John Grifonetti Offers Insight Into Assessing Potential Growth in Emerging Markets

In today’s highly competitive business environment, experiencing sustainable growth is never guaranteed. Your company may slump in profitability and in its ability to reach new markets. Scientific and technological advances sometimes shorten the lifespan of products and services. Also, competitors may appear in the industry and provide a more up-to-date product. When the old markets have become stagnant, it is time to begin looking for new opportunities in emerging markets.

John Grifonetti, an experienced entrepreneur, explains how businesses of all kinds can push the envelope of emerging markets and come out with better revenue figures.

Discovering New Customer Segmentation Patterns

To understand the demand for your product, you must pick out common customer segments with shared characteristics. These can be easily defined, like age, gender, location, education level, income level, and occupation. They can also be more subjective, like purchasing motivations, values, attitudes, and lifestyles.

Segmenting customers according to the hard variables should be able to help you predict how many potential customers you have. If you notice that there are many people in a demographic that you are not currently marketing toward, it is a good idea to sit down and think about how you could market your product to fit this demographic.

For “soft” variables like lifestyle, it is more challenging to determine precisely how many people you can target. You will want to come up with lists of important values to each demographic and try to target your marketing to these criteria.

For example, a bottled water company found that they were competing poorly with other companies in their niche because the customers wanted both a healthy beverage and one that was flavorful. The company decided to start a line of flavored waters. These flavored waters became extremely popular and helped them compete with even the beverage sector’s largest players.

Purchase Analysis

To discover hidden markets, it is a good idea to find out how, when, why, and where people purchase your products. Take a look at the payment methods, distribution channels, retail locations, and other factors that play into positioning your product.

You may find a new place to sell your product to create an excellent opportunity to capture customers. For example, if you find that your product is a grab-and-go item, you may want to place it in a convenience store.

Different methods of payment are also an excellent area to explore. Your customers may find it more convenient to buy from you if you allow them to use contactless payment or set up a rewards card system linked to their credit or debit card. It will be easier for you to track their purchases in this way, and you can offer your customers attractive discounts.

Direct Competitive Analysis

Next, you need to find out what your competitors are doing and determine what advantage you have over them. Knowing all of the existing players in the market can give you the power to find areas where they are falling short and where you can present a better alternative.

The following questions will be helpful to ask:

• In our industry, which products and brands are growing the fastest and why?
• What proposition of value do they possess?
• What is our competitive advantage over these companies?

For example, a company may compete with larger players in its sector by providing a value-added service. If one of your competitors offers dry cleaning, for example, you could offer complimentary alterations along with a certain level of purchase.

Indirect Competition

It is a good idea to sit down and think about industries that run in parallel with yours but are not necessarily direct competitors. If your industry serves a similar but not identical clientele, think about how you can lure them toward your alternative product or service. For example, if an airline wants to increase its market share, it could advertise to customers who take long-haul buses and trains. Drawing a contrast between your business and the service they are currently using may give them a good reason to switch.

Complementary Products

Companies should be on the lookout for other companies’ complementary products. For example, if you have a packaging company, keep an eye on items produced locally that your company could package. Providing an affordable local alternative may be an attractive choice for a manufacturer accustomed to sending their products some distance away to be packaged. John Grifonetti believes that this tactic may be one of the most advantageous.

Look Into New Industries

If you feel that your company has already exhausted most of these methods of looking for new markets, it can be a good idea to analyze other industries and see whether your company could branch out. For example, the British airline Easy Jet later applied its business model to Easy Cinema and Easy Bus.

Learning to Compete Intelligently

Finding out how your company can expand into new markets can help you increase your profits and your overall reach. Having a better ability to compete in a broad market will enable your company to survive and thrive in a highly competitive market.

John Grifonetti wants to encourage all entrepreneurs from large and small companies to look at these methods and see which ones may work for them.