Product and market entry tactics: Beating competition on every front
This is the 21st Century and being the first to the market is almost no advantage. The market responds to who knows how to play best. There are several sectors and niches in the market and it might be daunting to find the perfect playbook to enter the market.
However, by considering several case studies we just might be able to find a combination of principles that ensures good market entry and if not find ways through which one should not try to enter the market.
Market entry tactics are a set of strategies developed through the study of market demographics, product type and existing competition. These strategies are designed to give new entrants the perfect advantage to garner significant market share.
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Golden Innovative Product.
This is having a differentiating scalable unique selling advantage and creating a niche for you. Subsequently, that further defines the niche and creates a strong following using other market tactics such as premium, only you model (the ‘I’ operating system, user-friendly interface).
Apple
2007, Apple took the world by storm with the iPhone and its many amazing features enhanced by an existent music ecosystem, exclusive user-friendly software and premium pricing. It was the perfect recipe for success.
According to Apple’s 2019 annual report, the iPhone generates more than 54% of the company’s revenue – golden boy. Apple Services (iCloud, Apple Tv, Apple Music etc..) was trailing at a little over 17% of their revenue. The iPhone can be referred to as the golden innovative product!
In the Market entry, finding the golden innovative product is a game changer and puts you light years ahead of every possible competition
Aggressive Marketing – Blitzscaling
Blitzscaling is growing at a rate faster than your competitors. It prioritizes speed over efficiency and stretches the limits of consumer acceptance. In the process of blitz scaling mistakes are inevitable, capital-intensive mistakes.
Mistakes or strategy testing: Understanding growth
There is a high tendency for consumers to fall in love with your products simply because you can into the market as a big shark – the acquisitions can give you a big following and the massive campaigns endear you to the customer’s heart.
However only a few people will have the capital to execute this kind of market entry technique – a cheaper way to go about this is following the KPI way to innovation. In this model, different methods are tested out rapidly with several feedback mechanisms put into place to determine the viability of each method. This system allows a profitable market-acceptable model to be reached cheaply in the shortest possible time.
Opay
Opera invested in the Nigerian market space aggressively as Opay, However, this did not yield the desired results. The company had come in using the freebies as the major means to aggressively push the brand. They did get their names on the lips of almost every Nigerian, at least in the cities they operated in the country.
However, this did not translate into profit and adoption. As they slowly withdrew their freebies, users fled! The re-introduction of the freebies brought them back and gradual withdrawal made the users withdraw again. They had successfully built a brand, which could not stand the test of time, around freebies.
Lower prices
In the laws of economics, NEVER allow lower prices to be your only selling point.
It is advisable to make profits through increased productivity rather than focusing on price reduction. Productivity increases profit margin by the adoption of efficient methods while carrying out processes critical to your business. This optimization of production activities ensures competition finds it difficult to operate at your level giving you the perfect advantage.
Shoprite
Shoprite practices this at the absolute best with the lowest prices campaign while adding additional value to the customers’ shopping experience through value-added services.
By offering almost all you need in a typical shopping spree, with varieties of brands to suit your specific taste, retail-wholesale pricing, and mega-store frenzy ShopRite has been able to develop a profitable business model.
Globacom Nigeria
2016, Globacom Nigeria became the self-anointed ‘Grand-masters of data’. They adopted cheaper pricing with a widely sluggish network that made the already cheap data last even longer and achieved tremendous results.
Glo’s internet subscriber base increased from 26,887,929 data customers in September 2016 to 27,185,552 in October 2016. By 2019, Glo shockingly lost ~1.7 million subscribers.
This brings to light the demerits of acquiring consumers through price reduction as opposed to productivity which is trying to deliver the same or more value at the same price.
Niche Creation and marketing
Several niche markets can be created out of existing markets. Niche marketing helps you sell to a segment of consumers that were either previously neglected or not properly catered for. This is usually achieved by introducing new features designed on existing products or re-packaging.
Tecno Nigeria
Nigeria has a significantly large middle income tending towards a poor population. At the advent of mobile phones, acquisition cost was significantly high and earlier market entrants did not take too much thought of this.
Tecno attacked the market on two fronts. First was the dual sim advantage and the second was affordability. Due to telecommunication inefficiency and cost, the average Nigerian owned two to three sim cards. This made them completely sold out to the idea of not having to carry two phones.
These actions created a niche for Tecno and established them as a category King in Africa.
Five points to consider
- Product category – Is your product hardware or software?
- Innovation level – Can you describe your product as game-changing innovation or an incremental innovation?
- Sector – Is it a tech product or otherwise?
- Marketing Budget – Is your marketing budget large?
- Age of market – Is your market greenfield or brownfield?
Answering these questions adequately helps in determining the right market entry tactics that suit your product.
All together
In conclusion, nothing can be compared to having a golden innovative product. However, even with the right market tactics, every product can be transformed into a customer’s favourite!
