market-research, target-marketMy friend discovered a brand new method that helps to teach Vietnamese students to speak English fluently.
There are many methods out there but the one of my friend is very unique and no-one has every done the similar things.
My question is that:
Is he creating a brand new market segment?
A market segment: A group of consumers that share multiple characteristics, such as demographics, behavioral propensities, psychographic similarities, geographic relationships with unmet or underserved needs, that is large enough, and accessible enough to present a viable marketing opportunity for a business. Source
Ok, let see this example, there are many types of pizza such as Cheese Pizza, Mushroom pizza, Tomato Pizza, etc. All these types of pizza are not sweet.
These types of pizza formed their own market segments.
And now suddenly you came up with a brand new type of pizza - The sweet Pizza (honey, sugar, …, no meat or cheese or salt).
Suppose that no-one has made the sweet pizza before & suppose you the FIRST one who made sweet pizza.
The question is that:
Are you creating a completely brand-new Pizza market segment?
Also, what should you say in your advertisement?
Should you say that your pizza is the best one (or noone is better than yours) or just say that it is the unique one (very interesting one & do not mention that your one is the best one)?
The reality is that very hard to attract the customers to use his new method. But Steve Jobs said “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them” Source
But trust me, it’s very hard to convince people to use my friend’s new method. Other peoples who start their businesses using the same methods as everyone else in the market can easily find new customers.
But if that is the case, then there is no innovation, people just keep doing the same things over and over again.
Re-read your definition of market segment - you’ll see it’s not about the product, but about the buyers. So to take your pizza example, a sweet pizza is going in to an existing market for desserts.
So no, your friend isn’t creating a segment. But there may be segments you can target.
Here’s how.
Everyone who’s already teaching Vietnamese students English is filling the airwaves. “But this is faster,” you say. My answer is, great, but to tell people, you’re going to have to shout pretty loud, and you’re going head-to-head with all the established players.
So choose a different segment - people with different buying motivations. What about, Vietnamese students who need great English and have crashed out of the usual offerings.
Now, it’s not faster you need to offer, but different. If there are two language schools out there, they’re working much harder to find new customers than they ever will to poach one another’s former students. After all, this disgruntled group may be trouble.
Where you are, troublesome students aren’t just OK, they’re potentially awesome. Sign them up, and to start well, you just need them to agree that your method is different.
If you see they’re not making progress, then you can do what your competitors hate to do, which is to say, this doesn’t work for everyone, so here’s your money back, no questions asked.
But if they are making progress, their story feeds your funnel. “I tried X, but I was disappointed. Now I’m amazed how fast I’m learning with Y and their totally different method.” Each of those stories is a magnet, and each of those satisfied students can be a channel.
No startup has something for everyone. So if you have the choice, pick customers who will be easy to find and who will help you fill your sales funnel.
My question to you is whether being able to say that this is a “brand new market segment” is a key component pf your marketing, and if so, why? The fact that you may be the first one to say you came up with some novel method never before used is not a guarantee it will be successful. John Delorean made the first car with a stainless steel body, and we see what happened there. Was it a new market segment? Not really. Interesting, but still just a car.
Your pizza analogy is a bit off. Yes, there are different kinds of pizza, but each is not its own market segment. After all, you don’t have a single pizza parlor in America (or anywhere else in the world, for that matter) that only sells pepperoni pizzas, or only cheese pizzas. They are all variations of the same core product – pizza.
My advice would be to focus on why your product is superior to anything else on the market and what makes it a good value proposition.
What yo have to do is convince people as to why your product is a better way to go rather than using other, more established products. What is it about your product that makes this technique so much more effective than anything else people may be using now or have tried in the past?
You cite Steve Jobs, which is interesting. Apple has probably created more new market segments in the last 20 years than any other company on the planet. But you don’t see them focusing on that in the advertising, do you? What you see is a company that focuses on being cool, chic, and desirable. They don’t even acknowledge their competitors, because in their eyes, there is no competition. This is a company that, just by putting a new product out there that people never imagined wanting or using manages to make into a new mega-hit.
Don’t focus on what makes selling your product so hard - focus on what makes using your product so easy. When you make a sales presentation, there’s always a sale being made. Either you’re selling the customer your product, or they’re selling you on why they shouldn’t buy it. Keep in mind that YOU know what makes your product great, but you should – it’s your product. Your potential customers are the ones who need to understand why it’s for them.
Sales is always about communication. Find out what people want, even if they don’t know it yet for themselves, then find a way to tap into that desire. Make your product “Apple cool”. Figure out why people are so resistant to trying your product.
Here’s a thought. You could always offer to give a copy of your product to someone who wouldn’t buy it, on one condition. First, after really trying it (and being honest about it), if it does everything you promise then they’ll agree to write a small testimonial for you that you can use with others. Second, they agree to share their experience with people they know who might have a similar need. That’s it.
To succeed, you have to think outside the box with marketing. Who cares if you’re the first one in the market or just the newest one if you happen to have the best product in that space? Give yourself (and your product) more credit, and hang in there!
Hope this helps.
Good luck!
TL;DR
This is not a new market segment because it is not expanded the market. You are offering a new method to learn English. This is a new product, but the market is still unchanged; i.e. people who speak Thai and want to learn English. This is unlike the sweet pizza example.
You might want to advertise instead based on the advantages your method offers: perhaps its the speed which a person can learn english, the success rate of your method, the cost savings associate with using your method, or the ease of use of your method. It helps to create a comparison and highlight the areas where your method has an advantage over the current methods.
My answer is for
Also, what should you say in your advertisement?
From your description,
My friend discovered a brand new method that helps to teach Vietnamese students to speak English fluently.
Ask, “Why would Vietnamese students to speak English fluently?”
Think of some benefits (or possible answers). For example,
Vietnamese students wants to speak English fluently because..
- To get a higher paying job locally.
- To study/work abroad.
- Or, maybe to get an English speaking spouse later :).
Then, get out of the building. Ask your demographics (the students) to rank your benefits (of learning to speak English fluently) and welcome new benefits that they might think of. While doing this, try not to ‘sell’ your product. If possible, try to get their name and e-mail address. This is super-useful to get early adopters
Finally, the ones with the highest rank should be your advertisement.
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