Know-How Exchange : Strategy

One thing I''ve found that helps is to stop thinking of it as a market segment but as a target audience. Sounds trivial, but usually people define market segments by type of product or vertical, or some other designation. Focusing on the audience helps you start considering WHO will buy your product, what their needs are, and what value prop you offer to meet those needs.

I think taking a general market awareness approach to branding is a quick burn of a lot of money. You would be better off narrowing your focus to a highly-targeted niche that hopefully included early adopters and influencers, then totally blowing them away with the value you deliver. I suggest focusing on brand experience rather than the "branding" that is synonymous with "name awareness" ie expensive repetitive advertising.

Dear Nicola, if you are entering into a market then the target audience which is specified, should be first studied i.e. their needs and ability to pay for your product and then approached from 2 different sides i.e.
1st in a highly competitve market of technology, find out where you stand in previous market and how you as a brand can cash that in the audience which are quite similar to the earlier one as they might have heard your name. Even if they have not heard your name, in new market, then what are the qualities which you posses as a brand in previous market and helped you to reach at the current state can be applied.
2nd find out the proposition which these small oweners are providing and then whether you can provide the same quality at a cheap rate or not. Remember one thing that if you dont have a power to flow with the race then change the rules of the game according to your requirement. In both the cases the winner will be the customer but you too are going to be beneficiary later. Moreover try to persuade the audience that when they use higher quality at less rate then what are the benefits which they are going to get and in this case the help of local market research firms can be highly beneficiary. Afterall no person gets satisfied from a single product at all.