MNC vs Startup: How did we expand the market…
Are you looking at expanding your market?
Market expansion isn’t a tough nut to crack; it’s about Listening to customers and understanding them deeply.
Typically, there are two paths: launching new products for existing consumers or reaching out to new customers. Today we will deal with the former – expanding market through product extension.
Do you use Coalgate toothpaste? Yes? Will you use a hashtag#colgate toothbrush? Probably Yes. Will you use chocolate from Colgate? Probably not.
Where do you begin?
But you may consider buying mouthwash from your toothpaste brand, then chewing gum that prevents bad breath, later a fun chewing gum and then probably chocolate. Extend your brand in adjacent areas – one at a time. This is the concept of adjacencies.
Consumers have specific and clear expectations. Understand them! Address them! Expand the market! Simple!
Yet, many organizations struggle to decipher the code of hashtag#marketexpansion.
Expanding the market is a strategic move that requires market innovation, which is possible only with highly engaged and dedicated teams, especially the front line that is in the market talking to customers. Listen to your hashtag#teams! Empower them!
Why did we go wrong in Gallup?
Preparing for the 2008-2009 recession, while I was at hashtag#gallup, in 2007 we launched customer engagement to help clients retain their customers during the stagnation. We were successful in the pilots but could not scale. The pilots succeeded in the clients where our customer was the CEO. In most of our clients, our customers were CHROs while the customers for customer engagement were Chief Marketing Officers.
Back to the drawing board…
There are three elements in a market – Product, Market, and Customer. The principle of adjacency calls for changing only one at a time and that too close to existing products. We changed the product and the customer. So, it failed to scale. All the partners and consultants huddled together. We heard them while they listened to the clients. We decided to launch Great Manager Programs and Strength-based Leadership. The hashtag#market and hashtag#customer were the same and the product was new. It was adjacent to employee engagement. We managed to help our clients prepare for the post-recession market swing of 2010. We grew our revenue during the recession.
We will address the product expansion in our start up next week as we have run out of the limit of 3000 characters imposed by hashtag#linkedin.
What did we learn?
To expand the market through new products:
— Engage and motivate teams to innovate
— Listen to clients and teams to understand clients’ needs for which they are willing to pay
— Ensure that the new product follows the principle of adjacencies
What hashtag#strategies have you found most effective in expanding into new products? What helped you succeed?