Commercialization Bootcamp

Welcome

3 ways to have a competitive advantage

Client Intimacy

Operational Effectiveness

Product Innovation

Speaking of Wildlife

1989-1994

Outreach and Wildlife Rehabilitation

Visited over 350 schools annually

Targeting your Market

• Narrow your business focus to the segment of the market that offers the most profit, rapidly

• Goals:– To target your market’s needs and– Understand how your product/service satisfies those

needs

What are the buying criteria of your market?

• What critical elements must your market see before it buys

• “market won’t buy what I have unless.....”

• Grouping criteria into categories helps

Describe Your Target Market

• Now that you have identified the needs your current vision of your product/service satisfies what does your client group, your target market, look like?

Secondary Market Research

Using information already collected

Secondary Market Research

• Areas to focus on:– What is happening in your industry in terms of:

• The target market – (growing, margins changing, new purchasing patterns)

• Your suppliers – (# of suppliers, location of suppliers)

• The competition – (# and size, locations)

Secondary Market Research

• Areas to focus on:– External Environment– Things that may affect you:

• Gov’t laws and regulations(ie trade quota lifted off on Chinese imports in clothing)

• Interest rates, gas prices

Summary on Secondary Research

• Put in the time– Lacks glamour– This is the beginning of putting in your dues

• Don’t try to prove anything– Your bias may put up blinders that will cost you

dearly later on

Primary Research…..Business to Business

It is your turn to get out there and learn about and talk to those who have the ability to keep

you in business.

The colliding worlds of Primary Research

CompetitorsTarget

Customers

Price?Who buys?

How do they find you?

What do they want?

Buying process?Seasonality?

What is their advantage?

How long have they been in business?

How large or small?

Analyze their model

Suppliers

Trends

Min ord #

Payment terms

Lead times

Purpose of Primary

• Identifying and understanding your:

– Target market– Suppliers– Competitors

Primary can be your…..

• …….best friend, even if your business does not go as planned. How?

• Can prevent you from investing your time and money in a concept that has no sustainable market

• Allows you to revise/retool at an earlier stage

What is Primary Research

• Examples– Surveys– One on Ones– Talk with Customers– Talk with Suppliers– Observe and talk with competition

Examples of Business Failures

• New Coke• MacDonald’s Pizza• Beta• Storyeum• Bay• Eaton’s• General Motors • Atkin’s• MGM

Filed for Chapter 7 or 11

Targeting your Market

• Narrow your business focus to the segment of the market that offers the most profit potential and/or earliest profit potential

• Goal– To target your market’s needs and how your

product/service matches those needs

Primary …….Talk with suppliers and distributors

• informal, one on one , interviews

• Pro’s– Understands all aspects of the industry– Trends– Industry Practices

• Con’s– some bias inevitable

Primary…….observation of competition

• physically observe business being done by competition

• Pro’s– can see sales and customer patterns, pricing,

advertising and location• Con’s

– time consuming

Summary

• Primary is direct contact with your potential customers, suppliers and competitors

• You are not trying to prove anything– Let the answers be what they are

QUESTIONS??

Thank you!