Kaye Marks |
Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of developments in the color printing industry and how these improvements can benefit small to medium-scale businesses. |
Kaye Marks
has written 38 articles for SB Informer. |
View all articles by Kaye Marks... |
Are You a Specialist?The temptation is always there to get into as many parts of the marketplace as you can. Kaye Marks
November 03, 2008
The temptation is always there to get into as many parts of the
marketplace as you can. All that business is out there waiting for you
to snap it up if you make sure your company performs as many functions
as possible.
There is a certain amount of truth to this, but it
also comes with its own pitfalls you need to be aware of. When you
extend into other areas of the marketplace you need to first consider
what this will do to affect your brand name. After all, this is what
people are going to look at when it comes to your company, and if you
start changing what that brand name represents, you risk alienating
people.
People like to deal with specialists in a field. They
want to go to someone that really knows what they’re doing and is
excited about doing it. If they start to see that same company branch
out into areas largely unrelated to their original field, they might
not feel is if the company is really a specialist in any field anymore.
When you begin using color printing to advertise all of those different
products you now sell, people might start to think that you’re just
trying to make as much money as you can out of as many markets as you
can.
This is what you combat when you attempt to expand, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t able to enter different markets.
Take
the example of most department stores. When I shop at a Target store,
there are certain brands of food, brands of clothing, and so on that
are all owned and made by Target, but they have a separate name. Market
Pantry is just one of the companies that Target owns that sells food.
Now,
Target could’ve simply slapped their own brand name on their food, but
the problem is that Target isn’t known for making food; it’s known for
its department stores. People aren’t going to be inclined to trust
Target with making good food, but Market Pantry has a brand name that
is strongly associated with good food. Rather than potentially harm
their Target brand name, they simply started a separate division under
a different name in order to create a different brand name with them.
This
is what your company needs to be aware of if you want to start
expanding. Why stretch your primary brand name too thin when you can
easily create a new one? This way you can enter into numerous markets
without harming your image as a specialist in your own market.
Expanding
is always a delicate thing, and the way you handle your color printing
and marketing for promoting it will be key to your success. Sometimes
entering a new industry with your current brand name will work, but
quite often it’s best to create a new one rather than risk losing your
image as a specialist.
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