market development case study

Market Development Strategy In 6 Steps (With Free Template)

Download our free Market Development Strategy Template Download this template

Growing your business? Entering new markets is the key. But simply expanding your reach isn’t as simple as it sounds anymore. Fierce competition, picky consumers, and a volatile global landscape will challenge any company daring to expand.

Take consumer needs for example. They’re shifting at warp speed and companies have to adapt quickly if they want to stay relevant. However, Accenture’s The Human Paradox Report revealed that 88% of executives think that their customers are changing faster than their businesses can keep up . In contrast, 64% of consumers wish companies would respond faster to meet their changing needs.

This gap calls for a fresh approach when formulating and executing market development strategies.

In this article, we’ll show you how to navigate these challenges. We’ll walk you through six easy steps to build your market development strategy. Our goal is to help you develop a resilient and adaptable strategy to conquer new markets and drive business growth. Plus, you get a free template to help you create an execution-ready plan.

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What Is A Market Development Strategy?

A market development strategy is a business growth strategy focused on the introduction of your products and services to new, untapped markets. It involves identifying new market segments and tailoring offerings to meet their unique needs, leveraging existing strengths to thrive in new territories.

While this strategy may look different depending on your business goals, your niche, and your industry, the overall goals and focus remain the same: market expansion .

As one of the 4 strategies in the Ansoff Matrix , a market development strategy provides a company with a robust framework to focus its efforts. Companies may also consider the other strategies in the matrix, depending on their business goals.

The 4 strategies in the Ansoff model are:

Market Penetration Strategy : You focus your marketing efforts on sales of an existing product in a current market that you already have a stake in.
Market Development Strategy : You market your current products to a different customer base or target market.
Product Development Strategy : You market a new product line to a target audience that already loves your other products.
Diversification Strategy : You introduce new products into a new market, targeting new users as your potential customers.

These strategies can help you get a competitive advantage, better meet customer needs, minimize undue risk, and capitalize on growth opportunities to meet your business growth goals.

Examples Of Market Development Strategies

Market development strategies are one of the safer approaches to market expansion since you already understand the product or service you’re trying to provide. There are several types of market development strategies you can consider:

Geographic expansion : With this strategy, you target customers in new geographic locations with your existing products. For example, a company may expand from domestic markets to international ones.
Penetration pricing : You adjust prices to target a specific customer segment or increase market share. For example, you might lower prices during a peak shopping period like the holiday season to attract more customers.
Distribution channel development : You partner with other businesses to extend your product's reach, like promoting your products with businesses that your target market frequents.
Tailored promotion : This involves using tailored marketing campaigns to reach new demographics. For example, a company might use social media ads or direct product marketing to reach younger audiences or specific interest groups.
Rebranding or new branding : You create a new brand or change the messaging of a product line to appeal to new market segments, like creating a marketing plan that pivots your brand’s image to appeal to a younger audience.

A market development strategy can use one or more of these approaches. It all depends on what your market research uncovers about your target audience and how much market share you want to acquire with your expansion.

How To Create A Market Development Strategy: 6-Step Process

Follow these six steps to create an effective market development strategy:

Step 1: Understand your current market position

Before venturing into new markets, analyze where you stand in the existing market. Identify the unique aspects of your product that resonate with your current customers, as this insight will inform your strategy for entering new markets.

Understanding the strengths of your product will help you minimize marketing errors and optimize resource utilization across your initiatives .

Step 2: Identify market development opportunities

Once you've determined your product's readiness for a new market, identify prospective markets. Conduct thorough SWOT analysis and market segmentation research to pinpoint profitable markets with low risks.

This approach will help you focus on the most promising markets while avoiding the pitfalls of less viable options.

Step 3: Set goals and allocate resources

The next step is to prepare your business for the different stages and challenges that come with entering a new market. The best way to make sure you don’t get caught flat-footed is to set clear objectives and align them with your available resources.

A good framework to follow is the SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) since it helps you develop an actionable and realistic roadmap.

💡The Cascade model is another simple framework to consider. It helps you to build an execution-ready strategic plan with these crucial elements: focus areas, objectives, KPIs, and actions. Explore our strategy template library with over 1,000 templates, all built upon the foundation of the Cascade model.

Step 4: Create your plan

At this step, you shouldn’t neglect cross-functional collaboration among teams to create a market development plan. It’s not just about sketching a marketing plan to launch your new product or service; it’s about integrating various facets of your expansion, including critical logistics operations if you're venturing into new geographical terrains.

By synchronizing the efforts of diverse teams—from marketing to logistics—you ensure that all cogs in the wheel move in harmony. This cohesion is vital for devising a strategy that is both robust and adaptive, catering to the dynamic nature of market expansion.

👉How Cascade can help :

In Cascade’s workspace, cross-functional teams can simultaneously build multiple plans while tracking shared KPIs and aligning toward common goals. This not only brings transparency to the table but also eliminates duplicated efforts, ensuring everyone is rowing in the same direction.

What’s more, teams get full visibility into how their efforts contribute to shared objectives. This sense of visibility fosters a culture of ownership and accountability among the teams, further fueling the drive to achieve collective milestones.

💡 Avoid spending too much time in the planning phase. Markets change fast, so your plan might be outdated by the time it's launched. Move into the execution phase quickly, monitor closely, and iterate as you go.

Step 5: Execute your plan

Once everything is in place, it’s time to act upon your market development strategy and execute your plans. Launching into a new market can be unpredictable, so ensure everyone can handle potential complications.

With Cascade’s Relationships, you gain visibility into your organization's execution web by seeing how initiatives are connected and affect one another. You can prioritize critical initiatives, drop misaligned or duplicate projects, allocate resources to high-impact initiatives, and assign budget to maximize returns.

Step 6: Monitor and adapt your strategy

Even after launching your product, you must keep a close eye on its performance and adapt your strategy as needed. Regular monitoring and data collection are key to minimizing risks.

Be proactive and adaptive. Don’t just wait for the end of your launch to analyze outcomes. This will help you mitigate unexpected risks and seize unexpected opportunities that arise during your launch.

👉 How Cascade can help :

Cascade’s dashboards and reports will help you monitor and assess your plan’s progress in real-time.

Example of a Dashboard in Cascade strategy execution platform

And there’s more. Cascade integrates with your favorite project management, CRM, or BI tools, which means you can funnel data from various places into one central hub for automated collection and reporting. This centralized data empowers you and your stakeholders to make fast, data-driven, and confident decisions.

📚 Recommended read: Centralized Business Observability To Boost Your Bottom Line

Benefits Of A Market Development Strategy

Having a plan will help increase your likelihood of success—even when faced with unforeseen situations. A well-thought-out strategy can drastically improve your performance and help set yourself up for the best possible outcome.

These are other benefits of having an effective market development strategy:

Customization: By understanding the needs and preferences of a new market, you can tailor your product or service to provide a superior user experience, fostering brand loyalty among new customers.
Differentiation: It helps your business to differentiate itself from competitors, potentially capturing their customers.
Demand growth: Tapping into new markets can boost demand for your product or service, providing opportunities to increase your profit margins.
Upselling opportunities: With a new, interested customer base, strategies like upselling become more viable, promoting increased sales revenue.
Product refinement: By entering new markets, you can gather valuable feedback to refine your product or service, ensuring it fits the specific needs of different markets.
Strategic alignment : Aligns with your company's overall vision for growth, promoting consistency and synergy across all business operations.

3 Famous Market Development Examples And Their Strategies

These companies successfully leveraged market development strategies to succeed in new markets.

Example #1: Nike

Footwear brand Nike has a long history of using market development strategies effectively, expanding to global markets with a variety of different approaches. From targeting specific market segments with personalized advertising to collaborating with major figures in sports for promotions, it’s a brand that understands that the best way to reach its audience is to make itself relatable.

This approach is nothing less than successful. Nike remains a key player in the world of sportswear and has been made the official partner of many professional sports events around the world. But more than that, it’s become a household name that’s associated with sports itself—an impression that continues to be felt around the world.

👉 Get inspired by the Nike Strategy Plan Template to put together your growth strategy.

Example #2: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is one of the best examples of a company fully utilizing the advantages of market development strategies to tap new markets around the world. Using strategies like local marketing, diversification, and personalization, the company has managed to make its soft drink a blank slate that anyone in the world can relate to.

By considering the differences between markets and finding the common threads between them, Coca-Cola was able to market itself across several demographics with a simple yet clear impression of its brand. This has made the company yet another household name across the globe, all with a single base product that everyone can enjoy.

👉 Get inspired by the Coca-Cola Strategy Plan Template to put together your growth strategy.

Example #3: McDonald’s

McDonald's has always used various growth strategies to ensure that its entry into any new market is as smooth as possible. By integrating itself with the local demographic, personalizing its products to meet local demand, and putting an emphasis on its crew, the fast-food giant has been a welcome sight in many countries around the world.

The company’s emphasis on adapting to its target audience undoubtedly makes transitions into new markets more effective and profitable—not to mention giving it a solid foundation for long-term growth. By aligning itself to what its new markets already see as familiar, McDonald’s can make itself an easily recognizable sight even in places that are drastically different from each other.

📚Find out more about McDonald's business growth in this strategy study .

Execute Your Market Development Strategy With Cascade 🚀

Market expansion requires strategic focus and agility. With Cascade , the world’s #1 strategy execution platform , you have the right tool to control your strategy and its execution.

Cascade helps you align metrics, initiatives, and resources, driving fast and informed decisions. It's not just about making plans— it's about executing them effectively .

Use Cascade’s robust features to root your market development strategy in data, and translate your goals into executable outcomes.

Market Development Strategy FAQs

What are the disadvantages of a market development strategy.

There are two significant risks to market development strategies: compliance and cost. Changing regulations in new markets can significantly affect or even stop market expansion, while not being able to gather enough capital makes expansion impossible altogether.

If these challenges aren’t addressed, the company not only risks losing significant resources; it may even negatively affect the brand’s impression in the eyes of its targeted audience.

What are the three key points of a market development strategy?

The three key points of a market development strategy are:

Understanding your product’s strengths.
Marketing your product to your targeted market.
Differentiating your product from your competitors.

By meeting all these three points, your company is far more likely to achieve success with its market expansion, as well as establish itself with your new audience.

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How to Build a Market Development Strategy [Free Planning Templates]

Published: April 27, 2023

Your business is getting by just fine – but still, the questions remain: Could you be selling more? Is there an opportunity to increase market share? Is there any way you could further your product diversification efforts?

A group of marketers having lunch and creating a market devlopment strategy

Companies hoping to increase revenue can do so in many ways — such as increasing advertising budgets, expanding sales teams, and investing in product development. However, one often overlooked way to strengthen your gross sales is a purposeful and expertly executed market development strategy.

In this article, we'll explain what market development is and how you can employ it to grow your business. Then, we’ll take a look at some examples of market development strategies that work for top businesses today.

What is market development?

