1. Find A New Market for an Existing Product
The Growth Panel exercises loaded in the Library follow the Marketing M.O. process which starts with the
assumption that you already have your product/service ready for sale. The late business analyst Peter
Drucker once said:
“Business has only two functions – innovation and marketing.”
You’ve already handled the innovation part; Growth Panel will help with the marketing. It’s important to note
that we define the term marketing as more than just traditional advertising or lead generation:
Marketing is the process of developing and communicating value to your prospects and customers.
Good marketing is essential for every company. It can make a company with a mediocre product successful,
but poor marketing can send a company with a good product out of business. Yet even business-to-business
(B2B) marketing is often seen as a soft creative field instead of the engine that drives company revenue.
In a perfect world, you would start with competitive positioning and build your entire business growth (aka
marketing) program following this process.
Competitive positioning is about defining how you’ll “differentiate” your offering and create value for your
market. It’s about carving out a spot in the competitive landscape and focusing your company to deliver on
that strategy.
If you’re a new company preparing to launch your product (we’ll use this term to cover both products and
services) your first step is to clearly define your initial target market and shape your strategy to penetrate
that market and deliver value.
Summary
EXERCISE
SUMMARY
If you’re a new company in the process of building your product or service
If you’re an existing company looking to expand your market reach and revenue
When to Address
If you’re an existing company developing a new product or service offering
Who Should Business leaders: company founders, owners, presidents and vice presidents
Participate
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 1 of 20
2. Marketing and sales leaders
Advisors
After completion, reference your results in the rest of the Competitive Positioning
exercises.
Where to Use the
Results Your segment/persona results will help you shape your Brand Strategy. Every brand
representation, marketing campaign creative piece and sales pitch should be
targeted at one or more of these segments/personas.
Choosing the market to pursue is a critical decision for any company. Poor
understanding of a new market can easily cause a new product launch (and possibly
Why it’s Important
an entire business) to fail.
Since this is the first exercise in the entire process, it affects everything else that
comes afterward: the rest of your strategy and the tools and campaigns that you use
What Builds Upon it
to execute your strategy.
This is not a simple exercise, and the results require substantial commitment.
Sometimes, the exercise might lead to a “no-brainer” decision and will only require a
Timeframe to
few days of work. Most of the time, however, this will take weeks to possibly months
Completion
to complete.
Potential Business Substantial. Few business decisions are as important as what markets you enter.
Impact
You’ll analyze market segments and brainstorm to determine if it makes sense to
enter a new market. Your deliverable is the decision to enter/not enter a specific
Deliverable
market.
Next Steps If you find a new market to pursue, you’ll want to address the rest of the exercises in
the strategy portion of the process to address any changes you’ll need to make for
your new market:
Competitive Positioning
Brand Strategy
Distribution Channels
Pricing
Sales Process
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing Plan & Budget
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 2 of 20
3. Target Completion Date
PARTICIPANTS
PERSON
TASKS TO GET STARTED DUE DATE
RESPONSIBLE
Notes
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4. Find A New Market for an Existing Product
What to Complete
1. CREATE CUSTOMER VIEW
2. DISCOVER POTENTIAL NEW MARKETS
3. NEW MARKETS REQUIREMENT OVERVIEW
4. RESULTS
Where it Fits in Competitive Positioning
Create Customer View
Discover Potential New Markets
New Markets Requirement Overview
New Market Analysis Results
Define Market Size
Outline Market Characteristics
Determine Market Lifecycle State
Determine Positioning Strategy
Get to Know Your Market
Evaluate Your Market Research
Determine Your Segments or Personas
Profile Your Segments or Personas
Determine Your True Competition
Decide on Your Rating Criteria
Evaluate Your Competitors and Yourself
Analyze Competitive Analysis Results
Create SWOT Analysis
Determine Your Competitors’ Value Propositions
Rate Your Market on How it Solves Customer Problems
Determine Your Value Proposition
Create Competitive Positioning Matrix
Map Your Market
Summarize Your Competitive Strategy
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 4 of 20
5. 1. CREATE CUSTOMER VIEW
If you’re looking for a new market for your product or service, start by considering your current or
prospective customers. Dive into the details and get a clear picture of them by creating a 360 degree view.
What are the problems they face and why do they (or would they) buy from you? Search for the true reasons
—they’re not always what we think. Then evaluate whether there are other markets, industries, types of
companies, or applications for your product.
Your sales team can probably give you valuable ideas throughout this exercise. Consider including them in
this session.
First, describe your customers (or potential customers), their problem(s), and how your product solves
those problems.
Product or service
What are the problems your customers face? Consider whether they’re specific to individuals of company-
wide. How significant are their problems?
