L2L Group

Entering the market isn’t the easiest of decisions for any business. A business needs to analyse a number of factors, and every aspect is crucial in determining the strategy to be adopted for acquiring market share. Decisions such as when, where, and at what level of expense, all play a significant role in the possible success or failure of any business.

The key to this understanding is that when making a move for market share, strive to be in the limelight - so everyone, potential customers and competitors alike, can’t avoid your presence even if they tried. You should be aggressive in your approach, which can easily be measured by the time, money and effort put into your advertising, sales promotion, publicity and public relations, introductory offers and discounts, etc. The businesses which are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors are the real champions of their industry, and they are, without doubt, the market leaders. They receive focused customer attention and special privileges over everyone else in their market.

The following activities can be initiated by a business to make their presence felt in the market:

• Differentiated Products and Services - The products or services offered by a business should be differentiated from those offered by others. It may be in terms of technology, design, packaging, the appearance or anything else, but the product or service should have a distinct image in the minds of the customers.
• Customer Focused Advertising - Advertising is an important and effective means of reaching out to your potential customers. Television, radio, internet, mobile phones and print media are the common advertising tools used in today’s world. This advertising should be customer and market targeted. The intensity of this advertising and how many people it will reach usually depends entirely upon the budget allocated.
• Customer Relationship - Customers are the most important aspect of any business, and the aim of all businesses is to reach out to these customers in the most effective manner - as efficiently as possible. The essence of marketing is to build long term relationships with as many customers as can be reached, and with better presale and after sales service, a business can provide quality support to the activities of every customer, thereby ensuring long term relationships and repeat business.
• Introductory Offers and Schemes - It’s very important at the time of entering a market that a business should use introductory offers, rebates, discounts and schemes to stimulate customers toward purchasing products and services.
• Extensive Warranties and Guarantees - Almost every customer will prefer a product that carries some kind of warranty or guarantee. If new products are associated with some form of extensive warranty or guarantee, most customers will feel that the company is responsible for their product, and therefore a “smart buy”.