Dr. Eric Reidenbach: Exactly so. Let me back up just a little second on that too because you’ve raised an interesting point. In choosing those product markets, what you’ll probably want to do is to apply certain criteria, such as what is your current market share within that particular product market. What is the market growth rate of that particular product market? You don’t want to invest in product markets that are in decline. We want to invest in product markets that have room for growth. You may want to look at the competitive intensity. You may want to take a look at what the must?haves, the qualifiers are within that product market. Can you satisfy those must?haves or are you going to have to invest additional resources simply just to qualify?
Once we’re able to identify and list the different product markets, then we want to go in and do the type of analysis that’s going to allow us to identify how those particular product markets define value. As part of that value, what are the critical-to-quality factors? Not only in terms of what they are, but how important each one of them is relative to the other.
This is going to have an impact on the way we select them and the way we prioritize them in terms of what’s going to give us our biggest bang for our dollar. This gets back to efficiency and an effectiveness issue that we certainly want to pay attention to. We know that value is the best leading indicator of market share. Becoming a superior value provider is the vehicle that allows us to become best in market.
The key is understanding how those markets, how those product markets define value from a quality standpoint and being able to identify the importance of those different quality factors. That’s absolutely essential.
Related Podcast and Transcription: Becoming Best in Your Market
About: Dr. Eric Reidenbach is the Director of the Six Sigma Marketing Institute. The Institute is one of the leading organizations and authorities of Six Sigma Marketing, a fact-based, disciplined approach to growing market share in targeted product/markets by providing superior value. Dr. Reidenbach is the author of over 20 books on marketing and market research.
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