The reason why your
business failed or is not making many sales as you expected is as a result of not understanding your market space. As a business consultant and market strategist with years of experience, I have come to understand that businesses fail because of wrong market analysis.
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Market analysis is defined as the ability to study the strengths and weaknesses of your
products or services with respect to the opportunities and threats found in the marketplace (this is my definition based on years of experience).
Every businessperson’s concern should be: can my product thrive in the market? Not just who are your competitors, but what is the edge your product has over others? In this article, I’m going to give you four powerful strategies I got from personal observations that you can apply when trying to sell a service or product, whether online or offline.
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Is There Really A Gap In The Market?
The problem with many people who ventured into business is that they did it because they needed the bills. This is the worst reason to go into business. They didn’t even care if there was a need for their product, all they knew was that they had a product to sell and people ought to buy. It doesn’t work that way. All the products you’ve seen in the market is not the best. There must be something missing. If there’s none, create a missing link.
What’s missing in the market should be your centre of thought when trying to come into a market. For instance, if you’re into selling cosmetics it’s best you find a market where it’s missing. Don’t go to an already crowded market where more powerful competitors are already dominating. Don’t go into the business of baking because it’s trending. Look for a new
market – it could be your church, class, school, street, office etc – and build your influence over time or better still if you already have a customer base and you’re looking for new markets, then you jump into any space.
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Bring Something New
Don’t bother bringing something missing old, except you’re innovating it. For instance, if you’re into cosmetics, let’s say cream, and all the creams in the market are apple flavoured and that is what is registered in the minds of retailers and consumers – apple flavoured cream – then there’s a gap. Introduce another flavour, like carrot, pineapple etc. If all the seasonings are chickened flavoured, introduce beef. Repackaging things can give you an edge in the market.
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Use Market Influencers
When you want to enter a market, it’s advisable to get people of influence (retailers, social media influencers) with a large following to introduce your product to the market. If you’re an influential person, this can be easier for you. However, don’t influence your product alone, get other influencers. Very importantly, it is advised to get onsite influencers, especially traders, to help push your products.
Good marketing is done both online and onsite at equal proportion, except you’re selling digital products which require you to stay 24/7 online pushing your products. Also, before entering a market, look for influential dealers, especially retailers, in your products, give them your products to sell for you. You could offer them some of your products for free or at discounted prices. Never forget to ask them for feedback. It’s very important. For example, knowing fully well that influential brands exist in your niche, it’s advised to offer credit facilities to traders because they’ve got choices.
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Campaign Before And After You Launch
One of the mistakes business people make is that they don’t begin a campaign until they’re about to dish their products into the market. This is wrong. Use the ”COMING SOON” strategy. Create anticipation in the hearts of many. Let people be excited about your forthcoming products. In fact, your product might not even be 70% ready, but still go ahead and campaign about it.
You can start 5 months before the official launch. Let your campaign give them a snippet of what it’s all about. Don’t run a vague campaign. Use TV ads, blogs, social media pages, onsite campaigns, signboards, etc.
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Build The Right Audience
Selling beauty products in a boys’ hostel won’t sell as much as it would in a girls’ hostel. Don’t open a mega plaza in a slum area or rural area where most of the population are living below $2. Also building a less than average cafeteria somewhere like Ikoyi could be colossal.
Featured Image Source: Inc. Magazine
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