Market development is the expansion of your total addressable market (TAM) and how much market share you can expect to claim. The Ansoff Matrix (or Product/Market Expansion Grid) illustrates how a company might expand its TAM across four categories: market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification.

Each category rests upon two axes — one for market and one for risk. A company can expand its efforts into new or existing markets. Each poses more or less risk to the business.

Market Penetration

When businesses want to expand within their existing markets with low risk, they might attempt a market penetration strategy.

In this scenario, TAM increases because by offering a new product or service, a business can effectively increase the maximum amount of revenue it can attain from its existing customer base. A product launch is an effective way to execute this strategy.

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Product Launches

A company may release new iterations of a product they already sell successfully within the market. These iterations could include an improvement to the product that makes it a better fit for customers' needs, an improvement to the performance of the product, or any other changes you can reasonably market as added value.

The purpose of launching a new product is to generate excitement and buzz around the brand to increase sales.

Product Development

A more high-risk way to expand within an existing market is through product development. Even with its risk, make no mistake — this market development strategy can be rewarding.

Developing new products is a delicate process. Businesses should be keenly aware of their market, as market interest is a driving factor for product development.

If the audience isn’t receptive due to a lack of education about the product, a poor marketing campaign to promote the product, or even poor timing of launching the product, this strategy can be difficult to execute. However, companies that have failed at developing new products usually have in-depth learnings to apply to their next market development strategy.

When it comes to creating new products, consider the category of your product. Entering a space with many competitors will be a different experience than building something in a disruptive category.

“If you launch a product in an existing category with existing competitors, you’re playing by their rules and competing on their terms,” says Adrienne Joselow, director of product marketing at HubSpot. “If you instead launch a disruptive product that changes the category, you’re competing on new benefits where you clearly win — you change the game.”

Beyond making new products, product development comes in many forms. Here are a few examples.

If a business has been around for a long time or has been in hot water, it’s possible that the market has become disconnected from the brand. This can happen due to a lack of advertising around the brand itself, outdated positioning of a product, or distrust within the market.

Companies can rebrand themselves to reconnect with their existing market while positioning themselves as a viable option among the competition.

Adjusting the packaging of a product, offering a new size, flavor, or color, or even changing the name can help a company rebrand a product to have a better position within its existing market.

Another way to gain traction within an existing market is for a business to make its products more accessible or desirable through its pricing.

Repricing doesn’t necessarily mean lowering prices, although that is one way to execute a product development strategy. It could mean shifting the brand within the market to showcase value or luxury, thus justifying a rise in prices to capture those consumers.

Market Development

It’s possible to take a less risky approach when expanding into new markets. To develop a market, a business may offload some of the risks.

In this example, TAM increases because a business is adding more people to its target market — thus being able to service new customers without investing in a new product line. Here are a few ways a business can develop a new market.

Geographic Expansion

Research can reveal markets that are suitable for a business to thrive within based on where the business currently operates. Geographical expansion can work for both brick-and-mortar as well as online businesses.

Franchising

Giving individual business owners the right to use the brand and trademarks associated with a company is another way to expand into a new market without high risk.

In franchising agreements, the franchisee usually pays an upfront fee to the franchisor to obtain the rights to operate the business.

Diversification

Occasionally, a business may step out of its normal operations and market to create a product for a completely different industry and market. For this reason, diversification can present a major risk to the business, but it can be very rewarding if it’s carried out effectively.

Similar Product Diversification

A company may realize that the raw materials or byproducts of the goods they sell can be repurposed into a completely new product that can be marketed to a different audience than the one currently purchasing its products.

Unique Product Diversification

Rather than using existing products, a company may take a completely unique approach to penetrate a new market by offering a product or service that is different from anything offered in its industry.

How to Create a Market Development Strategy

Research your development opportunities.
Set your growth goals.
Create your marketing plan.
Go to market.
Analyze your results.

The decision of when and how to develop your existing market should be a methodical process. Just because your business has struck lightning once does not mean your new expansion plan is a guaranteed success.

Because of that reality, follow these steps and use these resources to determine if you should develop your market, how it should be developed, and whether or not the initiative is successful.

Free Market Research Kit

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

SWOT Analysis Template
Survey Template
Focus Group Template

Step 1. Research your development opportunities.

It's always tempting to go after the hottest trends — whether that means adding more areas of focus to your consulting business or adding more items to your restaurant menu.

However, before you spend time, money, or resources on developing your market based on trends, take these steps to determine if the expansion is worthwhile.

Review Your Buyer Personas

Featured Tool: HubSpot Buyer Persona Templates

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When expanding your market, you face the potential need for net new or revised buyer personas, which are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

Consider the motivations, demographics, and backgrounds of your new target market to help you decide whether or not the development initiative makes sense.

Research Your Market

Featured Tool: HubSpot Market Research Kit

Download This Kit

Understanding your hypothetical positioning in a market is key before attempting to enter it. To that end, conduct market research exercises like Porter's Five Forces Analysis or a SWOT Analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, the threat of substitutes, or other attributes compared to competitors in this new market.

Additionally, you'll want to calculate market penetration before moving forward with any plans to expand.

Survey Your Customers

If you're hoping to expand your current product line to generate more revenue from existing customers, make sure your intended expansion will be warmly received. Asking yourself why this development makes sense coming from your organization is a good first step.

However, talking to and surveying your customers to see if your proposed expansion is beneficial to their lives is a necessary proof point before expanding your offerings as a business.

Step 2. Set your growth goals.

A successful market development will come with added sales, profit, employees, customers, products, users, locations, or some combination of these criteria.

Because there's so much on the line, develop goals for which facets of your business you intend to grow, in addition to what your growth goal for each criterion is.

For example, by adding one more location, you may set the following growth goals:

Increase customers by 90%.
Increase revenue by 100%.
Double annual profits after recouping the initial investment.
Increase employee headcount by 20 people.

During this stage, you should also consider the requirements needed to help you hit your growth goals, such as initial funding, tools, and software to help you get the initiative successfully up and running.

Lastly, the most important metric to measure before attempting to expand or develop your market is ROI. In this step of the process, compare the upfront costs of developing your market as intended with the projected revenue numbers of a successful expansion.

If the ROI is not encouraging enough to move forward with, you may need to go back to the drawing board and determine a new growth strategy.

Featured Tool: Growth Strategy and Planning Template

Download the Template

Using the template above, outline your growth goals and strategy to lay the foundation for your market development initiative. This template will help you plan out the steps necessary to achieve your goals and help you determine whether or not they are realistic for this project.

Step 3. Create your marketing plan.

An increased market means an increased need for effective marketing.

To generate demand — or to capture existing demand in your market — make sure your marketing plan is up-to-date and reflective of the initiatives it will take to grow your market share to its desired level.

You’ll also need to make sure each of your offerings is differentiated. Customers should know what makes your products different from each other and from other products in the market.

“Messaging, messaging, messaging,” says HubSpot’s Adrienne Joselow. “Create a narrative that establishes a sense of urgency. Lean into what makes your product special — and how you can help your customers get that magic.”

Featured Tool: HubSpot's Marketing Plan Template

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Document your marketing plan supporting your market development with the template above, and make adjustments to it as needed to ensure you're reaching your market in an accurate, appealing, and consistent fashion.

Consider all of the following initiatives and how they'll play a role in generating more revenue in your newly developed market.

Email Marketing

Will you communicate with existing prospects via email to alert them of your initiative? Do you have a list of saved contacts who expressed interest in what you sell, were unable to make the purchase, and might now be able to purchase from you?

Social Media

Do you have organic and paid initiatives to generate buzz and spread the word to grow awareness on social media?

Local Marketing

If you're developing your market on a regional level, are you working with local publications, PR agencies, or advertising platforms to appeal to nearby potential customers?

Content & SEO

Do you have website and blog content planned to capture the interest of website visitors hoping to learn more about what you're selling?

When building your blog, consider the range of topics you’ll cover. If you cover many subjects, have experts devoted to managing different sections of your content, suggests HubSpot Marketing Manager Clint Fontanella.

“Group your content together so that an expert in one or a few related topics can focus their efforts on growing that type of content,” Fontanella says. “This way, they can pay closer attention to the nuances of that SERP landscape and tailor the content to the specific needs of the audience.”

Step 4: Go to market.

The time has come: Your research and planning are complete, and you're ready to formally enact your development strategy, whether it's opening the doors of your new location or making your new product available for purchase on your website.

But before you start collecting revenue, there are a few final steps to take — specifically, aligning your team on the best way to conduct this go-to-market launch.

Go to market successfully by managing three imperative internal tasks, all of which can be done with this Product Go-to-Market Kit :

Campaign Planning

The campaign plan should be a one-stop shop for anyone who has a stake in the success of this project. It should provide a general purpose for the market development project in addition to the tactical and strategic elements team members need to adhere to in order to see the project go off without a hitch.

Sales Planning

The sales plan should provide more specific insights for the sales team – especially regarding overall projections, team or individual goals, and strategies for how the organization intends to meet these goals

Team Email Updates

For the company at large, particularly for individuals who need to be informed but may not have set tasks to complete, team email updates are a staple of communication during market development.

This messaging should contain a status check for the launch timeline and outstanding tasks, and any notifications the company should be aware of during their day-to-day work.

To centralize your internal planning and communication efforts during your market development process, use the HubSpot Go-to-Market Planning Kit .

Step 5: Analyze your results.

Once you've taken the necessary actions to develop your market, the work has only begun. After launch day, you'll need to be sure customers are satisfied, products and services are high-quality, employees are retained, and, most importantly, goals are met.

Start collecting sales data as soon as possible so that you can begin analyzing whether or not you'll meet your projections. If not, you may have to determine a plan to either adjust your goals to become more realistic or adjust your strategy to ensure your goals are met.

Once data is available, make sure you're presenting your findings accurately and clearly so that stakeholders can fully understand what the results are, how you achieved them, and what the next steps of your market development strategy are.

“Test and iterate on your way to launch, through launch, and beyond. Stay agile. Figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what could be with adjustments,” Joselow advises. “Don’t be afraid to pivot.”

Featured Tool: Marketing Reporting Templates

Available in PowerPoint, Excel, and Google Drive, these templates will help the project driver communicate the results of your market development strategy to your team.

The Benefits of Building a Marketing Development Strategy

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of extending to new markets. However, to be successful, you must innovate with intention and organize the chaos from the outset.

“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion,” states Beth Comstock, Former CMO and Vice Chairman of GE. “We must continue to innovate every day.”

With thorough planning, you can create a robust strategy that can better take advantage of new and emerging opportunities.

Other benefits of refining your marketing development strategy follow.

You can get an edge over competitors.

Creating a market development strategy that attracts a new audience means you may end up the only supplier in the game.

By getting creative and adjusting your marketing to prove a fit for new buyers, you’ll have less competition and more market share before other producers wise up to what you’ve accomplished.

You’ll reduce risk through preparation.

