Dominating The Market: Matching Brand Size To Industry Readiness

Business owners are constantly faced with the anxiety that they are missing something. Something that they should be focused on but aren't. Two common examples of these nagging, anxious thoughts are:

• Are we marketing our business and reaching our customers effectively and efficiently?
• Is our business functioning efficiently enough to give optimal output?

Basically, am I bringing in enough business, and am I using resources the best way possible? When you want to dominate the market, you cannot ignore these questions -- which is why they are on business owners' minds all the time.

While a reactionary employee may push advertising as the way to dominate the market, seasoned business people know balancing consumer attraction with company resources is the way to go. You must match brand size to industry readiness.

What is the balance?

Particularly in the earlier stages of starting a business, when economies of scale are working against you, ensuring that you spend resources correctly is paramount -- even if the company is simply one person, and the resource in question is just their time.

What would the point be of dedicating resources to marketing efforts that will bring in customers that the business cannot handle? Industry readiness is something that you need to constantly evaluate. Look critically at management and production systems for faults and inefficiencies. Be prepared to shift and morph to account for industry readiness.

Focusing on brand size

Adjusting the size of a business' brand and work on industry readiness need not be opposing forces. When upscaling production, it only makes sense that marketing and branding update initiatives around this growth and even preempt it. This especially holds true if the business is expanding into a different area -- it's not just giving haircuts, it's also offering full shave services, for instance.

A business' brand must show off all that it has to offer to the customer. But what a nightmare if a business can offer the most fantastic product in the world, only to turn away customers with a terrible website, an awful name and a poorly designed business logo.

Of course, a business' brand is more than just its marketing techniques. It is its presence within its marketplace. The brand, therefore, represents its networking power and the "personality" of the business. This draws an advantage when resources are put into bolstering brand size. Suddenly a business is attractive to larger clients or can claim "premium" status.

It may seem that business owners "can't have too much of a good thing" here, but you should remember that to develop a brand means to spend resources. Too much focus on branding and marketing will strain the business if it is made to handle things that it cannot. What you end up with is empty promises to consumers, low profit margins and bad strategy.

Focusing on industry readiness

A business, no matter how mom-and-pop or corporate it is, needs to be industry-ready. We mean every aspect of the business, too. Within its main areas, this can break down to its managerial structure, its production equipment and its staff. Its structure must be able to handle issues and make decisions, its equipment must be adequate and efficient, and its staff must be appropriately trained and able.

In the world of a young business, a business owner will likely need to revise and revisit how departments work. If the company isn't large enough to have departments, the owner must consider how their small team will tackle workflow challenges and constantly reassess what and what does not work. In other words, your team should be ready to respond to anything.

Dominating the market is as much a matter of responding to the changes in the market as it is brand appeal. If your team can react quickly to a new trend or decline in sales, it may bounce back stronger than before.

Final thoughts

The future of a company's success is as volatile as the market in which it operates. It's therefore essential that businesses keep branding efforts fluid and not too heavy-handed. Lasso the moon, but always be ready to let it go. Being adaptable, organized and balanced will increase your chances of standing firm in your market.