yaney


marketing

creative services

nailing post

results

about us
Expanding your market
7/22/2021 5:47:13 AM

I recently had a question from a newly graduated marketing student: How do you expand your market? In other words, if you know who your customers are and have identified your target market, how do you get more people to buy your product or service offerings?

There is a textbook answer to this question and there is a real-life business answer. The textbook answer is you advertise in places where your potential customers will see what you are offering. An example of this is what is happening in terms of display ads on web sites. You define your target market, a click-through ad is designed and placed, interested viewers click and end up on your website. They see, understand and buy your product. That sounds really easy.

The real-life answer is not so easy. There are two things that complicate the expansion of your market. First, people are fickle. Their attitudes could be going one direction one day and the opposite direction the next. We live in a world of extremes. Think of the social attitudes that have changed from swinging one direction to the other in the past year. I suggest you get to know your target market well enough that you can distinguish between what is a value for them and what is a fleeting attitude. What is the difference? Values don’t change, attitudes do. So to expand your market, you have to understand what lines are considered unchanging values with your customers and market within those lines. For instance, Subway restaurants recently hired a spokesperson who had some very harsh anti-American things to say that went viral. Did that cross a value line with Subway customers? If so, they are in trouble. But if Subway is targeting a younger demographic that may hold the same values as the spokesperson, they will expand their market. However, if the younger demographic they have targeted doesn’t really see the whole anti-USA expression as their life-long passion – in other words, it is a passing fad with them – Subway just fell hard for an attitude that will not last and risked losing other customers who value the exact opposite viewpoint.

The second complication is how you are viewed versus your competition. If you are going to expand your market, you have to distinguish your brand from your competitors. If you don’t, you will not grow. However, that distinction has to be something that impacts your target market and solves a problem for them. If it has no meaning for them, your distinction will mean nothing. For instance, if I were trying to sell the concept of windmill energy to a group of people who make their living in the natural gas and oil industry, I may be blowing air in the wrong direction. However, if I know there is a common problem that people in my target market are dealing with and my competitors cannot fix it, the door is wide open for me to expand if I can solve it. Your marketing should focus on the difference between you and them and the solution to the problem. This should be all over your marketing. Put it on your website homepage, splash it all over social media, wear it on a T-shirt.

Here is another thing you have to factor in expansion of your market: you have to promote, promote, promote. Many times expansion fails simply because there is a lack of commitment to push the brand. I cannot tell you the number of otherwise smart business people I have met over the years that believe they can simply expand by word of mouth. That may work, but it works at a snail’s pace. It is a blind spot for many in business. Here is the truth of real-life business expansion: it will cost you money to do so. But it should pay a return for the investment if you are smart about the way you
 

Comments

No comments have been posted yet.

 
Name
Email (will not be published)
Your Url

Older Posts

Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl and your marketing
Bicycles and marketing
Ben Franklin’s electric kite and a lot of marketing we believe
Making raisins from grapes – how hard are you making it to become your customer?
Stop-and-go marketing
 
Yaney Marketing is a solutions-based marketing and communications firm. We offer full-service marketing solutions, including
  • Strategic Plans
  • Marketing Execution
  • Customer Retention
  • Creative Services

 

 

Copyright © 2019 | Yaney Marketing, Inc.

  • Marketing
    • Catapultmymessage.com E-blast Tool
  • About Us
  • The Nailing Post Blog
  • Results
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
Creative Services
  • Graphic Design
  • Social Media
  • Copy Writing & Editorial Services
  • Photography
  • Video & Multi-media
  • Web Development
  • Printed Marketing Materials
  • Advertising
  • Brand Development
  • Three-dimensional Displays, Signs & Wraps
Buttermilk Ridge Book Publishing