Know-How Exchange : Strategy

You provided what's better (digital picture quality), but what about what's not-as-good as the competition? If you're as good as the competition, and still have something unique, you can have a side-to-side comparison and ask people to choose what they prefer (all other things being equal). As for the 18% market share - you get more customers when: 1) people leave existing providers or 2) new people choose you. If people are unsatisfied, then give them motivation to switch to you (free first month's service with proof that they have been customers of your competition in the last 6 months). For new people, create a matrix comparing yourself with the others, and show how the choice is "crystal clear".

Dear Isa

Whilst there is a valid question here, I think that given the scale of your industry, you need to get real about solving such a problem. It’s not likely to be one or two dimensioned, such that the best possible advice you receive here or elsewhere will give you a magic solution. Here’s what I mean by, “Get real”

Let’s just suppose that the internet and the MarketingProfs Forum were around in the 1980’s when the satellite company Sky’s parent, News Corporation, was battling the rating wars to the death with British competitor BSB and the cable companies. Here’s the scenario:

Rupert Murdoch: “Take a memo; Dear Experts, we have a problem on the subscriber front, in that our % market share is below the level of viability. How would the experts advise me to spend the next £5 Billion in my strategic battle against the competition?”

“Oh, PS, we're more expensive and our satellite dishes are harder to install”

It’s not very likely that we would have spotted the 20 or 30 things which he did which have made Sky the biggest satellite broadcaster in the market, including the apparently suicidal option of buying the largest competitor and it’s duff technology and scrapping the lot.

You have a similar scale of problem and whilst I am not suggesting that you have a billion or two to spend on marketing and corporate strategy, you must acknowledge the multi-dimensional nature of the challenge which you face and the time scale over which you face it. Individual ideas are likely to be only tiny elements of a whole strategy, but these ideas, when taken in the context of the whole, can, if they are wrong-headed be the straw which breaks the camel’s back and bring your whole plan down around you.

Murdoch sailed damned close to losing the lot before he saw his enterprise move into profit and he certainly used strategic planning coupled with a singular determination to drive his plan home to win.

In summary, what I am saying is that your question is, in my view, inappropriate, taken in isolation. A marketing tactic to counter the problem you have outlined could be plain wrong in the context of the overall strategy you need to operate to become successful and profitable. And that plan might or might not be determined by your % market share.

Good luck in getting some answers, but be careful how you use them.

Steve Alker
Xspirt