I’m recasting a variety of innovation-oriented Brainzooming strategic thinking exercises for a workshop on “Strategic Service Innovation” at the 2014 Compete Through Service Symposium at the Arizona State University Center for Services Leadership. Having organized many corporate senior management education programs at ASU previously, it’s exciting to get back to the Center for Services Leadership to facilitate two Brainzooming workshops on strategic service innovation.
Among the strategic thinking exercises we're revamping is one where companies can explore potential opportunities to identify new markets with brand new service (or product) offerings.
For a traditional, established company, the prospect of entering a new market with something less than what it would have in place to introduce a new offering in its primary markets can scuttle innovation.
The thing is, however, companies emerging with a disruptive mindset aren’t approaching markets as established companies approach them.
If you’re in an established company trying to become a disruptive strategic force in a new market, you have to figure out a way to give your brand internal permission to pursue markets where:
- Your brand isn’t a blip of a presence yet.
- You’ll be starting from scratch (or close to it) to create a brand position so you can create distance from your primary brand.
- You may be introducing a niche offering, so targeting a small share at a premium price is viable.
- You may need to spread costs differently in order to consider pursuing a low-priced, share-stealing strategy.
- You are creating a product/service and price point combination that isn’t comparable to any market competitor.
- Your strategy needs to lower certain risks so you can move dramatically more quickly compared to new entries in your primary market.
- Heavying up on only one part of the marketing mix and largely ignoring others is acceptable.
- The entry point into the industry’s current customer model may seem radically different.
- You’re not over-focused on looking like current players in the industry since doing so can reduce your disruptive impact.
- You may be a part-time player, making it unnecessary to try to serve all the market needs with a complete product offering.
- It’s possible to be successful against traditional competitors even with major deficits in areas that industry players think are important, but really aren’t in customers’ eyes.
- You can over-deliver on a very different set of benefits than traditional players.
Sound scary?
If so, that’s good.
Now give your brand permission to enter a market where some, most, or all of these permissions become realities. That’s when your brand can really shake things up and disrupt! – Mike Brown
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.
If you’re facing a challenging organizational situation and are struggling to maintain forward progress because of it, The Brainzooming Group can provide a strategic sounding-board for you. We will apply our strategic thinking and implementation tools on a one-on-one basis to help you create greater organizational success. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around your organizational challenges.