Is your market actively seeking a solution to this problem? For most companies, there are a mix of people
actively seeking a solution, people desiring a solution if it was presented to them (but they’re not actively
seeking one), and people with the pain, whether they’ve realized it or not. Estimate the percentages of
each. If you don’t know, start with a guess, and refine it as you are able to.
How does your product/service solve their problem?
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 5 of 20
6. If most of your market already has a solution in place to solve this problem, how does your product deliver
more value than the competition? Quantify how your solution is an improvement. Typical examples are:
1. Product delivers a more comprehensive solution that accomplishes more than the competition.
2. Product delivers a faster/easier solution.
3. Product delivers a less expensive solution.
Make sure to consider this question from the context of your market instead of from your viewpoint (i.e.
don’t overstate your differentiation based on small product features that the market doesn’t recognize.
This is common in many industries—the market doesn’t differentiate offerings based on feature set, but
the competitors believe it does.)
What do your customers value most when they buy from you? What are the factors in their decision to
purchase? Is there a single deciding factor?
Who makes the ultimate decision to buy from you? Are there influencers? If so, describe how they
participate in the decision-making process as well.
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 6 of 20
7. Next, describe a typical customer. You’re aiming to create a profile of an average customer. Many
companies find that they have multiple customer groups or segments, so they need to create a profile for
each segment. Some marketers refer to these as customer personas. This is especially popular in the
technology industry. Personas can make it easier for your company to truly understand your typical
customer. Some companies create a name (Sally the Secretary, or Dan the IT Director) and a life-size
cardboard cutout of that person as a reminder. Add as many specific details as you can think of, for the
specific person, the company, or both. Don’t be limited to the initial suggestions. Add as many as necessary
to build a strong profile.
If you have multiple segments or personas, copy the below table for each.
Customer Segment or Persona
Customer Details
1 Problem your product solves for
this segment/persona
2 Magnitude of the problem for this
segment/persona
3 How your product/service is used
4 Stage of company growth
5 Number of employees
6 Annual revenue
7 Industry
8 Geography
9 Decision-maker & role within
company
10 Were they looking for a solution
before they purchased?
11 Were they aware of their pain
before they purchased?
12 Did your product replace a
previous solution?
13 Does your product provide a
complete solution? Or is it a partial
solution?
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 7 of 20
8. 14 How do customers describe your
solution?
15 If they’re a person, describe them
in detail (age, income, family
status, interests). If they’re a
department within a company,
describe their characteristics (#
people, hierarchy, location)
16 Other
2. DISCOVER POTENTIAL NEW MARKETS
Now think about other markets you could pursue. Consider the profiles or personas you created. Are there
similar people in other industries that you haven’t considered? What other types of companies have similar
problems to those of your customers? Focus on their core pain and the solution you deliver. Brainstorm other
industries, locations, departments and demographics.
Here are more specific questions to get you thinking:
1 Could companies whose problems
are larger or smaller than those of
your current customers use your
product?
2 Are there other ways your
product/service could be used?
3 Can a company in another growth
stage benefit from your product?
4 Can smaller or larger companies
benefit?
5 Can you create a version to meet
the needs of companies who can
afford more or less?
6 What other industries have similar
problems and could use your
product?
7 Are there other markets
geographically? National?
International?
8 Can your product be used by a
different department or decision-
maker within a company? What
benefit would s/he gain?
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9. 9 Other
10 Other
From your brainstorming, are there any other segments/personas for your product? If so, outline them.
Are there other ways your product could be used?
Are there additional features or benefits that could make your product more valuable to any of the
prospects you’ve identified above? If so, can you deliver them on your own, or by partnering with another
company?
Are there segments/personas similar to your in other industries? If you’re not sure, take some time to
research.
YOUR SEGMENT/PERSONA INDUSTRIES WITH SIMLAR PERSONAS
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10. YOUR SEGMENT/PERSONA INDUSTRIES WITH SIMLAR PERSONAS
What is the size of these potential new marketing segments, in terms of number of potential customers
and revenue?
Who is serving these markets right now? How competitive are they? [Exercise 4 – Competitive Positioning:
Evaluate Your Competition can help]
What would your company need to do in order to pursue these markets? Is it a substantial undertaking in
terms of time and budget? Does it require product innovation or taking on new partners? [Exercise 40 –
Distribution Channels: Identify Potential Channels can help] Also consider the marketing messages. Are
they similar to your existing messages? Or would you need to create new messages, collateral and
campaigns?
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 10 of 20
11. 3. NEW MARKET REQUIREMENTS OVERVIEW
At this point you should have a few ideas of new customer segments or markets to pursue. Penetrating a
new market is time-consuming and requires careful planning and asset allocation. Start by organizing your
high-level requirements for each potential market to pursue.
Product or service
Customer Segment or Persona
New Market to Pursue
Overview
Now list the changes you’ll need to make in different areas of each department. Start high-level, and drill-
down into any potential problematic changes.
