Focussed differentiation

There is a great podcast in the BBC Radio 4 ‘The Bottom Line’ which includes great examples of a few regularly used marketing models – the podcast, entitled Single Product Companies was braodcast on 26 Jun 14 and featured interviews with senior staff from WD40, Maclaren and Crocs.

Each of these organisations has a very limited range based on a single product, and they are also unusual in not being owned by larger organisations. They discuss their product portfolio and reasons for sticking to the one product. Each of these can clearly be seen to have a focus and also some differentiation to their product over competitors – even if only through brand reputation – making them great examples for Porter’s Generic Strategies. There are discussions about expanding the product range which would either fit as Product Development or Diversification from the Ansoff matrix, but they have largely followed the route of Market Development or Market Penetration. The target markets are clearly understood and the segmentation which has led to that, enabling successful positioning to be delivered is covered by the podcast.

The podcast is well worth listening to to find out how and why these organisations operate as they do – it is almost always a good listen but this one is particularly relevant to anyone studying for a CIM qualification, particularly for the Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma levels.

The Podcast series can be found here  with the podcast downloadable from this link