Growth, Marketing and Distribution Strategy

 Growth Strategy

Growth strategy is the means through which an organization plans to achieve its objective to grow in turnover and volume. There are six broad growth strategies which include; product development, diversification, market expansion and market opportunity, competitive market, market segmentation. It is a style that seeks stock with future investment rates of return being great than the stocks. Business growth strategies are unique in every business. However there are broad categories of strategies for business growth:

• New Product/Service Strategy Development
• Market Expansion Strategy
• Product Diversification Strategy
• Market Opportunity Analysis
• Competitive Market Analysis
• Market Segmentation Strategy
• New Product/Service Strategy Development

Developing new products or modifying existing products so they appear new, and offering those products to current or new markets is the definition of product development strategy. There is nothing simple about the process. It requires keen attention to competitors and customer needs now and in the future, the ability to finance prototypes and manufacturing processes, and a creative marketing and communications plan. There are several subsets of product development strategy.

Market Expansion Strategy

Learning how to expand your target markets – whether by customer type or geographic location – is often the linchpin for sustained growth. This requires a synchronization of operational capabilities and marketing to assure the market expansion strategy is viable and can actually be implemented. New market knowledge is critical to success, and consists of developing insights from target customers, assessing relevance and appeal versus competitive offerings, understanding the sales process and other offering delivery requirements. Maintaining clarity of the strategy just across the executive team, let alone the company, can be a huge task when the expansion strategy requires the company to reposition itself.

Product Diversification Strategy

Product diversification strategy works for expanding business opportunities through additional market potential of an existing product. Diversification may be achieved by entering into additional markets and/or pricing strategies. Often the product may be improved, altered or changed, or new marketing activities are developed. The planning process includes market research, product adaptation analysis and legal review.

Market Opportunity Analysis

An extension of the business planning process that focuses on identifying future opportunities and assessing the organization’s financial, technological and competitive readiness to exploit them. The process includes identifying unmet or underserved customer needs, identifying target markets, assessing competitive advantages, and assessing the company’s resource capacity in meeting the market’s needs.

Competitive Market Analysis

In a crowded market (some refer to this as a red ocean), competitive intelligence is critical to both operational and strategic decision making. A rigorous and regular approach to competitive position, direction, and strengths and weaknesses can help senior executives identify gaps and opportunities. The implications and usages for such learning’s can be highly strategic (what new markets or segments should be pursued) to very tactical (what messaging will better position our offerings in our on-going promotional activity.

Market Segmentation Strategy

Segmenting markets, targets and opportunities can yield greater clarity and more specific relevance for a company and its offerings. In some cases the same product can be repositioned to be made more relevant to a segment. In other cases, a solid market segmentation strategy will help justify new market entries and product development. This activity always leads to greater insights and clarity for how a company can serve its current and potential markets.