Learn to spot new market opportunities around you

Last week we looked at how entrepreneurs have been and should be breaking new grounds by not following the crowd. Today let us look at how to identify opportunities in the market that many other people may not have “seen”.

Effective connection with an idea is signified by forming a clear mental picture of the idea. It is for this reason that Market Talk has in the past stressed the need for a collage or a collection of pictures as a visual representation of your dreams.

That vision of an opportunity is what we can refer to as an insight. According to Chris Francis and Andy Davidson of Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine, an insight is like a refrigerator because when you open the door it lights up.

This means that you don’t have to dig very deep to see an opportunity that is cooking, all you need is to smell the coffee and figure out something that is ground- breaking.

There is a movie called, A lot happening based on the ant world. From far an army of ants look like just a small line on the ground. Looking closer you find a whole industry that defines the business on the ground.

Likewise by looking keenly at any business you will find some gap that you can fill.

This can be done by importing an idea from the market or by modifying the business model or creating a new complementary idea.

What you need to know is that you don’t have to think as hard since there is nothing new under the sun. Look beyond the truth to challenge the status quo.

Francis and Davidson argue that the purpose of an insight is to disturb the discourse. The discourse here is the accepted way of doing things whiles the disturbance is a contrarian or different way of doing or looking at that thing.

They say that to identify this, you have to avoid focusing on the truth as a starting point. This is because the truth can be boring or uninspiring, too late and it can even confuse you.

On the other hard you should be on the lookout for emerging truths which may be a different way of looking at the “truths”. This would be more interesting and inspiring.

For example in Kenya, the majority of people are financially excluded— that is a fact or the truth. The “emerging truth” is that most have access to a mobile phone which when applied as a financial inclusion tool, M-Pesa and other mobile financial services were created.

Innovations that have inspired the world have been created by defying conventional wisdom and creating new possibilities. The Omo detergent advert with the tagline, “dirt is good” came from the understanding of modern parenting.

According to the above authors, “Good Dirt” concept defies the discourse of whiteness and good mothers for experience, learning and play.

Consumers don’t always know what they want: The other thing is that you don’t always have to listen to consumers. You can instead listen to their partners or other stakeholders in order to create breakthroughs.

Innovation, according to Steve Jobs, is based on the premise that consumers don’t always know what they want. But maybe they know what they need. If Henry Ford had asked consumers what they wanted, he would probably have given the world faster horses instead of the automobile.

Look beyond what the consumers want in order to create new solutions to their problems. This means driving the market instead of being market driven. Also it pays to apply lateral thinking which calls for breadth rather than depth.

Go beyond the current target market, product applications, use occasions and the gold mine maybe not so far from your reach. Remember Bernard Shaw’s quote that “all progress depends on the unreasonable man”.

The writer is the Marketing Director of SBO Research. E-mail: [email protected], Twitter @bngahu