Businesses looking to grow are always on the lookout for new markets. Whether it is a small business opening a new branch in another city or a big corporation entering a new country, breaking into a new market can be a risky choice. There have been many stories of failed attempts and they are just a sign of a lot of monetary losses. If you want to avoid that happening to your business, then here are some tips to help:
Do Your Research
Proper research is a good foundation for your attempt to break into a new market. The importance of research increases as you get further away from your home base. For example, it is much easier to enter another region of the same country than entering the market on another continent. But even if you think it is easy, being thorough with your attempts at research is important.
There are several aspects that you should focus on. First, you need to figure out whether there will be a market for your product. This is the problem that American fast-food chains faced when they tried to enter the Vietnamese market. Local food options were better than what they had to offer so they ended up losing money.
Second, research should also focus on the current market conditions and competition. This is important since it will help determine your plans for breaking into the market. Finally, research also involves doing some initial testing to see whether there is a chance to break into the market. Having initial prototypes delivered to prospective customers and seeing their reactions is a good approach for this.
Hire The Right People
You need a team to properly enter a market. While some of the team can come from your regular employees, it is better to have some employees who know the lay of the land. This will greatly influence your hiring procedure. For example, if you are looking to enter a market with a particular demographic, you should have reliable background screening companies look for applicants who have that demographic, whether it is age, ethnicity, or more. This allows your business to have some insight into what your business needs to succeed.
Get Some Local Partners
As part of building a team, you should also look into getting some local partners. This is even more important if you are trying to enter a new country. Local partners can smooth over a lot of the bumps that you might experience entering a new market. For example, if you have a local delivery partner or supplier in a country, then logistics for your operations are a lot easier to do. You don’t have to worry about training people for local laws or getting permits which should make your efforts much easier.
Be Ready to Change Your Product
One mistake that a lot of companies make is that they don’t personalize a product for a new market. Whether it is a new country or even another age bracket, adapting your particular product or service to a new market increases its chance of success. For example, a lot of food chains have special products that are only available in certain markets. To illustrate, Pizza Hut in India has predominantly vegetarian pizzas with a tandoori pizza as its main meat option. Your initial research should help with this combined with some good product testing.
Start Building Some Hype
Suddenly appearing on the market is a bad move. You need to lay a lot of groundwork before you try and break into a market. This is where a good marketing blitz comes in. A month before your actual arrival, you should be taking steps to raise your local profile. Have advertisements come out and organize promotional events to highlight that your business is ready to offer its products soon.
This builds anticipation and can encourage people to try out your product. This ensures that when opening day arrives, you at least get a good surge of customers. Treat them well and you can potentially convert them into long-term customers.
Prepare For Future Expansion
Besides the initial arrival, you should also make plans for future expansion. While it sounds ambitious and premature, it can be surprising how fast businesses can move. If you did your preparation right, then you’ll be seeing results in a few months. You can then reinforce the foundations of your business so that you become a permanent part of the market.
Breaking into a new market can be a profitable move for your company. If you do it right, your business will be able to profit a lot from it. The tips above will help increase the chances of success greatly.