DEPARTMENT AREA REQUIREMENTS
Marketing Brand Strategy
Pricing
Distribution Channels
Marketing Campaigns
Sales Tools & Literature
Website
Creative
Other
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12. Other
Other
DEPARTMENT AREA REQUIREMENTS
Engineering
Design
Features
Manufacturing
Suppliers
Product
Development Other
Other
Other
Other
Other
DEPARTMENT AREA REQUIREMENTS
Sales Training
Sales Headcount
Sales Management
Sales Process
Other
Sales
Other
Other
Other
Other
Other
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13. DEPARTMENT AREA REQUIREMENTS
New Capital Required
Potential ROI
Effect on cash flow
Effect on EBITDA
Banking changes
Finance
Accounting changes
Other
Other
Other
Other
DEPARTMENT AREA REQUIREMENTS
Software changes
Hardware changes
IT management changes
New software
New hardware
IT
New users
Training
Other
Other
Other
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 13 of 20
14. DEPARTMENT AREA REQUIREMENTS
New headcount
New training
Use of current headcount
Employee performance
measurements
Management requirements
HR
Salary requirements
Other
Other
Other
Other
4. RESULTS
Analyzing the high-level requirements of new customer segments or markets to pursue will probably deliver
a list of questions to address in one or more potential markets.
QUESTIONS POTENTIAL MARKET RESULT
After resolving your questions, your research should clarify your results to determine if you should pursue a
new market. List your results and plan your next steps.
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 14 of 20
15. NEW MARKETS OR CUSTOMER
MARKETS OR CUSTOMER SEGMENTS/PERSONAS DESCRIPTION
SEGMENTS/PERSONAS TO PURSUE
SUBJECTS/EXERICSES TO ADDRESS
NEXT STEPS
Continue in Competitive Positioning [2 through 6]
If you find a new market to pursue, you’ll want to Brand Strategy
address the rest of the subjects in the strategy Distribution Channels
portion of the process to address any changes for Pricing
your new market: Sales Process
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing Plan & Budget
PERSON
TASKS DUE DATE
RESPONSIBLE
Notes
Find a Market for an Existing Product
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 15 of 20
16. Report
1. CUSTOMERS SEGMENTS OR PERSONAS
2. NEW MARKETS TO PURSUE
This report summarizes our results from completing Exercise 1 – Competitive Positioning: Find a New
Marketing for an Existing Product.
1. CUSTOMER SEGMENTS OR PERSONAS
We used our customer segments or personas to identify and research new market opportunities. Step 1 was
to detail the segments/personas.
Copy the below table for multiple segments/personas.
Customer Segment or Persona
Target Customer Details
1 Problem our product solves
2 Magnitude of the problem
3 How our product/service is used
4 Stage of company growth
5 Number of employees
6 Annual revenue
7 Industry
8 Geography
9 Decision-maker & role within
company
10 Are they looking for a solution?
11 Are they aware of their pain?
12 Does our product replace a
previous solution?
13 Does our product provide a
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 16 of 20
17. complete solution?
14 How do customers describe our
solution?
15 Personal or company details (age,
income, family status, interests, #
people, hierarchy, location)
16 Other
Below is a list of our segments/personas, along with industries we found to have similar
segment/personas:
OUR SEGMENT/PERSONA INDUSTRIES WITH SIMLAR PERSONAS
2. NEW MARKETS TO PURSUE
After analyzing our product and potential market opportunities, I recommend for us to pursue the below
additional market(s):
Product or service
Customer Segment or Persona
New Market to Pursue
Description of Opportunity
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 17 of 20
18. Market Details
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
SUBJECTS/EXERICSES TO ADDRESS
NEXT STEPS
Continue in Competitive Positioning, starting with
Profile Your Marketing and Your Position [2]
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 18 of 20
19. We’ll need to update our entire strategy for our Brand Strategy
new market. Distribution Channels
Pricing
Sales Process
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing Plan & Budget
We’ll reference our results in the rest of the
Competitive Positioning exercises.
Our segment/persona results will help us shape
Where We’ll Use
our Brand Strategy and every brand
representation, marketing campaign creative
and sales pitch should be targeted to one or
more of our segments/personas.
Choosing a market to pursue is a critical
decision for our company. A poor understanding
Why it’s Important of a new market will cause a negative impact on
our top and bottom line.
Entering a new market is the first strategic
decision that affects all of our subsequent
activities: the rest of our strategy, the tools we
What Builds Upon it
create and the campaigns we choose to use to
execute our strategy.
Potential Business Substantial. Few business decisions are as
Impact important as what markets we enter.
PERSON
TASKS DUE DATE
RESPONSIBLE
Competitive Positioning Find a New Market for an Existing Product page 19 of 20
