Crowded market or creating a new Market

differentiation, Marketing, Positioning, Product Management, segmentation

Trying to create a new market is very “sexy”. All the marketing books and case studies will talk about the heroics of creating a new market where nothing existed and how those companies took abnormal profits.

What doesn’t get spoken in these case studies is the number of companies who fell by the wayside in trying to create a new market.

I have had my share of misadventures in trying to create a new market where there was none.

I have found that its always better to check a market where there are existing players and then find a niche in that market. If there are other players already, it means there’s money for that product or service . It means people accept that kind of a product or service.

If people already accept a certain kind of product then its easier to upgrade them to a more powerful version or more expensive version or sometimes to a simpler version. The basic concept of your product or service is known, so you only have to convince on the nuances that you offer.

Here you can be first with the nuance that you are bringing to the table and occupy that position in the minds of the customer.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

B2B Buyer’s and the ecosystem

B2B, Marketing, Marketing Ecosystem, Positioning, Product Management, segmentation

I have written earlier about the “infrastructure” that needs to be in place before you can place a new technology solution in the customer environment. This infrastructure also akin to the ecosystem which exists in nature which helps everyone survive and grow better

If that be the case, then who would the customer contact for a new technology that she’s hearing about.

If you have niched your market well, then you would know most of the market participants.

If you have niche your market well then you might be able to anticipate the questions that will come in the mind of your prospect.

If you can anticipate these you may also then be able to anticipate who would be the existing vendor/partner that the customer may want to talk to. Can you think of building a partnership with this company to get a quicker entry into the ecosystem.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Single Target Market – again

differentiation, differentiation, Marketing, Positioning, Product Management, segmentation

I can’t stop myself from seeing the magic of focusing on only one small segment of the market.

Today I was working on one offering after my team had yesterday isolated 3 possible segments based on data. Based on data I was to work on identifying the right niche for this product.

I have mentioned multiple times earlier and would like to recommend the podcast at Morecheeselesswhiskers.com. By far its one place where you will see how Dean Jackson goes about analyzing single target markets.

Coming back to my experience today. I first eliminated 2 of the markets because there was nothing to create a common strategy.

Then I came to what we club – as BFSI – Banking, Finance, Securities and Insurance. As I stated thinking about the geographic differences that can come into these customers. So I decided to stick to just North India.

As I started to think of the conversation going on in the minds of my audience I realized that I was thinking of the marketing heads, the CTO, the CIO. All 3 would have different things which keep them up at night.

While these differences not enough , I realized that even the marketing head of an insurance company would have different concerns than the marketing head of a securities company.

So now we had brought down our single target market to just the marketing head ds of insurance companies in North India. However I still have a nagging feeling that I may need to splice this further. But we will leave that for another day.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Personal differentiation

B2B, differentiation, Marketing, Positioning, relationships

This post was actually starting with nothing to write about. Suddenly a thought flashed across my mind.

I keep talking about continually marketing to your prospects and customers in the B2B space. It can be with your own products or with your partners’. But be in touch always.

But you need not always be making offers to your prospects or giving them more information.

Sometimes just a hand written thank you makes a more personal statement. In B2B selling, in most cases still, you need to have a relationship in place before you can sell anything.

As Mark McCormack used to say – all things being equal people buy from friends . If you have not read his book What they don’t teach at Harvard Business School and its sequel….they are gems. So much wisdom in such small reads

Which brings me to another thing which I have found useful to give, is a non-standard gift. Copies of paintings, books etc.

Sometimes your product has differentiation which is very unique. In most cases in technology marketing its rare. You create your personal differentiation in front of the customer by doing these small things

Some organizations do have a amount on the value of gifts that are considered inappropriate. You need to be cognizant to that. But within that you can be creative and give gifts which have a high recall value….sometimes much much higher than what your marketing webinar would give.

In B2B especially and otherwise also relationships matter. So keep working on that.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!