The Importance of Being a Big Fish

Here is something that is blindingly obvious: important advantages go to the market leaders. I bet you’ll with this list of benefits:

• Premium price margins
• Low cost of sales
• Free 3rd party support
• Lots of publicity
• Long product life cycles
• Easy recruiters
• Access to decision makers
• Most favorable distribution terms
• Previews of new technology

Which companies come to mind for you? Remember the top companies you wanted to work for when you graduated? Which companies get their products introduced as news events? Who do all the small technology companies want to partner with? Pretty obvious stuff, huh?

This illustrates the importance of being a Big Fish. But it also reveals the importance of market segmentation and highlights the purpose and essence of marketing as once expressed eloquently by Geoffrey A. Moore:

Marketing: Why?

The Purpose …
Achieve the benefits of market leadership across an increasingly larger base of current and prospective customers.

The Essence …
Be a big fish in a small pond –
Annex adjacent ponds –
Grow –
Repeat –

The secret to capturing a major market opportunity is with target market segmentation and a logical market development sequence.