This flies in the face of marketing 101. In fact, if everything you know about marketing you learned in school, you’re dead.
Consider:
The United States has arguably one of the cleanest and safest water supplies in the world. We are all familiar with the admonition when traveling south of the border, “don’t drink the water.”
A few years ago somebody got the idea to bottle water and sell it to Americans. You would know from business school that this venture is doomed to fail because it will not meet a need or a demand. Focus groups would have told you that no one would pay $1 for a bottle of water! Surely you will fail. So much for marketing 101.
We’re in the midst of a “gas crisis” with unleaded regular over $3 per gallon. In California the price is above $3.50 per gallon. Consumers are mad. The “Don’t Buy Gas on Wednesday” emails are choking my in-box.
Water in a bottle today sells for more than gasoline in the midst of a gas crisis. The consumer is even willing to pay an extra fee to cover recycling costs of the bottle.
Who would have “thunk”? The brave.
Eveyone knows this story. Question is, are you looking for markets outside your taditional market base? If not, your days are numbered. How brave are you?
Shameless Promotion: Venturing into new markets is tough but can be done. Let’s put our heads together and find you some new customers.
Chris Reich, Author of TeachU’s Business Talk Blog