One of the known risks of moving to new markets is the unpredictability of reactions to your offerings. Knowing this, your market development strategy can include tactics that pave the way for success. One effective tactic to try is A/B testing. This presents two variations to your target audience, tracks the results, and determines which variation is more effective. Surprisingly, only 17% of marketers use landing page A/B tests to improve conversion rates.

One example of A/B testing beyond the landing page could be creating more than one billboard design to present in new geographic locations. Some communities react more favorably to reds vs. blues, or straightforward ads vs. clever ones.

Having a few prepared as part of an A/B strategy to analyze the results can provide insights into how best to invest future marketing dollars in that region.

You can brave the unexplored.

Confidently open doors for new opportunities to develop by folding an experimental budget into your market development strategy. Making a safe space for leaning into creative or unorthodox ideas is smart innovation toward a big payoff.

Baking in the financial risk from the beginning enables you to control financial losses and take bigger, bolder leaps.

Market Development Strategy Examples

1. carl’s jr. and hardee’s — geographic expansion.

Although these two companies started as separate restaurants — Carl’s Jr. on the west coast and Hardee’s on the east coast — they merged in the late 1990s to become one company under two names.

From a high-level perspective, this might seem like a branding and marketing nightmare, but within their respective geographic markets, the different names have been successful.

Carl’s Jr. took the opportunity to acquire Hardee’s, thus expanding the burger chain across the country, becoming one of the largest burger chains in the United States.

2. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Market Penetration

Sometimes, a market development opportunity can appear when you least expect it. That was the case with Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

The company’s brand was so well-integrated into its marketing operations that a simple tweet in response to Chick-Fil-A prompted a tumultuous beef over which brand had the best chicken sandwich.

Once the Tweet gained traction, Popeyes quickly capitalized on the opportunity to sell more of a product they had recently launched.

Although some logistics issues caused supply and demand imbalances, the brand was able to maintain a stronghold on the market once the sandwiches were back in stock.

In Q2 of 2021, Popeyes was still running TV ad campaigns for the chicken sandwich — more than two years after the incredibly successful product launch. By Q3 of 2022, however, the buzz around their chicken sandwich buzzed off. They shifted their strategy to become more convenient for customers to access, and to create a more consistent experience for those using online ordering.

This is a solid example of what our CTO and Co-Founder Dharmesh Shah meant when he said, “Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just the marketing or sales, or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans.”

Popeyes plans to add 200 more locations split between the U.S. and Canada.

3. The Lash Lounge — Franchise

Since 2010, The Lash Lounge has been scaling its presence across the United States through franchising. As of 2020, the company has grown to 108 locations, most of which opened around 2019.

Franchising helped this company expand into new markets with relatively low risk. The Lash Lounge team trains the new franchisees on their techniques and immerses them in the culture to create one cohesive team that doesn’t feel disjointed.

4. Unilever — Diversification

Today, we know Unilever as the parent company of some of the most notable brands like Dove, Breyers, and Hellmann’s. However, the company initially went into business selling soap.

After realizing that the ingredients for making soap shared similarities with those needed for making margarine, they diversified and expanded into a new market with a new product. Over time, Unilever created and acquired new brands in the soap, cosmetics, butter, and ice cream industries, essentially diversifying its product line and market.

Developing Your Market

Before you follow the latest trend in marketing, take a moment to analyze your strategy thus far to forge a path that will yield success.

By planning a market development strategy, you’ll have the opportunity to assess your company’s risk tolerance and understand where your business stands within the market. You can then turn your market development idea into a reality.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Coca-Cola: Ansoff Matrix

The objective of every business is to grow, be it a start-up that’s just closed its first deal or an established market leader seeking to further increase profitability. But how does a business decide upon the best strategy for growth? The Ansoff Matrix management tool offers a solution to this question by assessing the level of risk – considering whether to seek growth through existing or new products in existing or new markets.

To demonstrate the robustness and legitimacy of Ansoff’s Matrix, it has been applied to Coca-Cola, the most well-known trade name in the world and a company today operating in over 200 countries; and a brand that has undertaken countless growth strategies in its 100+ year history.

Market Penetration: ( EXISTING Market, EXISTING Product)

This strategy involves an attempt to increase market share within existing industries, either by selling more product to established customers or by finding new customers within these markets – typically by adapting the ‘Promotion’ element of the Marketing Mix. Due to the incredible strength of Coca-Cola’s brand, the company has been able to utilise market penetration on an annual basis by creating an association between Coca-Cola and Christmas , such as through the infamous Coca-Cola Christmas advert, which has helped boost sales during the festive period.

For a full case study of a market penetration strategy, take a look at this article I recently wrote about its implementation at Heinz .

Product Development: ( EXISTING Market, NEW Product)

This involves developing new products for existing markets by thinking about how new products can meet customer needs more closely and outperform competitors. A prime example of this was the launch of Cherry Coke in 1985 – Coca-Cola’s first extension beyond its original recipe – and a strategy prompted by small-scale competitors who had identified a profitable opportunity to add cherry-flavoured syrup to Coca-Cola and resell it. The company has since gone on to successfully launch other flavoured variants including lime, lemon and vanilla.

For a full case study of a product development strategy, see my article on crisp brand Walkers’ ‘Do Us A Flavour’ campaign .

Market Development: ( NEW Market, EXISTING Product)

Thirdly, the market development strategy entails finding a new group of buyers for an existing product. The launch of Coke Zero in 2005 was a classic example of this – its concept being identical to Diet Coke; the great taste of Coca-Cola but with zero sugar and low calories. Diet Coke was launched more than 30 years ago, and whilst more females drink it every day than any other soft drink brand, it came to light that young men shied away from it due to its consequential perception of being a woman’s drink. With its shiny black can and polar opposite advertising campaigns, Coke Zero has successfully generated a more ‘masculine’ appeal.

For a full case study of a market development strategy, check out my post on Quorn’s recent emphasis on the protein content of its veggie meals .

Related Diversification: ( NEW Market, NEW Product)

This involves the production of a new category of goods that complements the existing portfolio, in order to penetrate a new but related market. In 2007, Coca-Cola spent $4.1 billion to acquire Glaceau, including its health drink brand Vitaminwater. With a year-on-year decline in sales of carbonated soft drinks like Coca-Cola, the brand anticipates the drinks market may be heading less-sugary future – so has jumped on board the growing health drink sector.

For a full case study of a related diversification strategy, take a look at this article I recently wrote on the launch of Aero into the hot chocolate industry .

Unrelated Diversification: ( NEW Market, NEW Product)

Finally, unrelated diversification entails entry into a new industry that lacks important similarities with the company’s existing markets. Coca-Cola generally avoids risky adventures into unknown territories and can instead utilise its brand strength to continue growing within the drinks industry. That said, Coca-Cola offers official merchandise from pens and glasses to fridges, therefore exploiting its strong brand advocacy through this strategy.

A more comprehensive case study of unrelated diversification is explain in my article on Virgin’s frequent use of the strategy .

Conclusion:

What is clear with Ansoff’s Matrix is the incremental increase in risk offered by the five strategies, due to the growing cost with each step beyond market penetration and uncertainty of operating in new markets and industries:

Going back to the example of Coca-Cola, the firm’s emphasis on market penetration and other non-diversification strategies therefore suggests it is a relatively risk-averse company, when compared with a firm like the Virgin Group.

That said, there is no one best strategy to select, with each offering different benefits to companies in various circumstances. For example, Coca-Cola has had little need to diversify relative to the Virgin brand which traditionally operates in uncertain markets such as the volatile airline industry, meaning diversification actually spreads risk.

Even so, Coca-Cola would not be the power house it is today without knowing when to step out of its comfort zone – the Glaceau acquisition being a clear case in point. Even though there was minor potential that it could dilute Coca-Cola’s reputation for carbonated soft-drinks in the short term, it has been deemed a suitable strategy given the brand’s long-term view for growth in the face of a changing market.

29 Growth Marketing Case Studies

by Samuel J. Woods

More than anything else, I regularly come across people asking for growth marketing case studies .

It’s one thing to have a list of “growth hacks” and a general sense of growth marketing methodology and process.

But quite another to learn how other companies went from zero to traction, then scale and growth.

Everyone wants to discover what other companies have done successfully. And see what’s possible, across channels, growth processes , “growth hacking”, and growth teams .

But uncovering hidden growth opportunities takes time, effort, analysis, and constant testing.

So, I analyzed and studied how a number of companies did it.

What you’ll see in this article are a wide range of companies—SaaS, apps, marketplaces, e-commerce, platforms.

Many went from small to big, fast.

Here are 29 growth marketing case studies.

Growth Marketing Case Studies Reveal a Variety of Growth Paths

Given the spread in types of companies, you can expect to learn about various growth strategies, tactics, and the path they took toward exponential growth.

Some took years, others took months. But one way or another, they tapped into a market, a need, with a product or service that solved their problems.

Growth Marketing Case Study #1: Etsy

From June 2005 to 2022, craft super seller Etsy went from a concept to nearly 14 billion in sales (in 2021), including more than 4 million sellers and almost 40 million active buyers.

Now, Etsy is a publicly-traded Nasdaq company (ETSY) with a $13 billion market cap.

How did they do it? Here’s the snapshot.

A Needed Change: Craft sellers were aggravated that eBay was so cumbersome, stingy, and seemed to lack care for sellers. These factors created an environment that was supercharged for a platform like Etsy.

They Weren’t Lazy: A marketplace is unique because it requires both buyers and sellers to be successful.

Without awesome products, there would be no need for buyers.

The founders went to every artisan flea market and craft fair to introduce them to the craft-specific selling platform.

Finding Buyers: Etsy was able to tap into a rise in the craft industry fueled by a renaissance of handmade crafters.

Some of these early product creators had built an audience but hadn’t interconnected or listed their items through an eCommerce platform.

Growing Organically: Typically, Etsy only pays for around 2-7% of their traffic (which is insane). This “grassroots” growth comes from getting out of the way of their sellers.

With 150 third-party apps and sellers who are empowered to grow their own business as they see fit, getting out of the way has led to the exponential growth of both sellers and buyers.

Continued Growth: Since its IPO, Etsy has continued to grow rapidly. Now, growth comes primarily through experimentation and a growth marketing strategy handled by teams of people.

Split testing, coming up with experiments, breaking down features, and changing small elements to gauge usefulness and user response has fueled growth.

Key Takeaways from Etsy:

Having a keen sense of market needs can lead to initial traction and validation.
One of the best ways to see growth in a new online business is to promote it through physical events to the public.
Provide the right tool(s) and network with key players (that have an audience that needs your stuff).
Figuring out ways to empower users to become brand ambassadors is a key to long-term and sustainable growth.
Large amounts of growth are possible at every level. Strategies may change, and teams may grow, but organized experimentation, failing fast, and setting up processes will help you succeed.

Growth Marketing Case Study #2: Nasty Gal

From 2006 until 2008, Nasty Gal was an eBay business that bought and sold vintage goods for its founder (Sophia Amoruso) to try and make a living.

