New Markets For Your Products, New Products For Your Markets

Every solid marketing campaign is based on the conclusions of market research and your objectives. Before you develop a marketing plan, you must conduct market research. Are you questioning what you can learn from market research? Consider the successful $20 million systems engineering firm that retained us to conduct comprehensive blind research of its former, current, potential, and desired clients, as well as its competitors. We learned that the client needed to know its competition better. Only 53% of the companies the client identified as competitors indicated they were also systems engineering contractors. And, a number of companies our client did not mention were named as competitors. Also, none of the competitors our client identified named our client as a competitor. That really concerned us. Further, we identified 15 companies that used systems engineering contractors: nine that had needs and were not currently using an outside firm and two companies that annually spent 10 to 25 times what our client billed each year. We also reported on four new products their customers and potential customers desired including 21 firms that said they would buy one of those new products. Then too, our client that installed emergency power generation backup systems spent extensive time and energy developing a financing plan for its customers only to learn that, when we conducted research of their major market place, the 100 largest users of electricity, that was not an issue. Fortune 1000 companies did not need financing plans.

Our preferred method of market research is to develop a questionnaire and conduct the survey by telephone, monitoring results on a daily basis. We use names and numbers of people on lists we assemble on the client's behalf or with which they provide us. Such a survey is conducted blind as that is always what we advise in conducting primary research. We tabulate responses and evaluate the results, then develop the marketing plan. Good marketing is simply creating opportunities and capitalizing on them. It is next of kin to sales. How does all of this translate to creating new clients for your services and new services for your clients? Practicing all of the above leads to intuitive yet educated inspiration, the hunches that prove out. Examples range from Ray Kroc, who began serving hamburgers from a single restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1954, and now serves us breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert, internationally, with more than $3 billion in annual sales To the middle-market CPA firm who recognized a $200,000 per year black-hole on one service and, by replacing it with a new service, created a $300,000 per year profit center To the cat and dog product company with 100+ items in its line that were sold only to pet stores that now also markets to vets as well as drug and grocery stores.

Practicing all of the above leads to intuitive yet educated inspiration, the hunches that prove out or, to borrow a line from Peter Drucker, The past has already happened. To make matters more challenging, these are highly competitive times. A good reputation and extensive product line are no longer enough to insure that business finds its way to your door. You must understand your position and image in the marketplace. Know how your competition, your customers, and the general marketplace view you. However, nothing remains constant. Everything either grows or stagnates and deteriorates. I suspect that you prefer growing, as do I. That's where branding, marketing, public relations, high-impact/low cost promotions, advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, and good old-fashioned sales come in.

That is why we have long believed that it is necessary to Do it all. Or, to quote Dave Olsen, Starbucks chief coffee guru, Everything matters. Obsessive attention to every element of a company's behavior is key to building a blockbuster brand. With the above guidelines, you can choose to do this internally, without working with an outside market research firm. May you go forth and find new products for your markets and new markets for your products.


Copyright (c) 2010 Devon Blaine