Nolsen Bedon, Ltd.

Targeting Market: Target a market that already exists.

It’s far better to develop a product or servive that will appeal to an existing market than it is to attempt to create your own market. Develop products that are better, easier or cheaper rather than those that are pioneers.

As a general rule, if you solve a problem that already exists for people, you’ll do better than if you develop a solution looking for a problem. It’s better to develop a product or service that meets an existing need than it is to try and create a new market entirely from scratch. That’s not to say you cannot succeed identifying an untapped market need, but serving an existing market is always less risky.

When you’re trying to develop a product for a market that does not yet exist, you’re aiming at a moving target. Staying ahead of an emerging market is a challenge. If you take too long to develop your product or service, your business might run out of cash before you even have an opportunity to become established. Conversely, if you move too quickly and launch too soon, competitors might emerge with superior products just as the market takes off. In these situations, you need to be flexible enough to accelerate your operations as needed — which is always difficult to pull off in practice.

What are the key advantages of targeting an established market as opposed to growing a greenfield market yourself?

If you genuinely have a product breakthrough, you can license your technology to existing companies working in that industry or in other industries altogether.

You can form a strategic alliance with existing customers to develp new products that will be attractive and worth buying from their perspective.

You can benchmark the offerings of competitors and figure out how to be better.

You will have a fair idea of the features customers are interested in and willing to pay for.

You will have a realistic idea of the actual market size so you can plan your manufacturing and staffing accordingly.In all, it’s always better to solve a problem that already exists. This is far easier than having to educate people about their pain points. Find your market niche, develop a product they will love and then work hard to serve that market exceptionally well. If you’re very lucky, you might even be able to target a market niche just before it takes off and grows explosively. If you pull that off, you can grow very big very quickly. Just make certain you have the right strategy and the right mix of resources to be able to perform to your best potential.

Startups That Work

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