365Else blog

Who is your market? Let me start with a simple question: “Which is the bigger market, Nigeria (200m+) or Botswana (2m+)? Answer: “It depends on what you are selling”. An experienced entrepreneur does not see the size of a market in terms of the number of people in the market, but always in terms of what you are selling! Understanding your market is crucial before you can even begin to develop your marketing strategy. Who is supposed to buy this product of yours? The fact that x % of people say they would like to own a Mercedes Benz, does not make x percent all a market for the Mercedes brand of vehicle. A market is best understood through numbers which are based on research, including data analytics if possible, and not just a hunch. These things seem so obvious, but you will be surprised how many entrepreneurs fail because they are trying to market and sell a product to the wrong market. Even with what may appear to be a “mass market” product like cell phones, there is a lot...

Marketing (Part 1) __“No Customer Success = No Your Success” One of the greatest business leadership gurus of all time is a man called Peter Drucker who said the following: "Marketing and innovation make money. Everything else is a cost". It is quite easily one of the most profound things said on #Entrepreneurship—ever! This is the type of statement I would write up on a poster, and put on every entrepreneur’s wall for you to read every day until you @Get it! And if you say you @Get it now, you have not yet @Got It! Now I have spoken a lot about #Innovation on this platform, but I have never spoken about #Marketing. Only a true entrepreneur can truly appreciate that you have to learn to market the #Product! And it is actually not easy! There are a lot of people who can invent a product, or even come up with a truly groundbreaking new innovation, but you only become a true entrepreneur when you can #Market effectively. It is something that even now I’m still lea...