Art of Marketing
Chapter 16. Use the “hit the spot they don’t expect” strategy
Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live. — Criss Jami
This strategy is often referred to
as the “white space strategy”.
You look into your market
and identify a product or service
that no one currently offers,
which potentially fits the gap
between the existing product
or service and what you can offer market.
When Domino’s Pizza was born,
there were thousands of pizzerias offering standard pizzas
competing in the market
that Domino’s Pizza wanted to target.
The white space that Domino’s founder,
Tom Monaghan,
has identified is that
when customers order pizza,
speed is more important than quality.
When a customer orders pizza,
he is already hungry
and wants to eat as soon as possible.
Monaghan filled this void
by offering a 30-minute pizza delivery service,
then reengineered the entire pizza making process
to achieve this goal.
Today,
Domino’s Pizza has more than 8,000 stores around the world,
and Tom Monaghan is resting comfortably
with a fortune of nearly $2 billion.
That’s not a bad result for defining a space
that’s obvious to everyone
but Domino’s competitors.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined. — Henry David Thoreau
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Provide a better, faster, cheaper product or service
Find a way to introduce a new set of products or service packs
into an existing market
where no one else offers
that particular product or service.
Be different and surprise in that market.
You can launch a clone and outperform your competitors.
By “creatively copying,”
imitate what your competitors are doing,
improving it to stay ahead of market perception.
Another example related to the central strategy
of this chapter is
when a toothpaste company in a crowded market
added an antibacterial formulation to the toothpaste
it was producing
and immediately overtake a competitor’s market leader.
Soon after,
Colgate introduced a whitening formula in toothpaste
that no one else offered,
and quickly beat the competition.
Let’s say,
you go into a department store
and buy toothpaste for you and your family,
you have a choice between regular toothpaste
with antibacterial and whitening toothpaste.
Which type will you choose?
And not long after,
another company launched an antibacterial toothpaste
and whiten teeth,
and now the race continues.
People with ambition don’t give a damn what other people think of them. — Diane Setterfield
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Reposition your product
You can hit a point they didn’t expect
by perfecting and repositioning your product.
For years, 7Up carbonated drinks competed fiercely
with Coke and Pepsi.
Then the company completely changed their strategy
and positioned 7Up as a non-carbonated beverage.
Instead of competing with Coke and Pepsi,
they emphasize that 7Up
is a diet drink with a light taste,
as opposed to a bold cola drink.
By repositioning in this way,
they were able to increase their share
from 14% to 20% in the beverage market in just a few years,
bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars more in sales and profits.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. — Eleanor Roosevelt
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Offers more than the competition
Another well-known slogan based on repositioning is the advertisement
of the car rental company Avis,
competing with Hertz,
a giant in the world:
“We came in second;
We will try harder.”
This message connects with potential customers
who not only want to give the cynics a chance,
but who also realize that if Avis “works harder”,
the customer will get the product,
and better service.
Avis sales continued to grow,
and eventually brought the company second place in the market,
a position never before in its history.
You can hit where they wouldn’t expect it in another way
by adding new and different details
to your product to differentiate
it from the existing product and that,
make it different from the rest with opponents.
You can add an accessory or an additional service
that increases the value
and appeal of what you offer
while changing the customer’s perception
of your company.
To accomplish great things,
we must not only act,
but also dream;
not only plan,
but also believe. — Anatole France
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Offer something new
When launching the iPhone,
Apple also made a complete innovation.
Contrary to a long-term profit strategy,
which kept all technology proprietary and in-house,
Apple is now more open,
allowing people to develop apps for the iPhone.
Within a few months,
the dam was broken.
Today, there are more than 800,000 apps available for iPhone,
more than any other smartphone on the market,
and many app developers have become millionaires,
even billionaires.
Today, there are more than a million entrepreneurs working independently
or jointly developing the next new ‘top’ app
for iPhone and Android mobile phones,
hoping to fill ” white space” with a new service,
creating a trend in the market
and bringing new profits to businesses.
Nothing is impossible.
The word itself says,
‘I’m possible! — Audrey Hepburn
