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Success as a Circle

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: Bayer initiated a classic Zero Gravity strategy by shifting their focus onto a new and growing market opportunity with a new value applied to the same product.

Success as a Circle

Innovating in Place is what happens when we circle our status quo focus areas in search of innovation, instead of shifting our perspectives and examining areas we never thought we'd explore.

Today I'm going to contradict that article with a real world example of circling for success. As we all know, there are no set rules for success in this new economy.

Bayer's Circle of Success

We all grew up with Bayer Aspirin, right? We started out with the children's version. I loved the orange ones so much I ate a whole bottle one day - that was not a good thing and I still remember the flavor of soap in my mouth. Sooner or later, we advanced to adult aspirin. But Bayer was the brand of choice in my house.

Bayer was synonymous with pain relief for many of us. But then came Tylenol and Motrin and Alleve and more came along. Suddenly Bayer had all kind of competition - alternatives that further segmented the market for pain relief, and played against Bayer's potential to upset stomachs. Suddenly, Bayer had to think differently about its target market and value.

So, Bayer created a new niche for its aspirin - preventing heart attacks. It didn't take long for everyone to know that an aspirin a day can keep the heart attack away. And so Bayer continued to sell aspirin - even in the face of competitive attacks. Bayer initiated a classic Zero Gravity strategy by shifting their focus onto a new and growing market opportunity with a new value applied to the same product.

But every market segment reaches its saturation point sooner or later. Only so many people are concerned about heart attacks, and businesses have to grow.

Bayer made another shift for the new economy.

But they didn't go out and create yet another new segment in the market. After all, creating new segments is expensive. Instead, they came full circle. Today their ads, still focused on heart attacks and the Bayer brand, are reminding us that they are aspirin is also great for pain relief.

At first I thought they might be desperate. But then I thought about the size of the pain killer market opportunity - and its growth as the Baby Boomers age and our next generation gets creaky. That's a nice sized market that's growing and will always be an available market. It's also a market where Bayer is known.

Bayer made a smart, conscious decision to circle back. By recapturing a small percentage of the pain relief market with that little reminder thrown into all of their advertising - Bayer can increase their revenues without increasing their costs.

Now that's a conscious decision to circle - for all the right reasons.

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Article Tags: bayer, market opportunity, product success, zero gravity



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Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Facebook and Business - While on the Elevator today I read that MySpace and Facebook are surpassing adult-sites in traffic volumes - just thought that was interesting fact. As far as your business is concerned I think that having a Facebook account is viable as long as you keep it business and the most important thing to increase your traffic would be to link up with people well-known in your business-circle. e.g. if your were in the Marketing Business Circle I would link up with people like Dan Kennedy, Mike Filsame, Yanik Silver etc. People linked up with them will now start pouring into your content.
Dan Kennedy - I was in the Glazer Kennedy Inner Circle and have over 20 years of direct mail experience both as a list broker, copywriter and strategist from the old school, before the internet. Don't forget that the internet is just one way to market. A good list broker can help you tremendously analyze your market and pick the right "response" list that works. The internet and pay per click is a great place to test headline and copy to see if there is a market for your product. Then use what works offline as well. Dan's methods work. Host/Beneficiary is actually a Jay Abraham term I believe.
Business Card = Money $Machine$! - Chris, I'm not sure the line of business you are in but something to consider. I got this idea from Dan Kennedy's Gold Inner Circle Newsletter. He stated in addition to just stating what you have to offer you also need to position your business cards to get people to actually contact your place of business so that you can capture their details and keep in contact with them. By keeping in contact you build trust and credibility and usually after 7-8 contacts they can potentially become a paying customer. How do you do that? Dan suggests offering intriguing, valuable information that helps a customer save money, relief from a particular stress or fear etc. but it has to be free so that they are encouraged to make contact with you. This works for B2B and B2C. B2B have been providing numerous whitepapers for a while now addressing different ways they have helped other companies with similar problems and end with how their product/service helped remedy the situation. Has anyone toyed with including "An Irresistible Offer" on their Business Cards? e.g. Free one hour consultation on your website to identify ways to increase your Lead generation by 40%"
Re: Success - I study success intently, and would like to share: Here's two excellent and nearly identical success-formulas from a couple of the world's masters. FIRST FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Clear, Definite Purpose 3. Committed Decision 4. Take Action In Faith (Bonus Secret Sauce: 5. Repeat Consistently) I made a video about this, but am not allowed to link it yet. Google "Ryze Success Steps" for it. Oh, and this is Napoleon Hill's (Master Of Success Laws)'s Formula. SECOND FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Understand It Is Already Done (Faith) 3. Relax & Allow It To Unfold (Go about your life calmly) This one is courtesy of Abraham-Hicks (inspiration for the movie The Secret). Hope that helps!


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