If there is a gap in the market…Is there any market in the gap?

I have stated for a couple of times that I am running my own company which is currently evolving to two different business units. Since the establishment, one of the partners has been willing to volunteer to let his house to be our head quarter. The house is very big and we could literally combine both the warehouse and the office together. I have told a story on how our emerging company is still facing a lot of problems to be solved. It starts from the diminishing sales, crowded competition, and the progress of business networking is also a tricky issue. It all does not end there!!

Approximately a month ago my partner was noticed by the owner of the house that it will be sold in the near future (my partner rents the house). It means we have to move our office and warehouse immediately. It does not sound very exciting, does it? Our business is not strong enough to rent a warehouse. Firstly, it is expensive and secondly, our items are just not enough to fully utilize the space of the warehouse.

In Australia, and probably in the other countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, United States, and United Kingdom there are a unique business which is called self storage. The basic idea was developed from the fact that people often do not want to throw their items even they are not needed anymore. I am no longer using this item, but I might need it later (sounds familiar??). It often happens that we feel that our house is no longer convenient and not big enough for our items. Hence, self storage basically provides us space to store our items.

The typical self storage is a very huge warehouse and a lot of cubicles are set up in order to create a lot of storage rooms. The size varies from very small into a 40 feet container. This idea really answers the needs of the society. With the proper marketing, the society being more and more educated about the importance of self storage. It now evolves into wine storages, and even a lot of businesses use them as their warehouse (including us hehehe).

A great marketer told me that when there is a gap in the market, it does not always mean that there is market in the gap. I have seen a lot of unique businesses that did not excel in the market (could you name the examples?). It takes more than mere market research to actually understand the market. Sometimes we have to educate the market in order to create the sense of necessity of our product or service. I am also still learning these marketing principles and would like to hear more sharing in regards to this issue.

What about your business? Does it fill the gap within the market? What marketing strategy did you introduce in order to promote the unique positioning of your business? How did you determine the niche market?

Comments, opinions, and questions are greatly appreciated

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

You have to be an experience customer, before you can be a good seller (Part II)

In the first article, I plainly said that: “You have to be an experience customer (first), before you can be a good seller.” The question of what could be possibly wrong, even though I have carefully planned everything, I have made acceptable assumptions, and I have done my market research, remains unanswered.

At that point, I usually still argue that I have done my planning and made acceptable assumptions and it should be enough. The problem with “acceptable assumptions” happens because I make that assumption, I confidently enough act on behalf of my target market. Those assumptions came from my reasonable state of mind and not my customers. If I have never breathed their air, eaten their foods, and had their life, I might have different way of reasoning.

Another problem with small entity may come from its market research. We just do not have those big companies’ resources to do a proper market research. We all know that the accuracy will increase with the number of people surveyed and how the surveys are conducted. In one sense, as a small firm we will not get accurate information because of our limitation. By having a good experience as customer in a market, it may give us better understanding for that particular market and this might overcome the problem.

If I have to choose, I would rather engage in a field where I have experience, knowing the soil inside out. This way, I could better understand my market and my customers. I would be able to understand my expectations as customer and at the same time the difficulties in fulfilling those expectations as seller. Managing these two issues might give me a competitive edge in that market. But I do realize that life is not always as smooth as it could be. Sometimes, we end up in a new market and we are left with no choice. In this case, we will have a lot of learning to do. This will not be easy but it can be overcome. In this instance, I would try to understand by experience, I try to understand not from above but from within the market itself. I mingle with them, experience what they experience, being one of them. Putting it in the real world, I would not totally understand the difficulties as an entrepreneur if I have never been in one. I can study literature, report, reading article but without experiencing, my understanding will be limited to my imagination.

We are here learning new things each and everyday. Being a teacher and student at the same time will lead us to a greater pool of information. The challenge is not only processing that information into a new applicable knowledge and implementing this knowledge, but how we understand the nature of that information which will lead us to better conclusion.

Author: Michael A Oei - MarketingFirst Group