In the organic juice market, we saw steady growth with our cold-pressed, single-serve offerings. However, competitor analysis revealed a rising trend towards personalised, functional blends with added vitamins and superfoods. We realised our focus on single-serve convenience might be limiting us. We pivoted by launching a customisable subscription service. Customers could choose a base (kale, spinach, etc.) and add targeted functional boosters for specific needs (immunity, energy, etc.). This strategic shift resonated with health-conscious consumers seeking a more personalised approach to wellness. Subscriptions boomed, and customer lifetime value increased. We also gained a reputation for innovation and catering to individual needs. This pivot, driven by competitor insights, not just imitation, transformed us from a single-serve player to a personalised functional juice market leader.
Failing to analyze your competition is like trying to win a race without paying attention to what direction you're running in relation to your competitors. If you don't have a solid grasp of both your brand positioning and that of your competition, how can you ever know where, when, or how to pivot? Over the past 20 years of being in this industry, we've made a few key pivots based on what our competitors were doing. The most recent one becoming more focused on brand positioning. We saw many agencies building and marketing websites, but they lacked diving deep into the brand and how to position it so it would stand out. As a result of the pivot, we are given a golden opportunity to educate our small business clients about the importance of proper brand positioning and how they can benefit from having a solid blueprint in place for all their business and marketing initiatives.
We were attracting a lot of interest from prospects before and through the pandemic. But beginning in 2022, it felt like it was taking longer to close new business. While we were already specific about the services we provide (horizontal niche), we would take on clients across multiple industries (verticals). We wondered if having an even tighter vertical niche made sense for us to shorten the business development cycle So, we did an in-depth analysis of nearly ten years’ worth of client work. Based on the results of our analysis, we were able to make data-driven decisions about who our ideal target audience would be going forward, which in turn allowed us to begin developing new marketing strategies and services to attract our ideal target client. The result was a shorter business development cycle and more easily won new business. My advice for anyone thinking about niching-down your target marketing is to assess your past clients based on three specific areas: Were we personally or professionally fulfilled by the work, was our expertise valued, and were we profitable on the engagement or relationship. You can also look at this from two vantage points: by client and by industry. Assign a rating of 0-5 for each of the three criteria, and then add up the total. A high number (e.g., 9-15) would represent examples of clients who you likely want to work with more. Conversely, low numbers (e.g., 0-6) are probably the types of clients to avoid.
As the CEO of Startup House, I can share that conducting competitive analysis helped us identify a gap in the market that our competitors were not addressing. This led us to pivot our software development focus towards creating a unique solution that catered to this untapped need. By being the first mover in this space, we were able to establish ourselves as industry leaders and attract a new segment of clients who were looking for exactly what we had to offer. This strategic pivot not only differentiated our brand from the competition but also opened up new revenue streams and opportunities for growth.
I will share the incident of this one time, while I was assisting a customer who operated a small handicraft company. It caught our attention that a primary rival of his was profitably endorsing products through the use of social media influencers. This strategy worked incredibly well with my client's target audience as well, I discovered after some research and analysis. In order to market our client's products, I made the decision to change our approach and locate some influencers. Our customer and I partnered to develop content that authentically featured his client's items by reaching out to key influencers in the same area. We managed to raise brand recognition and sales, and we did observe some beneficial outcomes.