Market Validation
Validate the best way to grow
If you’re an ambitious CEO, you probably aren’t short of ideas on how to grow. The challenge is to understand which ideas are the right ones, and how to successfully implement them. At Traction we use proven market validation methods – including the “Playing to Win” framework – to help you do exactly that.
Our expert team can help you to identify the geographies to target, from international expansions to refocusing on markets with a lower cost of acquisition. We analyse cost to play, levels of demand and competition, and the unique ways each market describes your industry, brand and offerings.
How Market Testing Works
The “Playing to Win” framework
In their 2013 book Playing to Win, Roger Martin, a business professor, and A.G. Lafley, a former Procter & Gamble chairman, president and CEO, laid out a simple yet incredibly effective strategy for growing a business. The framework traded comprehensive plan-making for five cascading decisions:
- Winning aspiration: A clear vision of your end goal.
- Where to play: The markets, customers or geographic areas you’ll target.
- How to win: Your differentiators (quality, cost, speed, experience) that will bring your aspirations to life.
- Capabilities required: The knowledge, skills and activities you need to deliver on your ‘how to win’.
- Management systems: Processes, standards, metrics, rules and tools to support your strategy.
At Traction we primarily work in the “where to play” and “how to win” segments of this framework, to help Kiwi businesses understand their best opportunities for growth.
Why you should Market Test
The world is your oyster. We’ll help you shuck it.
At Traction we use digital research tools to gain and validate insights on new markets (levels of demand and competition, cost of acquisition, local quirks) and to help you make better, faster decisions regarding your global expansion.
We then A/B test these decisions to adjust and optimise the strategy on the fly. We identify the most lucrative markets, levels of competition, and the cost of advertising and customer acquisition.
“From the very beginning of Traction we were focused on helping Kiwi companies in global markets, so as we grew our team we prioritised securing international expertise. Fast forward to today, and our current team has cut their teeth in some of the world’s largest organisations across Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
In terms of global growth, we’ve got the runs on the board, and we’re proud to offer this extensive marketing and growth experience to Kiwi businesses who want to succeed on the world stage.”
– Jordana Clarke
Deciding where to play for maximum growth
Geographic areas
At Traction we specialise in helping CEOs expand into new territories, particularly beyond New Zealand borders. No matter whether you want to set up shop in a neighbouring city, or you’re looking to go truly global with your brand, we’ve got the skills, expertise, tools and strategies to make it happen.
We’ll identify your most promising opportunities. We’ll validate or challenge your assumptions. And we’ll use hard data to develop a winning strategy for your brand expansion.
Market Segments
When you close your eyes and think of your ideal customer, a clear picture will probably come to mind. But is there a certain type of customer that you aren’t currently targeting, but should be? When did you last analyse the precision or relevance of your buyer personas? Do you know how your personas differ in terms of value or cost of acquisition?
We analyse hundreds of audience factors – search habits, purchases, online behaviours, preferences, demographics (age, gender, income, education, occupation) – to identify market segments who you may have historically underserved. You might be surprised at who we uncover!
Campaign strategy
Every market has their own peculiarities and preferences, so you’ll need a campaign strategy to suit – one that resonates with the specific audience in your new target market. Winning campaigns subtly change at different stages of the buyer journey to maintain the forward momentum. They demand a holistic, cohesive approach, rather than one made up of a collection of isolated efforts across different channels.
At Traction we can help you to understand the characteristics of a new market and the buyer journey, and craft a campaign strategy that will deliver maximum impact.
