Marketing & Growth Strategy
A company's marketing and growth strategies feed off of each other to aid in the business' overall success. How a company chooses to market itself may influence how the company's other departments design products, set retail prices and decide when products are made available to the market. These decisions cannot be made successfully without a thorough analysis of the consumer market and a business-wide dedication to company growth and development.
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Market Research
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Understanding your business market is an important component of your company's growth strategy. In-depth market analysis allows you to tailor promotional campaigns and product lines to both stimulate customer interest and meet consumer needs where needs are greatest. A market analysis may include multiple market factors relating to your company's customer base like median income levels, age ranges within the market and the sales figures of competitors. Without this information, your business could attempt to enter the market in an area where a competitor already has a significant foothold. Your business could fold quickly if it's not prepared to deal with such an immediate level of high competition.
Marketing as a Leader
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If your marketing analysis reveals a customer base hungry for new and innovative products, your growth strategy may be able to take advantage of this need. Marketing your business as an industry leader is known as skimming, according to QuickMBA's website. This strategy allows your business to grow by being the first business in your market area to bring in a new high-quality product while charging a premium price for it. Your business gets to reap maximum profit before moving on to the next new development as the competition catches up to the previous product. This strategy requires a constant devotion to product development, since your reputation as an industry leader only lasts as long as you're able to bring new products to market before the competition.
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Penetrating Strategy
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The penetrating market strategy sits in contrast to the skimming strategy because it seeks to increase profits over time as the company's share of the market increases. Your business may initially choose to market itself as a reliable company with durable, low-cost products. This allows your company to gain a foothold in the market, which it can use to build its reputation and customer base. Once brand loyalty is established, prices may begin a gradual increase. This strategy spurns short-term gains in favor of more sustained growth over time.
Increasing Demand
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Your marketing strategy also may serve to increase demand for products among your customer base. You may accomplish this goal using several methods, including increasing product use per customer or increasing how much product is consumed per use. A grocery store is a good venue to see these demand-increasing strategies at work. Companies may decrease the size of a bottle of detergent or soft drink, thereby encouraging customers to purchase more of the product. The price for the product also may be kept at its previous level, ensuring the company receives a higher return for less.
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