New markets provide growth paths for different companies. No two new market opportunities are ever the same. To some businesses, it is about international trade. Others seek opportunities from government departments, while some even build up their businesses via close relationships with major corporations. Marketing performance management is one of our consulting services at The Swiss Quality. Now, the question- what is marketing performance management and how does it interact with new markets?

Marketing performance management is the capacity of an organization to improve its return on investment, ROI and marketing effectiveness. It entails planning, performance measurement, and establishing predictive analysis.

MARKETING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT VS NEW MARKET

In our approach to integrating new market into your business either as a startup or existing one, we aim to implement a strong marketing performance management function via:

• Aligning marketing teams to revenue and corporate goals.
• Establishing accountability and measurability for revenue goals
• Implementing predictive capabilities for revenue

Think of this as a cycle that begins with planning, followed by executing and ends with measurement as a solid framework to understand and incorporate new markets.

ALIGNING TO REVENUE

Performance management as it concerns marketing encompasses the creation of processes and management of resources for the marketing team. The goal here is to achieve the set business objectives, which is primarily revenue. It means building and managing teams, allocating budgets, setting smart goals, and measuring the right metrics accurately. Besides the execution of marketing, the focus is on the strategic side of planning and measurement, which should also be a focal point of concentration for your company.
Thus, it deals with setting corporate revenue targets, aligning and committing marketing to revenue measurement and accountability.

GAIN ACCOUNTABILITY TO REVENUE

Having aligned teams to revenue, the whole organization can now optimize for the same goal. Not only that, they can be accountable for similar goals and rather than report on lead conversion and click-through-rate by marketers, they can report on the revenue, as the goal of the company. This further entails implementing multi-touch marketing attribution and identifying leading indicators of revenue.

DEVELOP ANALYTICS & FORECASTING CAPABILITIES

This is the third step under marketing performance management, and it deals with establishing a predictive capability for revenue. For leaders in business units outside marketing, they can have access to advanced planning tools to ensure they have, and run a seamless marketing campaign. This is especially for the purpose of welcoming new markets and aligning the goals with the existing strategies. The result here would be to channel mix modeling and improving marketing planning.

IMPACT OF CHANGING MARKET CONDITIONS ON BUSINESSES

To identify any potential problems with your business, and to purposely deal with them, pay attention to any outside developments and conditions of your market that could adversely affect your business. From there, you can readily respond and change your plans quickly if need be.
Essentially, you must be conversant with the interest and exchange rates, and how they can influence the general trading climate, direct costs, and many other factors. You must also take good care of your competitors and understand- both existing and new ones. The last thing you should note is the new technologies and innovations, how they would change the market and increase or reduce the demand for your product or service. Put these factors into consideration to absolve any irregularities that might come forth later on.
At some point, all businesses must experience certain changes in the general sales environment. These changes can, however, impact the entire economy- clear in a recession or economic downturn or they might affect a specific sector or industry. Whichever the case, you must stay alert to changes and tailor your forecasts and plans to compensate for these irregularities and thus, avoid any dimension of cash-flow problems.

HOW NEW MARKETS/ENTRANTS AFFECT BUSINESS

With the introduction of a new company into your market, you are likely to experience a change in the variables that influence the performance of your business. This will then prompt you to react to maintain your position. With the knowledge of how the new markets overcame the existing barriers to entry, you can discover the basic strategic reaction that suits the new situation per time. As the market changes, you must consider the strengths of the new entrants when developing a strategy for growth and customer retaining.

BARRIERS

Typically, the barriers to entry for a market include high capital costs to establish manufacturing or retail facilities, economies of scale in case existing competitors are large operations, customer loyalty because of special product features among others. When the new entrant has a heavy investment, you must examine whether they have extensive capital resources or if such investment has stretched their capacity to a reasonable extent. React if they introduce a similar product to yours and if they are smaller than yours, they cannot have your EOS (economies of scale). That means, they cannot compete on price. The way the new company enters the market shows its strengths.

COSTS

With the introduction of a new buyer into a market, it can prompt suppliers to raise their prices because of higher demand. Thus, the new entrant needs the same components and materials as you to offer similar products in the market. If you can then lock in your supplier costs with long-term contracts while the suppliers charge the new entrant higher, it means you can maintain a reasonable pricing structure and compete in terms of quality and uniqueness. Where your suppliers raise prices, you can minimize inventory and find substitutes for the most expensive items.

PRICES

The market prices certainly reduce when a new competitor is introduced. If more companies are competing for the same market share, customers can choose those with lower pricing. This consequently would lower the general price level. In case you have some inherent cost advantages because of product design, low labor costs, and location, you can compete based on price. In a situation where no competitor has any inherent cost advantage, you can compete on price if you have higher financial resources than those of some other competitors. What this means is that you must take note of, and be conversant with the ideals of new markets as an organization.

COMPETITORS

The way a new entrant competes is key to how such entry affects your business. Competing in a new market can be attractive if you identify a market segment that is under-served by existing competitors. When the new entrant targets the new market segment, you can strengthen your strategy to cover the same target and therefore, prevent the new entrant from getting a stand.

HOW TO EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH NEW MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Planning and implementing a growth strategy for the purpose of developing new markets and importantly, expanding your business before the current market expires has loads of advantages. This lets you survive tough times and gives you a considerable edge over others.

THINGS TO EXPECT WITH NEW MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Your business market will change with time, just like everything else. As your business matures, your market share thrives and thereafter, you will experience growth on all sides, with your original target market.
Since the 2008 recession, the economy has experienced tremendous growth albeit slowly in the last 10 years. With only a few exceptions, the gross domestic product has been climbing at the same pace.

Some factors are put into consideration at The Swiss Quality. One of these is the quick growth the emerging or new markets are witnessing. Even though the U.S. economy is in a late-stage cycle of economic growth recently, several countries are still in the earlier stages. Similarly,  despite the U.S. economy’s implications on the strength of the global market, other countries of the world are putting up very strong economic expansion numbers.
Another key factor that affects emerging or new market growth is the stabilizing labor market. Consequently, many new markets are then voraciously placed on the path to fiscal consolidation as they create a buffer to keep macro-stability standards constant to minimize the likelihood of unexpected setbacks or collapse.

Renowned business management professionals at The Swiss Quality weigh factors like spoken language, cultural cohesion, financial stability and known or perceived government corruption levels before you enter the market.