Ultimately, a firm must be able to grow in order to survive in the business world. The ability to grow is only limited by the imagination of the decision makers of the company. New ideas turned into patents for new products, buying a competitor in order to increase market share and economies of scale, and establishing a sales force in a neighboring country are just a few of the ways that a company can continue to grow.
There are three principle avenues employed by businesses to develop new opportunities for growth.
- Find ways to increase the sales of existing products to existing customers. Businesses can accomplish this goal by finding new applications for the use of existing products by current customers. This process is known as market penetration.
- Market development is the process of finding new customers for the firm’s existing products. There are two choices for market development, the firm can look to new geographic markets or the firm can turn to a new demographic market. For example, a firm that sold exercise equipment that traditionally targeted the 18-34 year-old male demographic might find that they could sell the same equipment to a 16-32 year-old female demographic. The only new cost the firm would incur is the cost of marketing existing products to the new demographic.
- Product development is the process of creating new products for customers. Product development is often accomplished by asking customers what types of products would make their job easier. Once a viable need is established, the firm can develop a product to meet that need.
Very few firms can afford to stand still for long. Competitors are constantly looking for opportunities and those opportunities missed by your firm, will not be missed by all your competitors. Complacency in today’s business environment will quickly lead to years of dedicated work being usurped by competitors.
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