The term "market transformation" first appeared in the literature in the early 1990s. The term emerged more as an abstraction than a concrete program strategy or model. Market transformation provides a vision of the ultimate objective of strategic interventions—markets that yield energy-efficient outcomes automatically as the result of normal market forces. Market transformation can be viewed as a catalyst for change—a means of intervening in imperfect markets to effect long-term changes to improve market performance with respect to energy efficiency.

While there is not a single, precise definition of market transformation in professional practice, the following definition captures the essential elements:

Market transformation is a strategic intervention to achieve a lasting, significant share of energy-efficient products and services in targeted markets. Market transformation is essentially synonymous with marketing strategy as used in the private business world. A key distinction is that market transformation is...