One of the things that companies like to ask is, ”What is the size of the market that we are trying to penetrate?” It seems like an entirely logical question but in the business of brand building, that question is usually a death warrant because if you can measure the size of the market, then chances are it is a market that is already dominated by entrenched players.  If you want to build a strong brand, forget about the typical things that marketers do.  If you want to build a strong brand, do something that no one else is doing.


What was the market size for plain paper photocopiers before Xerox was launched?  What market?  There was no such market before Xerox launched the world’s first plain paper photocopier, the Xerox 914, in 1959. 

What was the market size for expensive Japanese luxury cars before Lexus was launched?  Non-existent.  Before Lexus launched the LS400 in 1989, there isn’t such a thing as a luxury Japanese car. If you want a luxury car, it’s Mercedes-Benz or BMW. Pre-Lexus, the term luxury Japanese cars would have most businessmen laughing till they turn blue.

What was the market size for portable cassette players before Sony launched the Walkman?  Zero.  Before the Walkman, if you want to carry your music with you, you just lug your hi-fi set around on your shoulder.  The Walkman sold 340 million units during its career.

What was the market size for elevators before Elisha Graves Otis came into the market?  What elevators?  In those days, you take the stairs if you want to move from floor to floor.
 

Are You Creating A New Market Or Serving An Existing One?

If you want to create an iconic brand, you don’t ask, “What is the size of the market?”. That would be a big mistake and it is a mistake that many marketers have made in the past. It is also an easy trap to fall into because it is such a natural question to ask.

Today, marketers have such sophisticated tools and databases that can allow them to dissect each market by region, demographics, psychographics, age, gender, occupation, etc, etc, etc. And every marketing plan talks about the size of the market and how the company will capture X% of the market, blah blah blah. All of these are useless. 

If you can measure the size of the market that means it is no longer a new market. That means somebody else is already there, probably somebody much bigger and more entrenched than you are. And history has shown that it is futile to go head on against an entrenched competitor. 

What you want to do is make yourself the entrenched market leader and the best way to do that is to create a new category that you can dominate – the way Xerox, Lexus and Sony did.

The question that marketers should be asking is this: “What new category is my brand creating?” 

Most of the brands today are created to serve an existing market.That is why most of the brands that you see in any category today are worthless in the sense that they are seen by customers as copycats. Me-too products. Not the real thing.You only buy them because they are much cheaper.Yes, you can find buyers if you price something cheap enough but do you want to compete on price all the time? The Chinese are just around the corner, you know?  And nobody beats them on price.
 

Beware Market Research

Market research is about as useful for creating the next big thing as using a toilet brush to paint your house. Iconic brands never came out of exhaustive market research. 

Tons of research told Xerox was told that nobody would be willing to pay 5 cents a copy for a plain paper photocopy.  Xerox threw the research away and launched the plain paper photocopier anyway. Were they right to do that?  You bet!

And you can bet that back in the 80s, researchers would have found that nobody would be willing to pay US$35,000 (that’s a lot of money in 1989 in USA as far as cars are concerned but peanuts in Singapore) for a Japanese car.  Lexus launched a US$35,000 luxury car anyway.

If Howard Schultz had researched the market 20 years ago, he would probably be told that nobody would pay US$4 for a cup of coffee. And yet…
 

Which Type of Shoe Salesman Are You?

Two shoe salesman from rival companies were sent to a foreign country to study the market. Their companies wanted to know if there is potential in this market. The first shoe salesman landed in that strange foreign land and within a few hours made a phone call to his boss, “Boss, I am coming home on the next available flight. There is no market for us here. People here don’t even wear shoes.  They just run around barefooted.” The second shoe salesman also made a phone call to his boss within hours of arriving but the content of the conversation was very different, “Hey, Boss! You are not going to believe this.  This country is a veritable gold mine. Wait, I take that back.  It’s a diamond mine!  People here don’t wear shoes.  No shoes!  You hear me? They are barefooted.  We are going to be selling so many shoes to them.Send me ten containers of shoes ASAP. What types of shoes? I don’t know.  Send everything that we have. And hurry!”
The size of the market? Doesn’t matter.

Jacky Tai is a Principal Consultant of StrategiCom – The B2B Branding Specialist (www.strategicom.com) which is headquartered in Singapore and operating in 11 cities around the world.  As Principal Consultant of StrategiCom, Jacky works with a crack team of talented consultants and researchers to help B2B companies across various industries gain an unfair advantage over competitors by effectively differentiating, dramatizing and communicating the brand.  Jacky is also the author of two highly-acclaimed branding books –Transforming Your Business Into A Brand (2007) and Killer Differentiators (2008).  Jacky can be reached at jacky.tai@strategicom.com.