Starting a Business All-In-One For Dummies

Chapter 2

Strengthening Your Marketing Strategy

In This Chapter

• Taking advantage of market growth and targeting specific customer groups
• Competing to grow your market share
• Positioning your brand in consumers’ minds
• Adjusting your approach as the market matures
• Sharing your strategic vision

Most people don't know what a marketing strategy is. So how important can they be? Very important, actually. A marketing strategy is a way to achieve success. There are only a dozen or so main ways to achieve success in marketing.

This chapter explains what the different marketing strategies are and helps you select the right one for your business. It also shows you how to use strategic thinking to make your marketing program more effective and profitable than most.

Finding and Riding a Growth Wave

The simplest and most reliable marketing strategy you can adapt for your business or product is to go where the growth is. Find it and ride the growth wave — an opportunity to sell something with increasing demand — for as long as you can. Doing so is important because growing and prospering when selling into a growing market is much easier than when facing stagnant or shrinking demand.

The following sections help you determine what the growth rate of your market is and evaluate other markets to find one that's growing. With this information, you can make sure you're focused on growth opportunities. ...