Focus your business, focus your marketing. In the 1980s, Peter Lynch, the once-famous fund manager for Fidelity Investments Magellan Fund, wrote a book called “One Up On Wall Street.” The book is about how great companies build themselves and how to choose great companies as an investor. One of the chapters in his book is called “Deworsification”. Companies that decide that because they are good at one thing, they can do all things well and go beyond their core competencies.
The question I have is, is your company engaged in desworsification behavior? Companies that stay focused on their core competencies and core markets have the best chance of winning over time. First, focus all of your internal corporate resources on creating a sustainable competitive advantage in your core markets. Some companies decide to venture into new markets and new customer bases even though it tends to dilute their efforts and can actually make it harder for them to compete, even in their core markets. We see many different examples where a company started in one business, decided to sell their products in different markets, and failed to recognize the expense associated with building brand awareness, building channels, and actually driving sales across multiple markets. at the same time.
So, if your business has become overextended trying to sell products and services in too many markets at the same time, it’s time to rethink that strategy and stop selling yourself short and refocus your efforts on selling more products and services at your core. major markets and customer bases. A better strategy rather than devaluation is to find a way to add more services and more products to sales in your current markets; that’s a much smarter approach from a strategic marketing point of view.