In 2008, she opened a stand-alone e-Commerce site, and by 2011, it hit $28 million in sales.

The following year, Nasty Gal reported $100 million in revenue and began experimenting with physical locations.

Here’s the brief on how.

Consistent Persistence: Amoruso started an eBay store (called Nasty Gal Vintage) back in 2006 to pay rent. She realized a heavy desire among millennials to dress in vintage clothes due to the unique styles of previous eras.

When she hit what would be a detrimental blow to most (her eBay store was shut down), it didn’t stop her.

That persistence led to an independent site with $28 million in revenue by 2011 (all from vintage clothing arbitrage).

Leveraging Platforms: Using share-worthy style, high margin vintage finds, and a few local models, Nasty Gal built a large following using eBay and social platforms like Myspace (well before Facebook ads).

Her strategy was simple in the early days. She made her models not only look but feel awesome and set out to “…sell things for more than you bought them.”

Perceived Value: Without even knowing what it was, Sophia knew that if she positioned clothing a certain way, it would drive up the price of the early eBay auctions.

Taking decades-old clothing and styling it on the right college-aged model with thoughtful positioning and accessories meant large profits early on and continues today. The way you present can alter the way products are perceived.

Initial Testing: Early eBay was a split-testing ground for Nasty Gal. Testing everything, including the headlines on auctions, the images available, product styles, and putting one article of clothing on several different models to try what hit and missed.

This experimentation led to gains week after week and a store that constantly performed better.

Raising the Stakes: Once the eBay store was shut down, the site came to life with a hefty social following and loyal fans. Selling out of merchandise led to Amoruso seeking a Nasty Gal line.

Through continued experimentation, social presence, and sticking to its core audience, the company has seen incredible growth.

With $100 million in revenue (2015), $65 million in VC funds last year, and two physical locations, the growth is set to continue.

Growth Marketing Case Study #3: Growth Hackers

This look at Growth Hackers will speak strongly to the frustrated founder who has hit a growth plateau.

The company seemingly stalled at 90,000 users. Then, after a little focus and only 11 weeks, that number reached over 150,000.

Get ready for a straight dose of data as we look at how they did it.

High Tempo Time: Testing different growth strategies had slowed, and goals weren’t being met. These two factors led to a stagnant user growth chart and a company not living up to its name. Recognizing this was a huge first step to setting a goal of three experiments per week.

Defining Experiments: The types of things Growth Hackers identify as experiments aren’t just a simple split test (even though those are included). New initiatives, new/revamped product releases, and other things were included to test.

It Takes a Village: A team of people was gathered from around the company to be involved with generating the ideas for experimentation.

The Hackers cited that if one person is in charge of the idea process, the number of experiments to be tested will run out without seeing the type of growth that is desired.

Their efforts resulted in hundreds of ideas that had to be prioritized by potential benefit and ease/speed of implementation.

Pace Yourself (and Meet Often): Some of the experiments took more effort than others (which is normal). However, when these larger tests were run, it caused the crew not to hit their three-a-week goal.

This problem required that they set weekly meetings to identify problems and methodically sort through their experiment list.

The Process Works: Growth Hackers was able to grow the number of users (62,000) within 11 weeks. That same number of users took 32 weeks for the company to attain during launch.

Growth Marketing Case Study #4: Slack

If you love growth stories, you’ve heard of slack. This would-be game company that turned its focus to team communication has received an incredible amount of attention.

From 15,000 users at launch (February 2014) to over 10 million daily active users now, their story is nothing short of amazing.

Here are the highlights of their early traction.

Defining a New Tool: For slack, defining itself was an issue at first. It was when they defined an entire software category that existed(but really didn’t) that they found their focus.

Offices around the world were using dozens of different tools to communicate with other team members and colleagues which made slack a no-brainer to create.

Selling the Dream: Slack is a useful tool, but offices had to be convinced they really needed it (borderline couldn’t live without it).

Since they were able to identify a whole new market, they also had to deal with educating their ideal customers and convincing them it was a need.

Once they were able to get this across, traction came like a flood.

Focus is Key: Early on, the slack founders were influenced to pick out the software’s key features and just do those as well as they possibly could.

Winning big where they won instead of even focusing across the board.

Features weren’t wholeheartedly denied, but an incredible level of care was spent perfecting file sharing and search synchronization (incredibly important to highly connected teams).

Once offices saw the results, word of mouth caused growth to catch fire again.

Give it Away: Slack followed suit of some of the most popular organization apps and offered a free service that was incredibly useful. Teams who saw that value would get the better options to a tune of a 30% conversion rate (free to paid).

A freemium model was a huge factor in the early growth that brought all of the media and VC attention, but the app itself kept paying customers.

Smooth Onboarding: Since it is a useful tool, slack had to be careful not to create a cumbersome learning curve for users.

The development of a simple and intuitive interface that allows teams to be created seamlessly and communicate immediately helped more people hit the ground running.

Growth Marketing Case Study #5: New Relic

New Relic is an analytics company that reveals the deepest secrets of cloud software and apps.

From their start in 2008 until now, they’ve managed to gain 15,400 clients (as of 2020) and monitor over 1 million websites and 1 billion (with a b) apps.

Their customers range from startups to Fortune 500s and government agencies. Their growth is incredible.

So how’d they do it? Here’s how.

Solve a Problem: The basic rule of entrepreneurship is to solve a need, and New Relic knew that they would have to create something great for a market as picky as a development community.

Early traction can almost all be traced by the quality of their product and its usefulness, making their focus on providing an excellent tool worthwhile.

Create Salespeople: Early marketing efforts were heavily focused on not only selling to large development firms but specifically Ruby on Rails programmers.

This approach was different in the sense that New Relic went after people instead of agencies, leading to popularity among those who would actually use their product.

Things like t-shirts for users and meetups led to a sense of community all built around their excellent product.

Give It Away: A freemium model would give skittish developers a chance to view their program’s analytics, enticing them to upgrade to paid.

New Relic’s marketing was simple, convince prospects to sign up and deploy to get a t-shirt and let the product do the rest.

Spending Money: In addition to shirts, the company is spending money on social ads and traffic at a high rate to gain relevant traffic. The brand is also employing multiple tools and SaaS products to gather the data they need to grow even faster.

Addictive Personality: With the product just being so dang valuable, their customers actually get dependent on the insights gained from it.

This need for the data has led to an almost unheard of negative churn rate (meaning their customers spend more year over year).

This rare occurrence happens due to the amount of data created and the space taken up on servers. Talk about growth.

Growth Marketing Case Study #6: Tinder

Shrouded in scandal and misinformation, tinder has a truly fascinating story.

Their growth has come from a mix of newsworthy attention as well as innovation in a stale and competitive market.

From the start in late 2012 until now, they’ve garnered 75 million monthly active users.

All those people use the iconic “swipe” feature over 1 billion times per day.

How much they’re worth and how much trouble they’ve seen maybe cloudy, but the best story is in their growth.

Here’s the snapshot.

Ground Game: Online dating is a notoriously tough niche, but tinder knew what it needed to succeed.

A large number of females using the app would then entice guys to join, but the supply of potential dates had to be there first.

They met this problem from sorority houses, getting girls to sign up one dorm at a time. Next, you just had to tell the college guys there were girls.

Make It Fun: The need for loads of users in each town led to the gamification of the tinder app itself.

By creating the ability to keep “swiping,” you create a sense of wonder and hope that you’ll hit the jackpot with another flick or two. This feature has been a huge factor in the overall success.

Make It Better: Tinder was able to not only create an app in a crowded market, they were able to highlight some common issues with the giants and make them better. Ladies are less likely to get heckled by countless heathens with features built into the app, making more women use (and even enjoy) the app.

Keep Going: To keep people’s profiles fresh and used, tinder continues to add features and tweak them into a more social experience (without losing its core value).

Add-ons like ‘matchmaker’, which allows someone to introduce two friends through the app, or ‘moments’, which allows a user to share edited visuals with matches.

Growth Marketing Case Study #7: Stripe

If you want to create a company that attracts investors like a bug zapper on a front porch, listen to stripe’s story.

A couple of guys (with previous success) managed to create an online payment processor that attracted the attention of the guys who made one of the first (PayPal).

With a current market cap of more than $94 billion, Stripe processes billions more every year.

How’d it happen? Let’s see.

Addressing Elephants: While payment processors existed, they were incredibly cumbersome.

Connectivity and customers were growing at a far greater rate than the ability to take payments. This obvious problem led the three founders to have a simple goal, make it easy for ecommerce businesses to take payments.

Being Different: Figuring out the frustration of other popular processors (PayPal, Google), Stripe was able to develop a platform that was business friendly.

Features that set them apart included the ability for customers to stay on the seller’s site for the entire transaction, and reducing backend features that were confusing and difficult to navigate.

Close Customer Base: Stripe used its surroundings to find it’s first loyal customers. Since the company was part of a community of companies from an incubator, they were able to use that as leverage (most of them needed a payment processor).

Organic Growth: The product spoke well to online business owners and received incredible word of mouth exposure during it’s early days.

To accelerate this advocacy, stripe sent care packages, including shirts and stickers, to developers who used the product. There were also meetups and community events that fostered loyalty.

Constant Improvement: Stripe knows who their customers are and have continuously created new solutions for developers to keep them happy and talking.

From offering specialized support for all popular programming languages, to adding new features, there is always a better stripe in development. They’ve even begun to tackle mobile payments which almost ensures more growth in the coming months.

Growth Marketing Case Study #8: Spotify

Spotify. You’ve probably heard the name. You’re likely one of the 406 million users.

The company was valued at $10 billion in just six years on the market.

Now, it’s publicly traded with a more than $20 billion market cap.

This story is incredible. We’ll take a quick look at the key ingredients to this explosive growth.

Be Different: Music is a giant industry, and the competition couldn’t be tougher.

However, there was a gaping hole in the market. Spotify launched in the U.S. with the simple, yet powerful difference of all the music you want for a low monthly fee.

From a per album and track pricing method to unlimited is almost the definition of disruption. Growth was immediate.

Deliver the Goods: There were other services, but with no options. These early versions were more like radio and lacked to ability to create a soundtrack to your life.

Spotify allowed people to be in control of their music, a feature that many would pay for instead of being fed music.

Free Growth: The freemium model is one often used to help disrupt industries. Spotify does this by delicately placing ads and limiting features as not to upset users or be classified as pirating (70% of ad income goes to song rights holders).

Multiple Launches: Before launching in the U.S. in 2011 (partnering with Facebook which was another huge proponent to early growth), the company beta launched and then officially launched in multiple European countries. These tiered released allowed them to hone their message and buyer personas.

U.S. and Facebook: Launching in the U.S. (after finding their voice) caused Spotify to explode, increasing web traffic well over a million visitors a month within four months time.

Their partnership with Facebook and integrating with the social network garnered another exponential growth session gaining 1 million new users within one month.

