Market Ignition ...Understanding Market Sophistication

Let's talk sophistication. How many similar products has your market been told about
before? A market evolves like an animal species does over millions of years. Over time
markets adapt and become more intelligent like a living breathing, organism.
In our time and age, information flows much faster than it ever did in the past. As time
goes on, this flow of information will continue to speed up. This means markets will mature
much faster. What do I mean when I say “market maturation?” Example:
What if I told you that you could get into a piece of machinery that will move across
country at over 60 miles per hour!? In fact, you could get from Los Angeles to New York in
only several days!
Pretty incredible right? Of course not, the car was invented over 100 years ago. That
appeal would have been incredible in the 1850s. But an ad with those type of hooks/angles
and themes today would be laughed at. Why? The product is exactly the same but the market
is in a different level of sophistication.
This level of sophistication increases as time passes and markets tend to evolve into
the future. The faster information spreads, the more marketing we are exposed to. This tends
to lead to markets reaching higher levels of sophistication faster than ever before.
In the future, marketers who truly understand will be able to capitalize on these
evolutions. Those who can't will be slaughtered. Gene Schwartz described markets in five
stages. After the fifth stage, markets tend to splinter, segment, and repeat the process all over
again. The five are as follows:
• 1st stage - What the product does
• 2nd stage - The product does it better than it's competitors
• 3rd stage - Introduce a Mechanism
• 4th stage - Elaborate on the Mechanism
• 5th stage - Shift from mechanism focus to identification
Post Stages 5 - market splinters and new segment repeats all stages from the beginning
Stage 1
If you're entering stage 1 of a market I tip my hat to you. This means you are the first
person there. Nobody has ever had what you now have to offer.
All you simply need to do is state what you have. Your product is literally revolutionary
so a big 'sales job" is not in order. Just tell 'em what you've got. Example:
"Now Lose Ugly Fat"
Stage 2
As the competition starts to catch up to your stage 1 "basic claim" you need to
reinvent yourself. In the second stage you'll want to build on your initial claim. You'll "enlarge
on it" - do it faster, easier, better, etc. than your first. Example:
"Lose 30 Pounds of Fat in 30 days"
Stage 3
At this point in time your prospects have heard every enlarged claim under the sun.
The issue you have to overcome now is distinguishing your product from every other on the
market.
How do you go about being portrayed as something unique? You focus on your
MECHANISM. This "freshens up" your approach. The emphasis will need to transition from
the actual product to HOW it works. Example”
"First Wonder Drug For Weight Loss"
Stage 4
This stage is similar to the second. All you're going to do is build off the mechanism
you used in stage three. You'll enlarge it just like you did from stage one to stage two.
"First No-Diet Drug For Weight Loss"
Stage 5
At this stage the market has quite literally "seen everything." It's jaded. People aren't
going to believe a word coming out of your mouth.
What do you do? Shift gears. Instead of pitching what a product does, you prey on the
fact customers have desires to fill certain "roles." Your marketing should help your prospect
identify with the role your product places him in.
Prospects actually have two different kids of desires:
• To be thinner, wealthier, happier, etc.
• To identify with a certain role in society
This is where the fifth stage comes into play. You'll see a ton of big brand advertisers
using this stage to mass market. Think about luxury cars. Companies aren't pitching that they
have a hunk of machinery that will drive them form place to place. They're not in a features
and benefit slinging ad war. You're buying an experience, a role, and the marketing is catered
to this desire to belong and identify.
Post 5th Stage
After the last stage, new markets open up. These markets tend to segment even
further. Once these markets are segmented, the cycle of stages is ran through all over again.
The process repeats itself. Think about light beer or filtered cigarettes.
Wrapping It Up
Very important... What you always must remember is that the markets core
problem/desire will ALWAYS exist! The level of sophistication simply changes. People are
always going to want to be thinner, make more money, have better relationships, and solve all
of their problems. The only thing that ever changes is the way ...