There’s a book about Procter & Gamble called “The P&G; 99”. It describes the 99 principles P&G; uses when thinking about new markets and how they operate their business. The book is very instructive to read, but the three principles that jumped out at me, can take your business to the next level.
Principle #1: Plan to dominate.
You should do it with a winning mindset whenever you enter a new market. Don’t just think, “Hey, I wonder if I could get a little bit of this real estate business?” You won’t get very far this way. Instead, approach it with the idea, “I’m going to completely dominate the Winter Haven lakefront market!”
The moment you say those words… “I plan to dominate”… your whole physiology changes. You automatically get a sense of confidence, a sense of purpose and a mission. And you’re ready to do whatever it takes to “get it all.” It’s a mindset shift. Now, THAT’s a winning strategy.
Next…
Principle #2: Create the best product from the customer’s perspective.
You can only dominate a niche if you have a product your customers want. When P&G; goes into a market… say, laundry detergents… they break everything down into the strata of the laundry market. What they find is each subset has a specific need. And they create a product that’s laser-focused, serving only that ONE needs the best it can.
For example…
There’s a product called Tide. It’s created specifically for people who want their clothes as white as possible. That’s the whole purpose of it. P&G; has teams of scientists just dreaming the day away, trying to figure out how to make clothes whiter. It’s not about what’s the most cost-effective way to make clothes white. And it’s not about, “how can we make these clothes kinda sorta white,” either.
Creating the best product from the customer’s perspective means: Helping these people get the WHITEST WHITE POSSIBLE… no matter the expense. So that’s what you focus on.
And lastly…
Principle #3: Treat each brand as its own unique business.
Or, in Breakthrough DNA words… treat each single target market as a separate business. Think of the laundry detergent example above. You’ll notice that P&G; has a vast array of products in that market alone. There’s Tide; if you want your clothes the whitest white… then there’s ERA to get all your tough stains out… and if you want to have your clothes smell great? No problem, just use Sunlight. And so on.
But the thing is…
P&G; treats each and every one of these brands as a separate business. Even if it looks like they compete with each other, they’re all a viable sub-market of the laundry detergent niche. And they each solve ONE particular need. When you treat each and every single target market as a separate business, it forces you to do upfront research around it. To see the lay of the land… to find out how many potential customers there are and the total yield from this market.
Because the thing is…
You can plan to dominate as much as you want and create the best product in the world. But if the target market isn’t big enough? None of that can help. And you’re never going to turn a profit.
These three principles: Planning to dominate, creating the very best product from the customer’s perspective and treating each single target market as a separate and unique business… All of that helped P&G; become the most successful multi-brand enterprise in the world.
And I wonder…
If you start applying them to your business today… one year or two years out… What could they do for YOU?
There’s only one way to find out 😉
for more on my thoughts on this topic, click here and head on over to the more cheese less whiskers podcast