Growth Marketing Case Study #9: Airbnb

Necessity may be the mother of all invention, but AirBnB almost didn’t succeed.

Sometimes it takes real tenacity to see growth and it worked out well for the lodging giant.

Now worth $100 billion and responsible for more stays than anyone else in the hospitality industry, this company has seen itself through tough times to sit on the top of an industry in record time.

We’ll give you the highlights.

Hustle Fund: Well before their 450 million in funding, the founders of AirBnB had to raise their own capital. Creating a couple of politically geared cereals (Obama-O’s and Cap’n MCcain’s) the team was able to raise 30k of crucial funds.

Using Your Skills: One of the most questionable factors to Airbnb’s growth is their pillaging of Craigslist.

These gifted developers engineered a solution that was able to pirate both visitors and rental listers from the popular community site.

This tactic isn’t easy and is borderline taboo, but was used to create the largest vacation property site on the internet.

Do What You Gotta: Early on, too many properties were struggling with revenue.

The problem was traced to bad pictures which created less interest. The solution was very hands on; renting an expensive camera and taking high quality photos of every property in New York.

The income doubled and eventually became an expensive (yet effective) program. AirBnB now employees 2000 freelance photographers and revenue has hit exponential growth since the program’s introduction.

Removing Fear: There are obvious concerns when renting your home to strangers (and vice versa).

The company realized that removing fears of those who were interested in using AirBnB (yet hadn’t rented or listed) was a crucial element of growth.

Introducing social integration allowed visitors to see connections and social proof of those who had stayed in a particular location.

Going WorldWide: With so many beautiful locations around the world, AirBnB has started to see another round of huge growth from international stays. This outlet will also be a focus for continued increase in the coming years.

Growth Marketing Case Study #10: WhatsApp

WhatsApp started as a company that stuck to its guns to do one thing (allowing people to message inexpensively) and do it without ads.

This initial goal helped them attract users for the messaging app quickly, but had them second guessing any funding.

After some tenacious VC’s the app now boasts over two billion users and 1 million more daily!

Here’s the brief story of how it happened.

Pivot Power: Most companies don’t reach success offering their service they way it started. WhatsApp started as an app to let others know you weren’t available by phone. This idea failed to catch fire, until push notifications were invented.

This new feature allowed WhatsApp users to alert friends of their status instantly across the world, giving life to the idea for a messaging app.

Principle Power: The app’s founder has a note taped to his desk professing “no ads” among other things. Their product doesn’t use ads and is free for the first year($0.99 cents/year thereafter).

These core principles are still alive and set WhatsApp apart from dozens of competitors aiming for ad revenue and other gimmicks.

Pricing Power: WhatsApp is such a low-cost alternative to many other carriers and services in other countries that international growth is faster than most other famous startups combined (Facebook included). Pricing to scale is a popular feature among startups.

Timing Power: WhatsApp had expenses for the free service that required a paid option. This problem led to the $1 price point it has today, but the timing of the paid option came with an ability to share pictures which meant growth stayed steady.

Facebook Power: The app has been purchased by Facebook, which has more than added to the growth (to the tune of 25 million users a month). However, the change does come with skepticism due to Facebook’s privacy concerns.

Growth Marketing Case Study #11: LinkedIn

Executives, middle class job seekers, and networking connectors love LinkedIn.

Within a year of going live (2003) the networking social platform had half a million users, and the growth didn’t slow down there.

It’s now a publicly traded company (LNKD) that boasts well over 810 million users and thousands of employees worldwide.

Here’s the quick look at their growth story.

Start With a Need: The need for quality prospects on both the employer and employee sides of the job coin warranted a solution.

While there were other options in the early 2000’s, none offered a place for executives and decision makers to find the connections they needed. The opportunity that LinkedIn capitalized on.

Niching Down: While the startup did find resistance in the beginning (tech bubble trouble), they were able to focus on Silicon Valley and find executives eager to fill their sparse staffs with qualified talent and connect with others.

This choice would eventually garner the acceptance of the professional community.

Not So Free: While LinkedIn did remain free, they weren’t making significant revenue from ads. When they added paid features like job listings, subscriptions, and more recently and ad platform, their revenue began to take shape.

Focus on Strength: Monitoring analytics allowed LinkedIn to notice that they were very good at engaging the initial traffic reaching their site, but not as good connecting with a cold email audience. This fact led them to focus on their homepage conversions rather than email, a difficult but effective solution that led to exponential growth.

Testing to Virality: Before the company would concentrate on revenue it had to secure its growth. To do this there was a heavy period of good old growth hacking experiments, tests, and analytics until they reached a planned viral loop.

Audience Before Business: Building a large and engaged community of users before concentrating on revenue gave LinkedIn the opportunity to build a business model around an audience they already knew (and had in their pocket).

This knowledge has led to acquisitions (Slideshare) and content platforms (Pulse) that are driving continued growth.

Growth Marketing Case Study #12: Yelp

If you love a good not-so-underdog story, then Yelp’s story is probably one you’ll enjoy.

In a world of social review sites, yelp managed to rise above some big branded names and boasts over 95 million reviews.

The site received an average of 85 million views in the fourth quarter of 2015 on mobile devices alone.

It started from humble San Fran beginnings and has gone on to become a publicly traded company worth around $5 billion.

Openly Different: Yelp decided early on that reviews wouldn’t be anonymous (like the other review sites). Instead, users have profiles and are empowered to share more reviews becoming a valued member of a community.

Fostering Quality: Other review sites are often full of overly negative and one time reviewers. Yelp has created a system to reward regular reviewers with titles, ranks and other goodies to encourage a constant and accurate stream of reliable reviewers.

Start Small: Starting in the local San Francisco scene, the Yelp team was able to fix issues and gather a tight knit community. Afterwards, it was easier to take on city after city which made growth naturally exponential.

Genuinely User Friendly: So many review sites have to cater to advertisers. The problem with this model is that most ads are for the companies being reviewed (an obvious conflict of interest). However, Yelp has managed to keep the focus on a democratic review system and is seemingly unbiased.

Natural Growth: When you can create a user generated environment that allows visitors to genuinely find the best place to spend their money, you will have the type of growth that Yelp has seen. This growth has in turn spread to the businesses that deserve it. Local places that have the reviews see a jump in revenue.

Growth Marketing Case Study #13: GitHub

Programmers and developers love the idea of open source, but had a cumbersome process to add value and create.

Seeing this need has led GitHub to an incredible amount of success.

From initial traction of 100,000 users in a year, to now having over 73 million active users with thousands more every day.

Here’s how it took shape.

Make Something Easier: The problem with using open source software was the process of downloading, making changes, and then actually seeing them used.

Essentially, it was the entire process that was broken. Creating a hub for git repositories that could easily be worked on and shared was the answer (namely GitHub).

Let It Ride: With developers loving the now easier (but not perfect) way to develop open source, it became a place that offered many new programs.

This supply led to those seeking (demand) and you had a rapid growth process that would eventually be a full audience of people developing solutions and others who needed them.

Making Money: Startups that offer a freemium model often times run into trouble getting users to pay for premium memberships. GitHub had a natural solution come to them. Businesses and other developers wanted a private repository and were willing to pay for it.

This structure created an entirely different membership that the company could charge to use.

Open Popularity: Since open source software is a huge deal, GitHub was in the perfect place to become the poster child of a movement. This position was in some ways deliberate, but in all ways has led to crazy user gains.

Fast Delivery: GitHub doesn’t linger on new features. The developers find a way to deliver things quickly and then work to improve it after feedback. This quality has led to continued growth and loyalty from existing users.

Growth Marketing Case Study #14: Upworthy

While Upworthy may not be a SaaS app, or other type of software tool, its story is just as grandiose.

Scrolling through your Facebook feed you’ve seen posts from this popular viral site (or others who are emulating their success).

Endearing stories, funny videos, or multitudes of other entertaining posts are created to influence social users to visit the site.

Shortly after their launch (in 2012), Upworthy was seeing traffic to the tune of almost 90 million visitors a month (by November 2013).

Here’s how they did it.

Fast Changes: Originally, Upworthy wanted to capitalize on an election year and cover mainly political topics.

The team quickly realized that this material wasn’t getting them the traction that they needed, and switched to other topics that were already popular.

Strictly Wants: Instead of providing a need, Upworthy provides the types of content that people seem to naturally gravitate toward. Instead of text based articles, they concentrate on visual content that speaks to human emotions and behaviors.

Solid Formula: While they can’t bottle virality, they sure are good at it. Their success has come from a solid formula of curating content from around the web as well as a proprietary system of editing and evaluating it.

It essentially comes down to using data to find the content, tweaking (again by using the data), and analyzing it after it’s published (creating more data to use).

Conversions: Without a steady base of social traffic, the site wouldn’t have nearly as many visitors. To gain a steady increase of likes and followers, the team has had to A/B test various methods. These experiments have led the site’s facebook page to nearly 5 million likes since launch.

Emotions Driven: Since the click is performed by a human and the content isn’t a need, emotions play a major role in getting a visitor to the site.

The need to compel leads to tests of material, but more importantly headlines.

The click is the most important aspect so those few words that are shown are the most vital aspect (along with the image).

Future Growth: With mobile being the future, the brand has made changes to make mobile users just as click happy. In addition to mobile, the international market is ripe, but needs different forms of content and more testing is needed to see the growth already achieved in the states.

Growth Marketing Case Study #15: HubSpot

Unless you’ve been under a rock over the past few years, you’ve heard the term “inbound marketing”.

You can thank HubSpot for that. On top of crafting a new term, they’ve become a billion dollar company.

Their story is great for those who have high dollar products, but still want to see rapid growth.

With each client bringing in an average of over $6000, they’ve managed to see incredible gains in a short time.

Here’s how.

Inbound Marketing: It’s no surprise that HubSpot practices what it preaches and uses inbound as an incredible source of growth.

Having multiple blogs (that provide intense levels of value) and a great overall compelling online presence, has given them a ton of success (and continues to do so).

Free Stuff: There are few other sources online (at least for marketing) where you can find so much value completely for free.

Guides, courses, templates, you name it and it’s there. One of their most successful drivers is the free website grader (it search 4 million sites in five years).

Tailored CTA: HubSpot offers multiple types of content (as mentioned), but if you read a blog post, your offer is going to be catered to that topic. Most B2B companies have one guide, whitepaper or resource for their ideal clients.

HubSpot continues their content marketing with content specific calls to action which increases conversions (and growth).

Webinars: Early adopters in the webinar game, HubSpot was able to tap into internet savvy companies and give them free tips in an online presentation.

Webinars are a key proponent of their social growth as well as the overall success of their brand.

Growth Marketing Case Study #16: Evernote

If your company is fledging or even on the brink of shutting down, maybe you can derive a little inspiration from Evernote.

After almost closing their virtual doors, they’ve went on to gain 75 million users and a lot of VC attention (now 225 million).

They had to start somewhere and so do you, so let’s see what factors led to their success.

