A broad target market can work if done right

Kay Plantes

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Companies are often criticized for casting too wide a net, trying to be too many things to too many customer segments. Last month's column showed how narrowing your net can dramatically improve results. But a broad net can work if you pay attention to some simple guidelines.

Take the Wisconsin Technology Council, an independent nonprofit that aims to advance Wisconsin's science and technology sector; it must serve many constituents.
First, the council serves the governor and state Legislature by acting as a policy adviser and advocate. Second, it serves academics, government agencies and public citizens interested in Wisconsin's science and technology sector. A third target audience consists of science and technology entrepreneurs and companies. Fourth is business-service providers, like law firms, and finally, the council must serve angel investors. Whew!

This sounds like a wide net. But is it? The first test is whether different target audiences or markets are synergistic -- that the value of two parts to a business is greater than the sum of their individual value to that business.

For example, direct service providers are highly synergistic with the technology entrepreneurs and companies who are the direct service providers' customers. The former helps fund the council in return for enhancing their company's image in the eyes of entrepreneurs, networking with entrepreneurs, and having an advocate in the Legislature and governor's office to grow their customer base.

Government and science and technology companies are also highly synergistic constituents. Two earlier attempts to advance the state's technology sector -- one focused solely on the government-adviser role and a second focused solely on private companies -- failed. A second test for appropriate audience or market width is: "Would my company be better off with a broader or a narrower set of target markets?" Angel in-vestors were originally only invited guests at council symposiums, but the council realized that better serving angel investors could help its other markets. The newly created Wisconsin Angel Network (WAN) facilitates deal collaboration between networks by presenting the Wisconsin science and technology companies ready for angel funding in a uniform way.

A final test of market width is, "Do our target markets or audiences offer the opportunity to achieve our desired growth?" If the answer is no, add offerings that your current target market would value, rather than add a target market that is not synergistic with the others.

Rather than expand the council's reach past science and technology companies in order to grow, the council further segmented science and technology companies and added offerings for each segment: entrepreneurs, start-up companies, early-stage companies, and established science and technology companies. For example, early-stage companies are given the opportunity to pitch angel investors in a forum called The Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.

The council succeeds with a wide set of target markets because synergies abound across their markets. Can you claim the same thing?
plantes@execpc.com

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