Vacant Markets and Virgin Minds

A wise mind once said ‘Don’t let opportunity knock on your door, keep it open’.

Sage advice, specially to entrepreneurs who wish to launch a start-up. Yet, most of them search for a market to serve instead of creating a market to own and rule. In other words, they want opportunity to knock on their doors!

When a budding businessman gets an idea, the first question he or she asks is the size of the market. Important, yes; since you wish to know if there is a market for your new product and money to be made. But the best new product ideas are those that create a new market. There isn’t a market for them yet!

What was the size of the cab hailing market when Ola was launched? Zero!

What was the size of the tooth gel market when Close Up was launched? Zilch!

What was the size of the scooterette market when Scooty was launched? Nothing.

Yet, these brands went on to create the categories they entered and have remained numero uno since. They were not waiting for a market to be created, to seek entry. They created a market and forced entry. Along with it, their success!

Does that mean marketers can create customer needs?

Fat chance. These smart marketers didn’t seek to create a need. They sought to spot a need before others did and created a solution for it. Thereby discovering a market to enter and creating a brand to rule them.

The operating word is ‘discovery’.

The aim of marketing is to achieve a market, but the starting point is capturing the mind. The customers. Their mind has not been made up yet. Since there has been none to make them think.

Customers didn’t know a thing about cab-hailing till Ola came in. But they wanted a cab at their beck and call. Literally! There was a need; there wasn’t a market. Ola created it.

Customers didn’t know toothpaste can come in gels till Close Up came in. But they wanted to have tingling fresh breath more so when they got up close with their sweethearts. The need existed; a market didn’t. Close Up created it.

Consumers didn’t know the meaning of scooterette till Scooty came in. But the young Indian woman was going out a lot more and wanted something bigger than a moped yet lighter than scooter. They had a need; the market wasn’t there. Scooty created it.

You get the picture!

‘The market follows where the mind leads’ said Al Ries. Reason why they castigate companies, agnostic of size, for not blazing new trails and creating new markets.

Businessmen, big, small and start-up wannabes, want to go after existing markets. The larger the better. Invariably they fail and fall.

But it’s the smart, the carefree and the I-dare-to-see-different who search for an unmet need and solve it with a new solution. ‘Critical to making correct branding decisions is the ability to differentiate the market and the mind’, said Ries.

The way to be big is to be born small. The way to rule a market is to create one. And that involves guessing the size of the need and not focus on the size of an existing market to enter. The market follows where the mind leads!

A new start-up doesn’t require a market. It needs a human mind. Lots of them. Their needs are real and unsolved. Their minds are virgin and uncontested. Spot them and solve them. The customer will wed you for life.

You can live happily ever after!

Satheesh Krishnamurthy
Brand Consultant, Columnist and Coach
website-satheeshkrishnamurthy.com