Surviving Trouble: Evernote was born in the midst of a world of social and new websites (not apps). This early trouble led them to only have a few weeks worth of funds in their accounts at any one time.

Fortunately, a lone user loved the product and at the last available minute wired enough funds to keep them going.

Good and Bad Timing: Evernote launched in the modern app era (2008). There were millions of users ready to download, and not a whole lot of other apps which helped early growth.

The team would also work hard to be in the new app stores on the first day opened. The funding factor wasn’t as good with the economic situation being so awful.

Useful and Impressive: Evernote desired to create an app that could act as your memory, storing anything of any size from anywhere.

On top of that, they wanted an interface that was easy to use, functional and enjoyable. Making something useful and easy are always key metrics for growth.

Freemium: One of the early adopters of the freemium model, Evernote used a basic free version of the app to entice new users.

The genuine usefulness of the product has led to a financial success to the tune of a billion dollar valuation. The value of the product increases with use, and so can the revenue.

Brand Ambassadors: Many companies hope to create advocates for their brand, but Evernote does it. Naming a select few from prominent industries as ambassadors for the app has led to incredible word of mouth and user success.

Meetups are held where the ambassador answers questions and shares the usefulness of the product in that particular field.

Continuous Improvement: In an effort to keep growth levels, Evernote has continuously put out new features and entire apps that make their initial success more useful. Every new product or acquisition has the same goal: to be useful, and beautifully functional which in the end can sell itself (with a little testing).

Growth Marketing Case Study #17: SnapChat

Sometimes your products aren’t used the way you intended and it can lead to problems.

The Snapchat founders understand that, but it didn’t lead to their growth stalling.

In fact, the popular picture/video sharing app has went from starting in 2011 to now having about 300 million users.

Provide Freedom: So often many young people feel the need for expression that can’t be obtained on most social channels. SnapChat offers users the ability to post a very expressive product that is live in real time with no lasting ramifications.

The freedom that comes from the ability to just hop on and share a moment (that won’t last) is a compelling feature that drives both engagement and growth.

Controversial Growth: Meant for colleges, the app found its start in high schools. It seems teenagers were attracted to the idea of messages that could be shared with friends and not be seen by anyone else (and no evidence).

However, the app received negative (potentially unwarranted) early press centered around the new “sexting” phenomenon. Growth continued.

Competitive Help: Facebook saw the popularity of Snapchat as a threat and created their own similar app (called Poke). The attention only gave more fuel to SnapChat’s popularity sending their growth even higher while Poke declined.

Natural Engagement: Due to the nature of the app, messages sent between users are rarely unopened. The wonder of what could be inside makes most open the messages they receive and compels them to send their own. This engagement also creates an excellent word of mouth.

Social Acceptance: More recently, heavy hitters in the online community (namely Gary Vaynerchuck among others) have begun to adopt the platform. This popularity has online audiences running to the platform and sure to equal growth.

Growth Marketing Case Study #18: Uber

Continued growth on an exponential level is a rare thing when it comes to billion dollar brands.

Uber continues to amaze, more than doubling growth year after year even after they boast a $63 billion market cap.

Not to mention they’ve done all of this since 2009 starting out as a small local service.

Let’s take a brief look at how they accomplished so much.

Monopoly Buster: Cabs are terrible. Uber fixes that problem. While it’s not perfect, this new transportation method has become the very face of modern business disruption.

The added bonus of shaking an industry is not only the joy of being useful, but the media attention (negative and positive) that further fuels growth.

Strategic Launch: If you’re going to provide a service, it’s best to give it to those with platforms. Choosing San Francisco to be the first Uber city was a strategic choice.

A place of notoriously bad taxis and people who loved new technology and had blogs and audiences of their own (people like Tim Ferris).

Driver Love: Obviously, the travel brings the revenue. However, Uber understands that they are a liaison service between two parties (one being the driver). With better pay and putting laid off drivers back to work they created instants advocates in each new city.

Focused Launches: Each city isn’t just an expansion for Uber, it’s a new place to dominate. Taking each new location seriously has led to continued growth.

This tactic doesn’t mean slow growth, they have expanded rapidly as well as meticulously across the globe.

Testimonials: Word of mouth is still one of the biggest growth drivers in the world, but Uber gets it from those who have used their service. By someone sharing their experience with someone else (a testimonial) it becomes even more compelling.

Uber also gives free rides to have more and more people telling their story.

Creating Wow: Uber loves testing different experiences for their customers. Trying to ever improve the ride has led to some great experiments and an almost guaranteed good time across town (which creates more testimonial situations).

Growth Marketing Case Study #19: Belly

Everyone hates it when customers leave. The average churn rate of a company can destroy growth.

Belly Card started out to help small and medium sized businesses increase the retention rate of clients.

A unique business model that isn’t well known, but has over 1 million users and 5000 business clients.

The neatest part about them, is that it all happened in about 15 months!

Market Research: A key driver to growth is starting with something valuable. A lot of times it’s a hunch from a founder, but not in the case of Belly. The team hit the pavement and talked with hundreds of merchants to figure out how to improve customer loyalty for local businesses.

Getting It In: After creating the product to help, they got to work. Selling in person, on the phone, and other “traditional” methods helped get them their early traction and user base. Belly worked Chicago until people and merchants were talking about their service.

City by City: With a few successful city launches under their belt, the Belly team was able to roll out that strategy in new cities with the same success. Soon after, the word of mouth took off as users and merchants loved the engaging elements (gamification) that the product provided.

Selling by Data: While national chains of independent owners are a lucrative market, selling the owners equals a slowed rate of growth and selling to the chain may not be as effective either.

However, Belly was able to take the data of the independent owners that were already using the programs (places like Subways and Chic-Fil-A’s) to entice the chains to use the service.

This process would increase sales for Belly and (in most cases) chains/franchisors as well as garner loyalty for the owners themselves (win-win-win).

Growth Marketing Case Study #20: Square

Software companies can be one of the most attractive-looking ventures, but Square was able to do something different.

The company applied a payment processing company behind an attractive and conversation-starting trend centered around their hardware.

The growth is amazing, from starting in 2009 to being one of the most popular small business payment processors with more than 8000 employees.

Here’s a quick look at how they gained traction.

Needed Change: Square makes it possible for anyone to take credit payments. With the hardware (see next point), it had never been easier for small businesses to take multiple forms of payments and sell more stuff.

Whether it would be at flea markets, or in their home office everyone could take credit. Something that was needed and wanted and that created an environment for growth.

Physical Hardware: One of the most revolutionary things about Square is the invention of it’s iconic credit card processing hardware. It’s simple, easy and opens up credit payments to a world of entrepreneurs and business owners.

The company is still doing this with iPad integrations and register POS systems today. The wow factor and talking points definitely helped them with early traction.

Happy Customers: In addition to small business owners getting an easy way to take multiple forms of payments, they like it for other reasons too. Not only is the product useful, but incredibly attractive and hip.

Business owners often know others like them, fueling the number of people who are using the new device (and the processor of course).

Founder Foundation: Jack Dorsey (also cofounded Twitter) was an obvious piece to the early growth of the platform. It wasn’t just his name, but his approach. He wrote a list of those who may be interested in funding the startup.

The list laid out 140 reasons why the company may fail as well as their counterpoints. The gimmick worked and it has garnered significant investment and popularity.

Growth Marketing Case Study #21: Canva

Back in the day, if you needed to come up with a flyer, a banner, or any design and you weren’t a designer, you had two options.

You could hire a designer or you could go through the painful process of doing it yourself on PowerPoint, or worse, use Word art.

Today you have Canva, which completely revolutionized basic graphic design for the average person.

Here’s how they’re growing.

Making it easy for everyone: There have always been other options for creating quick designs. But they had several shortcomings either in the way of UI, price, or ease of use. And these were the main things that Canva focused on since it launched.

The user interface was intuitive and had usable templates. It was web-based, so there was no need to download and install the software.

And most importantly, the free version was useful. So it was no surprise that Canva quickly became the de facto tool for anyone looking to do some quick design tasks.

Simple Pricing combined with a clear value proposition: An important aspect of Canva is that it made it easy for its users to choose to upgrade to the paid version.

The free version served the purpose of letting first-time users familiarize themselves with the platform until it became a part of their workflow. When that happened, it was a simple choice for users to upgrade to the paid version for additional features.

Also worth mentioning is that compared to their competition at the time, their pricing was in a goldilocks area for their key users.

From 0 to 15 million users: Canva’s first two years saw an impressive amount of growth. They went from 0 to 2 million monthly users.

And after seven years, they reached 15 million users, 300 thousand pro users, and are now a 3.2 billion-dollar company. To reach this massive amount of growth, they went about it with the tried and true formula of having a great product match for their audience and consistently investing in paid ads across the usual social media channels.

Growth Marketing Case Study #22: Airbnb

The word disruption is used fairly loosely nowadays. But in reality, very few businesses disrupt an industry.

Airbnb is one of the few which have. And in doing so, they grew from a three-person operation making a couple of hundred bucks a week to now reporting over 1 billion in quarterly revenue.

Today, Airbnb is a 35 billion dollar behemoth with hundreds of employees and a global presence.

Here are 6 takeaways on how Airbnb grew its business.

Test your idea and iterate. Initially, the founders tried to make extra money by renting a spare air mattress. They took the same concept and iterated until they found the winning formula.
They focused on finding what the bottleneck to their growth was. At first, it was about the images of the properties; later on, it became payment processing. As they kept on growing, new growth problems were solved.
They bootstrapped and started small. Many new businesses want to immediately get funding to accelerate their growth. This is not necessarily wrong. However, AirBnb already was bringing in profits and had a working product by the time they took on venture capital. This made it significantly easier for them to raise capital and acquire investors.
They took over the industry by being themselves. Airbnb didn’t set out to compete with hotels directly. In the beginning, they offered a more affordable option for travelers, but what really set them apart was the fact that they were selling the experience of living in the place you were visiting instead of being a tourist as you would be with a traditional hotel.
They take care of their customers. One of the critical aspects of Airbnb is how the platform takes care of all its users. Airbnb offers a big insurance policy to their hosts so that they can have the confidence to rent out their properties.
Upsells and cross-sells have become a major source of revenue. Instead of limiting themselves, they decided to listen to their customers and incentivize their hosts to offer additional services that would help them increase their income. A win, win, win type of deal.

Growth Marketing Case Study #23: Koala

In 2015, Koala made waves as one of the most successful businesses to launch in the recently created direct-to-consumer mattress space.

It quickly grew up to $13 million in sales in its first 12 months of operating.

During their first year, the team behind Koala did something that let them accelerate their growth. They had a laser focus on the digital marketing channels that brought them the most results.

Here’s a brief breakdown of how they went about strategizing their growth.

Have a great product and an amazing offer: To start off, Koala launched with a great product that was highly competitive compared with the traditional market. But what set them apart was the quality of the offer.

