Republish "Do You REALLY Want to Enter That New Market?"

Please Note: This page is for web site authors who want to post this article on their sites. To read the article, click here. Thank You.

Here you can get simple copy-and-paste code for the articles that you want to publish on your site.

The Code

Just copy and paste the code below to a page on your site. You may modify the code as you like as long as you leave the article and byline unchanged and the links active. Keep in mind that we do not own the copyright for the majority of the articles on here. Therefore, we ask that you respect the author's efforts and keep the links and byline intact. Note that you may get into legal trouble with the article's author if you choose otherwise. Thank you.

<html>
<head>
<title>Do You REALLY Want to Enter That New Market?</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Do You REALLY Want to Enter That New Market?</h1>

Contemplating taking an existing or new product / service into a
new market? A systematic analysis of 14 critical market segment
attributes should be considered before any additional company
resources are applied to any new market pursuit.
Sometimes it is obvious that entering a new market is a
&#8220;no brainer&#8221; or it is perceived as the &#8220;right
thing to do&#8221; because a competitor has taken the plunge or a
handful of existing product or service users, within that market
segment, are asking for your market participation.
Taking on a new market is an integrative decision process,
cutting across a broad number of competitive issues, internal
company functions and various targeted organizational entities. A
decision of this magnitude should not be taken lightly because of
the overall affect it can have on the total direction of your
company and prudent use of limited resources. The cost of making a
wrong decision here can be significant both in actual capital
outlays and the opportunity costs realized of NOT pursuing another,
&#8220;better&#8221; market alternative.
In Al Ries and Jack Trout&#8217;s, &#8220;The 22 Immutable Laws
of Marketing&#8221;, being FIRST in a new market is everything,
first is best! Sometimes deciding to venture into a new market
segment just because a competitor did only makes the same decision
one of duplicate failure.
Anyone who has ever been involved in sales management knows that
sales personnel have a tendency to sell what they don&#8217;t have
&#8230; always trying to solve all of every customer&#8217;s
problems no matter whether it makes financial sense for the company
they represent or not. Marketing managers also have to learn to
systematically justify entering a new market not because a handful
of existing market participants have asked them to enter their
market.
The first step in evaluating the overall merit of entering a new
market should be to discuss and determine the applicability of
these 14 market segment attributes:
14 Critical Market Segment Attributes
1) The number of products/ services required to effectively
compete:
* Ideally the more &#8220;full service&#8221; you can be the
better your chances of success
* Customers prefer &#8220;one-stop shopping&#8221;, if you
cannot provide the complete customer solution package, they have
little reason to switch suppliers
2) Capital required to effectively compete:
* Understand your costs to enter a new market before you assume
your revenues
* Sales projections are typically too high and cost estimates
too low in new business ventures
3) Long term sales potential:
* Accelerating advances in technology reduces long term customer
retention possibilities. In many markets customer needs are
constantly changing.
* Priority should always be give to retention of existing, short
term revenue streams, ultimately the best means to fund potential
long term growth
4) Relative Profitability:
* Is return on investment greater via a new product or pursuing
another market?
* It is always less costly to grow profits from existing
customers in existing markets than to pursue new customers in new
markets
5) Ease of product distribution:
* New markets are often best penetrated with non traditional
distribution/ sales representation
* Does this potential market &#8220;fit&#8221; with your current
distribution structures?
6) Post sale service requirements:
* Product/ service information demands of new market customers
can require more and new forms of post sale customer service
* Technical support for state-of-the-art product/ service
offerings can be in limited supply and very costly, difficult to
staff
7) Degree of customer loyalty:
* Every market has a varying degree of customer loyalty
depending on number and quality of competitive product/ service
offerings
* Do key targeted users within the new market buy on product/
service value or well established relationships with existing
suppliers?
8) Time required to get into the market:
* Product/ service &#8220;life cycles&#8221; in some industries
last only a couple of months
* Can your company develop, test, certify and fill distribution
channels of a short life cycle product/ service within the time
frame required?
9) Anticipated competitive response:
* New market entrants are greeted with new competitive marketing
tactics upon entry by established suppliers who seek retention of
existing market share
* Will existing pricing levels remain once you have entered the
market?
* How will market pricing degradation eventually affect your
margins and ROI?
10) Number of viable competitors:
* If there are a relatively few number of viable competitors
participating within the targeted market, it may more than
justify your market entry
* Sometimes it is less expensive to acquire an existing,
resource limited, market participant than try to take market share
with a new approach
11) Ability to maintain a technical advantage:
* Can you protect your technology within the time frame required
to cover your new market entry investment?
* Maintaining technical advantages requires quality, technical
talent. If your current technical staff is over burdened or limited
you will not compete
12) Fit with existing company resources:
* Can your company absorb the financial, emotional and physical
changes required to effectively compete in the new market?
* New markets often require new, certainly more, talent and
personnel
13) Fit with established customer perceptions:
* How will your existing customers be affected by your pursuit
of a new market and new customer base?
* It is critical to define and evaluate your existing
customer&#8217;s perceptions of all your major strategic moves
14) Financial status of key targeted customers and market share
mix:
* Are key targeted customers financially stable?
* Is there a diverse mix of new market participant market
shares?
The justification of entry into a new market segment involves
effectively identifying viable competitors, relevant target market
attributes, competitor and key customer market shares while
correctly defining your company&#8217;s current financial,
technical and human resources.
For marketing and sales management this 14 market attribute
checklist is more intuitive than measurable. However, it is an
excellent means to initially come to a &#8220;pass or fail&#8221;
decision before any additional resources are applied to any market
expansion effort. If you want to further quantify this analysis you
can numerically weight each market attribute with your own specific
market attribute priorities and give numerical &#8220;grades&#8221;
to any or all new market entry candidates to calculate a weighted
value for any new market.
Like trying to address any noteworthy marketing challenge,
whatever you can do to quantify and measure your potential
marketing alternatives, the more relevant your analysis, the better
your management decisions will be.

<div>Author Info 
About the Author:
Mark Smock is President of 
<a target="_new" href="http://www.business-buyer-directory.com">http://www.business-buyer-directory.com</a>,
the FIRST international business buyer directory of its kind.
Business Buyer Directory provides a non-traditional means for
proactive business buyers to locate businesses for sale worldwide
that meet their exact registered purchase criteria.
</div>

Article Source: <a href="http://www.innoarticles.com" title="Your #1 Source For Quality Articles">InnoArticles.com</a>
</body>
</html>

Republish "Do You REALLY Want to Enter That New Market?"

The Code

Related articles you can post on your site