Running and growing a business is not an easy task. Any business needs to expand one way or another to sustain survival and gain value. Growth is the main driver for any business to perform well and earn a profit. Profit funds the acquisition of new assets and investments. These, in turn, drive up the business’ growth.
Companies use growth marketing when an aspect of the business needs enhancement. The proposed improvements get tested, and the company then collects the data. Next comes the analysis of the results. They then come up with a suitable growth marketing system. It ensures the improvement of a specific business metric.
Companies can choose from four growth marketing strategies. These are Market Penetration, Market Development, Product Development, and Diversification.
Market Penetration
This strategy is for boosting sales of an existing product or service by attracting new clients. You can manage this by doing price-offs, promotions, and product enhancement, to name a few. The strategy tries to increase the market share of your business.
Market Development
You can use this strategy to sell your existing product or service to various types of customers. It captures a market segment other than the one you are currently serving.
Product Development
Launching a new product or service for your existing clients falls under this strategy. Researching and creating more products are also part of Product Development.
Diversification
Diversification is the trickiest type of strategy. You have to promote new products or services to a new buyer segment. You also have to market the company. This strategy has four sub-types. These are Horizontal Diversification, Vertical Diversification, Concentric Diversification, and Conglomerate Diversification.
- Horizontal
It refers to when a company creates a new product to market it to the existing customers. These products are often unrelated to the currently available products. An excellent example is Chanel, a known fashion house, which diversified by getting into perfume.
- Vertical
It is a strategy of creating products or services related to the ones already in the catalog. One such example is a fabric store that starts to offer tailoring services.
- Concentric
This strategy is the development of a new product or service that is like its present products. Small consumer goods producers often use this strategy to diversify. A good example is when a cake shop introduces cupcakes and muffins on its menu.
- Conglomerate
Large companies often use this strategy to offset and balance their seasonal goods. The new product or services have nothing to do with the current ones, but may be of interest to its market.
You can choose any of these strategies. Keep in mind that it must support whichever of the growth marketing systems you have chosen. This way, your business growth remains guaranteed.