The offer was miles ahead of what their competition had at the moment. This is where free delivery, pickup, and a 120 free trial with no strings attached set them apart.

This amount of confidence in their product helped with making it easier for new customers to choose the new and innovative mattress company.

Laser-focus on what works: During their first year, Koala approached their marketing with a laser focus on one marketing channel: Facebook.

Instead of spreading themselves thin by diluting their budget across multiple channels, they decided to concentrate their efforts on dominating their chosen platform.

They did this by investing heavily in creating exciting and eye-catching ads and making the most out of Facebook’s retargeting capabilities.

This is why if you spent any amount of time browsing Facebook back in 2015, you probably came across an ad or two from Koala.

Make it easy for your customers to talk about you: The direct-to-consumer mattress business was still new and didn’t have widespread adoption back in 2015.

To address the novelty aspect of their business model, they relied heavily on having established processes that made it easy for their new customer to share their experiences.

Customer testimonials make a huge amount of difference for new businesses. They essentially shorten the amount of time needed for a new customer that is still on the fence about whether or not they want to try a new product.

Growth Marketing Case Study #24: Hip Kids

Hip Kids is a children’s toy company that carved out a niche for itself by offering a more high-quality and durable alternative to the primarily disposable toys that are commonplace in the market.

This singular attention to detail and alignment to their core values helped them take their company to the 7-figure mark in sales.

But they reached a point where, even though they had a healthy marketing budget, they just weren’t seeing the growth they expected.

This is what they did to triple the revenue and spur growth for their already well-established brand.

Define the root cause of the problem: To understand the root cause of the problem, a little context is necessary.

HipKids started as an eBay store about a decade ago. They started small, and as the demand for their products grew, they were able to open up their own website and even open up a few physical locations for their brand.

Due to their organic growth, they added additional pieces to their marketing one at a time, and often from different agencies.

First they did their website, then they added an in-house designer, then they went with a PPC agency to get targeted traffic, and finally, they also invested in their SEO.

As you can imagine, after investing in each new marketing channel, they saw an initial spur of growth that quickly stagnated. It was this fragmented approach to their marketing strategy that made it difficult for their campaigns to work in unison and build up the momentum they needed to reach their growth goals.

Efficiency and optimization are key: Once the problem was defined, it became a matter of restructuring their marketing team to make sure that it was all moving in the same direction.

With a brand new marketing structure set in place, then it was possible for the marketing team to work on optimizing their campaigns and iterating over time to attract new traffic and improve conversion rates. This is what ultimately let HipKids triple its revenue.

Growth Marketing Case Study #25: Dropbox

Dropbox has spent very little on advertising but has grown the company to $4 billion. This article shares some of Dropbox’s top techniques, specifically through word of mouth.

A decade ago, the internet was very different. To start off, it was much slower. The average download speed was only 5 Mbps.

Today, you’ll often find speeds 20x faster just about anywhere, even on mobile phones.

Due to these limitations, sharing and storing large files on the cloud was challenging and often expensive.

Cloud storage was mostly directed to businesses, and the consumer-level solutions available were clunky and unfriendly to the average user.

That is until Dropbox entered the market.

Tried and true old-school tactics: Even though Dropbox is a huge SAAS, it’s interesting to know that its initial growth did not rely on advertising of any form.

They went to the old school method of using word of mouth from their customers to reach the growth they were after.

The most valuable resource back then was storage space. So they gave out storage space to their existing customers so that they could motivate them to share their experiences with Dropbox.

This approach worked wonders, and Dropbox’s revenue quickly exceeded the $100 million mark.

Make it easy for your users: Dropbox wasn’t the first or only consumer-level cloud storage option in the market. But it was by far the easiest. Most of their competition, even those that were in the market before them, had cumbersome interfaces and poor customer support which made it difficult for users to sign up for their services.

Most of them had ads on their signup pages, so yes, it was ugly.

Dropbox, on the other hand, had a clean signup page that made it easy for users to sign up. Nothing unnecessary, and no ads were found on the signup page.

Incentivize sharing on social media: Back in 2011, social media reach was very effective in driving traffic. So to take advantage of this, Dropbox incentivized social media shares with free space. This worked out to be the perfect complement to their referral strategy. It decreased the friction in sharing and made it highly attractive for their existing users to become brand ambassadors.

Growth Marketing Case Study #26: Dollar Shave Club

The marketing behind razors, up until the launch of DSC, was pretty consistent. Every “new” razor offered the exact same thing, a better way to shave.

And it worked to some extent because razors are an everyday product for a lot of people.

They just ended up buying them the same way they had always done.

Dollar Shave Club didn’t innovate the product they sold. Their product is, albeit high quality, just about the same as everything else in the market.

So why did they become so popular? Because they innovated the experience.

Make your marketing fun and memorable: Dollar Shave Club’s initial marketing was nothing short of genius. It was fun, and it was memorable. It was a welcome departure from the idealized and mostly non-relatable approach that the traditional brands had embraced decades ago.

This more honest, down-to-earth, and witty approach gave them something that the other brands didn’t have. It gave them a relatable personality.

And the consistency of their personality across every aspect of their brand made them feel reassuringly consistent and was enough to help them differentiate themselves from the rest of their competitors.

Create an experience: Since innovation on the product side of things wasn’t much of an option, they decided to innovate on their customer’s experience.

The first hint of this is in their name. Dollar shave club is exactly what they are. They’re a club, something you can be a part of.

And this feeling of inclusion and community, paired with the direct-to-consumer model, made the experience of getting your razors from Dollar Shave Club highly attractive.

Get customers for life: One of the biggest drivers of growth behind DCS is that they have an incredibly long ratio of lifelong customers. Simply put, their business model makes it easy for their customers to want to keep on buying from them.

It’s a simple and straightforward subscription model that most users can get on board with.

This is what ultimately helped them reach a $615 million dollar valuation and ultimately be bought out by Unilever for $1 billion in 2015.

Growth Marketing Case Study #27: Casper

Casper is one of the best examples of how changing and improving the customer experience can revolutionize a segment.

Before Casper, if you were in the market for a new bed, you had to go to a physical location and well put up with being sold to.

That’s one of the reasons why so many people put up with an uncomfortable mattress.

The physical pain of a bad mattress wasn’t as bad as the pain of having to deal with the pain of going through all the hoops of buying a new mattress.

Casper changed this and led the way to a new trend of direct-to-consumer mattresses that revolutionized the entire sleep industry.

Understand your customer’s true pain: The traditional dealer-distributor model that has been in place for years made it so that buying a mattress was a less than pleasant experience for most customers.

It’s a model where salespeople were incentivized to sell but, unfortunately, got the reputation of using sleazy sales tactics.

Casper understood that this was the real reason why people wouldn’t buy a new mattress. They just didn’t want to go through that process, even though their old mattress was uncomfortable and even caused them health problems.

Casper gave its customers a much more viable alternative and had a high-quality product that their customers would be willing to try out.

Address all your customer’s concerns: One of the main challenges was to change the customer’s perception that they had to try-before-they-buy a mattress.

They tackled this head-on by offering an incredibly bold satisfaction guarantee and by providing plenty of educational content on their products so that customers could feel confident in their buying decision.

Then they followed up their product with SEO content centered around sleep and how it impacted health so that they could further establish themselves as sleep experts and gain their customer’s trust.

Leverage customer reviews: Casper did a great job at leveraging its customer reviews. They made it one of the central aspects of their retargeting and email marketing campaigns. Customer reviews are powerful tools since they provide a seemingly unbiased perspective of your product.

Growth Marketing Case Study #28: Groupon

Everyone loves a great deal. It’s a simple concept, and Groupon leveraged it to go from zero to having a $12.7 billion IPO.

Equally impressive as their valuation is the rate at which they were growing on a yearly basis. To reach this huge amount of sustainable growth, they relied on a few tried and true growth tactics.

These tactics are so effective that you’ll see that several other businesses in this article followed them to great success.

This means that you don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel but rather spend your energy on making it turn as fast as possible.

Make sharing easy: Groupon is, at its core, a social platform. And as such, it makes it very easy to be social. Groupon has always made it easy for its users to share the deals that they are interested in.

It incentivizes it because if not enough deals are taken, the deal won’t be available. So it adds an element of scarcity and perceived exclusivity.

So when FOMO kicks in, Groupon users become highly motivated to share on their social channels and increase the likelihood of their deals coming to fruition.

This, in turn, has the benefit of making sure the Groupon brand is consistently shared.

Email is still very powerful: For some reason, there’s always someone stating that email is dead. That inboxes are too cluttered and that no one pays attention to them anymore. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and Groupon knows this. This is why they have made email a key part of their marketing.

It’s important to understand that if someone voluntarily signs up for your emails, then they are giving permission to reach out to them.

Groupon makes the most out of this by sending daily emails with highly valuable content.

Copywriting makes a big difference: The quality of how you communicate with your customers makes a big difference in how effectively you can retain their attention. Groupon learned this early on and has characterized itself by sending interesting and fun-to-read emails.

It’s important to remember that nobody likes boring and bland content. Your customers will read what you have to say, but only if it’s well written and grabs their attention.

Growth Marketing Case Study #29: Porch.com

The home improvement market is enormous. It’s $500 billion and continues to grow at a steady rate.

So it was only a matter of time until a startup would try to revolutionize a market that had historically lacked innovation.

Enter the Seattle-based Porch.com. In 2013 porch set out to become the “Uber” of home improvement projects by helping connect construction professionals with homeowners that needed help in completing their tasks.

Amongst its achievements, Porch.com can mention:

300000 active professionals across the US.
Nasdaq IPO in the year 2020.
They reach approximately 66% of the homeowner market.

However, back in 2018, before they went public, their growth had started to plateau. Something had to be done. So they made a concentrated effort to improve their search engine visibility so that they could get a more sustainable and cost-efficient source of traffic. To achieve this goal, they went with the tried and true strategy of increasing their backlinks.

Link building can be transformative for your traffic: The reason why link building was chosen is that since they had started to rely on paid advertising for their lead acquisition, their cost per lead had started to increase.

This rise in cost per lead was eating into their profit margins, so from an ROI perspective, investing in cultivating high-quality backlinks was a good strategy to follow.

Porch’s marketing was able to obtain over 931 backlinks from unique domains throughout the year. This helped them make a significant boost in their organic traffic and helped decrease the total cost of their lead acquisition.

Here are some of the growth strategies they followed:

They didn’t limit themselves to home renovation topics but rather created content across a broad range of related topics to expand the number of high-quality websites they could be relevant to.
This broad range of content helped them land mention on television and local radio across several major cities.
Some of the results generated by the campaign were 257 mentions from relevant publishers, 180 regional media mentions, and over 38000 social shares.

[…] If you want real-life examples of what other companies have done, take a look at these growth marketing case studies. […]

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Lessons from the Field: Analyzing Successful Marketing Case Studies

Discover valuable insights and strategies from real-life marketing case studies in this informative article.

