3 SECRETS TO SUCCEEDING IN A SATURATED MARKET
Mindset maneuvers when the market isn’t moving. There’s no such thing as an oversaturated market, simply unrecognized audiences. In a business or any industry, there are subsections of customers and clients that are underserved and underrepresented. Finding those areas of opportunities to beat an oversaturated market.
One of the fears of business owners is when their brand falls into the trap of a saturated market. This means the brand no longer appeals to clients due to the decreased demand for the services and products, intense market competition, obsolescence and other factors.
The “Blue Ocean” approach in business and marketing is one of the best tactics for success.
- Either be the first.
- If you’re not first, be first in mind by being the “best” or innovative.
- Create a legal monopoly by being disruptive in your product, service, and marketing.
The premise is simply that the “market” or “ocean” is large enough that you can create a business and brand where the barrier to entry is large enough you don’t have to worry about competition or an oversaturated market.
Example: Tesla. They are in the automotive industry; but also in the technology industry. Yet, they were able to create a monopoly not by being first– for there were other electric car companies; but by being disruptive in the battery technology and other innovations which created a loyal following. And just like Steve Jobs with Apple, Elon Musk was able to grow quickly by the simplicity in messaging and the strength of his purpose and vision to be able to rally others around the environmental cause and mission.
So, the automotive industry could have easily been described as an “oversaturated” industry or market. But your perspective will allow you to be able to not only survive but thrive in any market. And there can even be multiple “monopolies” in the same industries by targeting audiences that don’t overlap with competitors. Therefore, with the right perspective, you can succeed in any environment by your mindset and purpose.
In the world of business, consider your clients as explorers. They won’t go back to places they’ve been, so try serving them new itineraries. If you want to gain their attention, you have to stop doing what is conventional.
It may sound absurd, but even a famous product may fall on the brink of extinction due to poor management and ineffective marketing. Take it from Borders, a famous bookstore chain in the US, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011 because it fell to competitors in online sales.
The same fate befell Friendster when it did not manage to stay afloat in the digital space due to strong competition from Facebook and Myspace. In 2015 the once-prominent social media tool was totally phased out from the virtual world.
Your business will never stand on ground alone nor be completely solo. Expect that more of its kind will pop up like a mushroom and you have to be on the lookout for how to stand out in the competition.
But don’t get clouded by worries because surviving in a saturated market is still possible. Here are some of the trade secrets in order to stay in the game:
- Don’t get too fixed on your standards, adaptability should be your currency.
Client satisfaction is plotted on a non-predictive scale, which compels products and services to be in the race of adopting the dynamic needs of their target audience. Don’t fear changing your ways or methods. According to Seena Sharp, founder and managing director of Sharp Market Intelligence, “Change is a synonym for opportunity.”
“If you don’t know what’s changing—with your customers, competitors, distribution channels, alternative uses, features, and more, your customers will buy from those who do,” Sharp says.
“New companies often recognize the gaps that established businesses don’t. If they’re correct, they gain customers and grow,” Sharp added. “The challenge is not to become like the established businesses who think they know better than the customer. This applies to B2C, B2B, and nonprofits.”
Those “gaps” are the blue ocean opportunities for you and your company or brand. This is why larger companies will have the tough choice to alter their long-standing practices because it would be a back-to-zero scheme for them. However, if they want to stay on the ground, adaptability should be their main currency.
- Your value-added service shouldn’t go old.
Kyle Willis, CEO of the No to the Quo, started his social media consulting company when Facebook was on a head start of becoming a viable tool for digital marketing. This was the time when social media managers were competing to stay afloat.
Though Kyle had worked as a national account manager for a social network, he needed to compete and stand out in a crowd of social media experts. So he started by offering low-entry, no-commitment contracts to clients who want to try the efficiency of social media platforms in boosting their company’s brand.
In case the clients weren’t happy with his service, Kyle’s clients wouldn’t be handcuffed on a long-term contract and could just cancel if they want to. It makes sense that No to the Quo offers an incentive that other social media consulting companies failed to acquire. They were too preoccupied with tying up clients with their long-term contracts.
In the back of Kyle’s mind, he needed to work hard and smart to deliver great results and exceed clients’ expectations. After landing on top of the line, Kyle met his ROI by having clients commit themselves and their brands to the expertise of No to the Quo.
The bottom line is, to give your clients a free trial of your value-added service and make them crave more by giving your best shot until they initiate a long-term partnership with you.
- Never underestimate your business analytics.
Business analytics will help you gauge if your brand is performing well. By analyzing the previous standing of your business through data, trends, and root causes of problems, you can arrive at a data-driven decision to maintain the health of your brand in the market.
In a recent study by Microstrategy, companies all over the world are using data to:
- Level up process and cost-efficiency
- Create a strategy and cope with the changing needs of target clients
- Assess and improve financial performance
Let’s assume that you are using an email marketing campaign to reach target leads. Say it has been sent a month ago; however, it seems like it’s stuck at zero. You checked your Click-To-Open-Rate (CTOR) and you found out that there was a higher percentage for those who opened the email rather than the ones who clicked the email content.
Therefore, you found out that your analytics implies that you’ve utilized an effective subject line; yet, the content seemed to not entice the audience so they skipped it right after reading the first line. Finally, you decided to modify the content based on the pulse of your target audience.
Know data is more than just numbers, they speak of an implication. The moment you come across your business analytics, know that it quantifies the milestone that your business has gone through. In case it doesn’t tell a beautiful story, then maybe shifting ways should be your no-brainer move.
By using this mindset and practical applications you never have to worry about the murky waters of an oversaturated market where you’re merely surviving or staying afloat using old or outdated practices. Because you and your purpose-driven business will be innovative, disruptive, and adaptable in your products and services by stewarding your customers and the market well.