10/17/adobe-express-reaches-over-43-million-
students-teachers-globally-top-creativity-tool-for-education
APPENDICES
Adobe Education Image Adobe Express for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2022,
from https://www.adobe.com/education/express/
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Adobe logo Image Hernandez, S. (n.d.). Evolving our brand identity. Adobe Blog. Retrieved
November 20, 2022, from https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2020/05/28/evolving-our-
brand-identity
Adobe Express Education Image Team, A. C. (n.d.). Adobe Express reaches over 43 million
students and teachers globally as a top creativity tool for Education. Adobe Blog.
Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2022/10/17/adobe-
express-reaches-over-43-million-students-teachers-globally-top-creativity-tool-for-
education
