NextStage's founder believes that when you've captured as much of your current market as is possible, it's time to expand that market.
In This Article:
Challenge Defined
NextStage Methodology Part 1
Methodology Part 2
Methodology Part 3
Entering New Markets via Creative Best Practices
Challenge Defined
A client once told me that they really didn't have to hire NextStage because I explain how to do what NextStage does in my columns. I tend to balance comments like that against the other comment I hear a lot: "What exactly does NextStage do?"
A client, Emetrics Summit, came to NextStage with a wonderful challenge. Emetrics has been incredibly successful in one market -- website analytics conferences -- and wanted to expand into new markets. The challenge? They're very well known in the web optimization world and either not known, or known unenthusiastically, in other worlds.
Remember John Travolta's "Michael" character facing the bull and breathing out, "Ah...Battle!" That's me when offered something like this, except it's more like "Ah...Challenge!"
Emetrics Summit is synonymous with web analytics for several reasons, the least of which is that Jim Sterne and Matthew Finlay, the folks behind the Emetrics Summits, took it upon themselves to promote the web analytics industry and founded the Web Analytics Association (WAA).
These same folks are aware that the world is changing and that the Emetrics Summits need to change with it in order to remain competitive. The web analysts attending expressed interest in attracting other members of their marketing team to the event, and the analytics vendors sponsoring were repositioning their products as critical business process solutions, not simply measurement tools.
While this presented a threat to the event as it existed, it also provided an opportunity to develop with the market. Stated differently, when you've captured as much of your current market as is possible, it's time to expand your market.
This is what Jim and Matthew realized regarding the Emetrics Summit brand. One part of this challenge is that the Emetrics Summit has become too synonymous with web analytics. Their very dominance of the web analytics field is a concern as they redefine their market. The audience they're targeting has existing players that already claim sizable market share. Entering new markets too boldly can negatively brand Emetrics as "those web analytics folks."
A challenge that falls directly from the above is the rebranding of the Emetrics Summit so that it will be recognized as the parent organization to the Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, in addition to being premier web analytics conference providers.
The shift from doing to providing is subtle and critical. It is the shift from service to product and is a demonstration of scalability of that product, in this case excellent conferences. Regular readers know that their website is their brand, so the Emetrics' site design going forward became critical elements to their success.
There are several lines of action that come to mind immediately. Recognizing that different audiences expect different presentations leads to design issues and concerns. How does a company retain brand recognition while simultaneously demonstrating a new brand in a new market? Does the strategy involve micrositing, and is a portal concept the best to use?
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