Top Tips on Entering a New Market

Once a business is established and thriving in its home market, it is often seen as the right time to branch out into a new one. However, as with all new ventures, there are risks attached to this move and it is not a step to be taken lightly.

A new market will not be so comfortable and there will be new competitors and unknown threats. The key to success is a disciplined approach with the appropriate level of investment, a thorough market analysis, and the correct understanding of what the market is and what the unmet needs are.

Commitment

It is of foremost importance to clearly identify who you will be selling to. This may sound simple, but there is often an overly optimistic need to capture a larger share of a new market. A smaller market will make it easier to assess customer requirements and ensure that a larger chunk of a smaller market is obtained rather than an insignificant part of a large share. It is also imperative to set a clear timeframe within which the desired target share is to be achieved and results of the project are to be assessed.

Identify Entry Points

Once a clear market is identified, it is necessary to identify potential points of entry, weighing up the pros and cons of each and then make an informed decision. The choice should also ideally allow for future growth possibilities.

Any entrance point chosen should be assessed against a set of criteria, such as, is there a strong need that can be fulfilled? Are the key decision makers among the target audience accessible and do they have the funding needed to find the new enterprise attractive? And, is your enterprise strong enough to counter the resources of existing market competitors?

Defining an Entry Strategy

Once the price points are defined, the new product or service positioned accordingly, and customer perception dealt with, the communication strategy comes into play, here the target audiences, as well as the methods to be used to reach them, are identified and consolidated.

All levels of the target audience need to be considered carefully, including influencers, decision makers, media, and end users among others. And once all this is carefully set in place, a distribution model can be conceived to give the most effective method of delivering the product or service.

Critical Research

Before stepping into a new market, try to get into the minds of the people you’ll be selling to. What are their tastes? What do they like to buy? How much are they willing to pay for products and services? How do they like to do business?

Know the competition; who is successful and who is just there? Try your best to learn from success as well as failure so you don’t repeat mistakes. If there are too many players already, would it be best to partner up?

If you do decide on a business model that supports taking a partner, make sure you have complimentary procedures and ways of working. Can you trust and rely on them to do business as you would, and ensure that your products/services are marketed and provided effectively?

Test

Another risk mitigation strategy is to run a pilot project in the target market. This test needs to be carefully defined so as to ensure that it is big enough to give an accurate depiction of a large scale roll out effort but not so big as to suck in additional resources and commitment.

Assess Your Potential

Much of the decision on how to enter a new market (build, buy, or partner) should be determined by an internal assessment. You should ask yourself questions like: Do we have sales channels/infrastructure/relationships in place?  Success of any market entry strategy is impelled partially by factors outside of your control–but delving into these areas could help you to mitigate the risk.

Consumer impact

The individual who will ultimately decide your fate will be the end user. The introduction to a brand is like an introduction to another person, remember, you only get one chance to make a lasting first impression. People form habits based on initial experiences, so be sure you start off on a positive note. Focus on delivering a high quality, consistent product.

Intense emphasis on customer satisfaction and guest experience is the key to driving repeat business and loyalty. Customers recognise the value of this, and it pays off in the long run.

Consistency 

This is crucial to any successful brand. Consumers flock to the largest and best-known brands because they provide an unvarying and uniform experience. To meet this high level of expectation, your day-to-day preparation and operations must be streamlined so that filling customer demand is both fluid and seamless.