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, success stories serve as valuable lessons. Case studies, in particular, provide real-world examples and insights that can shape marketing strategies, campaigns, and tactics. They offer a window into the strategies employed by successful brands, allowing marketers to extract valuable insights and apply them to their own endeavors. In this article, we will delve into the importance of case studies in marketing, identify key elements of successful case studies, explore how to extract valuable insights from them, and discuss the application of those insights to improve marketing strategies.

Understanding the Importance of Case Studies in Marketing

Case studies play a vital role in the development of marketing strategy. They provide marketers with evidence of what works in real-world scenarios, allowing them to learn from others' successes and avoid their mistakes. Additionally, case studies offer an opportunity to understand the challenges faced by various organizations and how they overcame them.

The role of case studies in marketing strategy development

Case studies serve as a foundation for marketing strategy development. By analyzing successful marketing case studies, marketers can gain a deeper understanding of the tactics and approaches that have proven effective in the past. This knowledge enables them to make informed decisions and craft strategies that are more likely to succeed.

For example, let's consider a case study on a popular clothing brand that successfully launched a new product line. By examining the marketing strategies employed, such as influencer collaborations and targeted social media campaigns, marketers can draw valuable insights. They can learn about the importance of creating a buzz around the launch, leveraging the power of social media influencers, and engaging with their target audience in a meaningful way.

Furthermore, case studies provide marketers with a comprehensive view of the marketing landscape. They showcase different industries, markets, and target audiences, allowing marketers to broaden their perspective. This exposure to diverse case studies helps marketers identify innovative strategies and adapt them to their specific business needs.

How case studies provide real-world examples and insights

Case studies bring marketing theories and concepts to life by showcasing their application in real-world scenarios. They provide concrete examples of marketing strategies, tactics, and campaigns that have achieved measurable success. Whether it's a social media campaign that went viral or a targeted content marketing strategy, case studies offer a wealth of insights into what works and how it can be replicated.

Let's delve into a case study on a startup that successfully disrupted the market with a unique marketing approach. This case study highlights the importance of thinking outside the box and taking calculated risks. By analyzing the strategies employed by the startup, marketers can gain valuable insights into unconventional marketing methods that can create a buzz and differentiate their brand from competitors.

Furthermore, case studies provide an opportunity to learn from failures as well. By examining unsuccessful marketing campaigns, marketers can identify pitfalls to avoid and gain a deeper understanding of what does not work in certain contexts. This knowledge is invaluable in refining marketing strategies and avoiding costly mistakes.

Moreover, case studies offer a glimpse into the ever-evolving digital landscape. With the rapid advancement of technology, marketers need to stay updated on the latest trends and tools. By studying case studies that showcase successful digital marketing campaigns, marketers can gain insights into emerging platforms, innovative techniques, and effective ways to engage with digitally-savvy consumers.

In conclusion, case studies are an essential tool for marketers to enhance their understanding of successful marketing strategies and gain insights into real-world examples. By analyzing case studies, marketers can make informed decisions, craft effective marketing strategies, and stay ahead in the dynamic and competitive marketing landscape.

Identifying Key Elements of Successful Marketing Case Studies

To truly benefit from analyzing case studies, it is essential to identify their key elements. By understanding what makes a case study successful, marketers can find valuable lessons and apply them to their own marketing initiatives.

Case studies are a powerful tool for marketers to gain insights and learn from the successes of others. They provide a real-life example of how a marketing strategy was implemented and the results that were achieved. However, not all case studies are created equal. Some are more effective than others in conveying the key lessons and inspiring marketers to take action.

Defining the objectives and target audience of the case study

Successful case studies clearly define their objectives and target audience. These two factors shape the entire narrative of the case study, ensuring that it aligns with the intended lessons and resonates with the readers who can benefit from it.

When defining the objectives of a case study, marketers should consider what specific insights they want to gain and what actions they hope to inspire. This clarity of purpose will guide the selection of case study subjects and the analysis of their strategies.

Similarly, identifying the target audience is crucial for crafting a case study that speaks directly to the right people. Marketers should consider who will benefit the most from the lessons shared in the case study and tailor the language, examples, and recommendations accordingly.

Selecting the right case study subjects for analysis

The choice of case study subjects is crucial. Marketers should select case studies that closely align with their industry, target market, or specific marketing challenges they face. By analyzing case studies that are relevant and relatable, marketers can extract insights that are directly applicable to their own marketing strategies.

When selecting case study subjects, marketers should consider not only the industry or market segment but also the specific challenges or goals they are facing. For example, if a marketer is struggling with social media engagement, analyzing a case study of a successful social media campaign can provide valuable insights and inspiration.

Furthermore, it is important to consider the credibility and reliability of the case study subjects. Marketers should look for case studies that have been well-documented and have credible sources of information. This ensures that the insights gained from the analysis are based on accurate and trustworthy data.

Analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies

Case studies have a distinct structure and format. Successful case studies often follow a storytelling approach, clearly outlining the problem, the strategy employed, the tactics used, and the results achieved. Analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies can help marketers present their own strategies in a compelling and engaging manner.

When analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies, marketers should pay attention to the flow of the narrative. Is the story easy to follow? Does it build tension and create anticipation? Is the resolution satisfying? These elements contribute to the overall impact of the case study and can make it more memorable and persuasive.

In addition, marketers should consider the use of visuals and supporting data in successful case studies. Visuals such as charts, graphs, and images can help illustrate key points and make the case study more visually appealing. Supporting data, such as statistics and metrics, can add credibility and provide evidence of the effectiveness of the strategies employed.

By analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies, marketers can gain insights into how to present their own strategies in a way that captures the attention of their audience and effectively communicates the key lessons.

Extracting Valuable Insights from Marketing Case Studies

Once marketers have identified successful case studies, the next step is to extract valuable insights that can inform their own marketing initiatives. This involves examining the strategies employed, understanding the impact of market research and data analysis, and learning from innovative and creative marketing campaigns.

Identifying successful marketing strategies and tactics

Case studies provide an opportunity to identify successful marketing strategies and tactics that have proven effective in specific scenarios. By analyzing these strategies, marketers can gain inspiration and adapt them to their own campaigns to achieve similar results.

Understanding the impact of market research and data analysis

Market research and data analysis play a crucial role in successful marketing case studies. These studies often highlight the importance of gathering and analyzing relevant data to inform marketing decisions. By understanding how market research and data analysis contribute to successful marketing, marketers can leverage these tools to enhance their own strategies.

Learning from innovative and creative marketing campaigns

Successful case studies often showcase innovative and creative marketing campaigns that have captured audience attention. By analyzing these campaigns, marketers can learn valuable lessons about creativity, resourcefulness, and out-of-the-box thinking. These insights can then be applied to their own marketing initiatives to create impact and differentiate their brands.

Applying Lessons Learned to Improve Marketing Strategies

Deriving insights from case studies is only valuable if they can be effectively applied to improve marketing strategies. This involves implementing successful case study findings into marketing plans, adapting strategies to fit different industries and target markets, and measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies based on case study insights.

Implementing successful case study findings into marketing plans

Successful case study findings should not remain mere insights but should be transformed into actionable plans. Marketers should incorporate these findings into their marketing strategies and campaigns, adapting them to suit their own unique circumstances. By implementing successful case study findings, marketers can increase the likelihood of achieving desirable outcomes.

Adapting strategies to fit different industries and target markets

While case studies provide valuable insights, it's crucial to adapt them to fit different industries and target markets. What works for one brand may not necessarily work for another. Marketers should carefully consider the nuances of their own industry and target market and tailor strategies accordingly. By intelligently integrating case study learnings with industry context, marketers can maximize effectiveness.

Measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies based on case study insights

An effective marketing strategy is one that can be measured and evaluated. Once marketers have applied case study insights to their own strategies, they should establish clear metrics to assess their effectiveness. By measuring the impact of their strategies, marketers can continuously refine and optimize their marketing efforts based on the lessons learned from the case studies they have analyzed.

Storing Templates in the HIVO Platform

In addition to analyzing case studies for insights, marketers can also streamline their marketing processes by utilizing digital asset management platforms like HIVO. One valuable feature of HIVO is the ability to store templates.

Templates provide marketers with a consistent and efficient way to execute marketing campaigns. With HIVO, marketing teams can easily access and use pre-designed templates for various marketing materials, such as landing pages, social media ads, email campaigns, and more.

By storing templates in the HIVO platform, marketers can ensure brand consistency, save time on design iterations, and maintain quality control over the marketing materials. The ability to store templates simplifies the marketing workflow, enhances collaboration among team members, and allows for better scalability in marketing campaigns.

In conclusion, analyzing successful marketing case studies is a valuable practice for marketers seeking to improve their strategies. By understanding the importance of case studies, identifying key elements of successful case studies, extracting valuable insights, and applying those lessons learned, marketers can enhance their marketing outcomes and drive success in their campaigns. Additionally, leveraging digital asset management platforms like HIVO, with features such as template storage, can further streamline marketing processes and improve efficiency.

Mar 12, 2020

What is Market Development Strategy? (Definition and Examples)

Updated: Jan 26, 2023

As the founder of a startup, you will undoubtably find yourself forced to make countless important decisions that, collectively, will determine the overall success of your company.

These decisions may feel small when they involve things like who to hire and when , but they will almost certainly feel more consequential when they involve things like optimizing sales models , pricing models , and high impact growth strategies.

If your startup is ready to take its growth to the next level, you’ll be weighing up the different avenues you can use to get there. Will you create a new product? Improve your existing product? Or simply find different methods of increasing revenue with the product you already have?

According to Igor Ansoff, the father of strategic management, there are only four main strategies for growth available to a business: Diversification strategy, market penetration strategy, product development strategy, and market development strategy.

We’ve previously taken an in-depth look at diversification strategy and market penetration strategy . Today we’ll review what market development strategy is, identifying a clear definition and looking at some useful examples.

What is market development strategy?

Ansoff proposed that the four basic growth alternatives he identified could be defined using a 2×2 matrix (known as the Ansoff Matrix) made up of new and existing products on one axis, and new and existing markets on the other.

Looking at the image above, we can see that market development strategy is a business growth strategy that involves adding existing products to new markets. In other words, a market development strategy helps businesses in a growth phase identify and develop new opportunities to sell their current line of products in previously unexplored markets.

Market development vs. market penetration

Assuming your company is happy with your current products/services, the logical and lowest risk strategies for expanding your customer base and increasing revenue are either:

Target new customers in your existing market (market penetration); or

Seek to sell into new markets (market development)

While market penetration is the lowest risk growth strategy, market development is a close second because — unlike product development and diversification — these two strategies don’t include the extremely high risk nature of developing and selling a new product.

Implementing a market penetration strategy

Because market penetration strategy has the lowest risk involved, most companies start here and try to find ways to promote growth without the inherent risk of entering into new markets. For example, before implementing a market development strategy, you might want to:

1. Make your product more appealing to gain more market share from your competitors’ customers

Competition is fierce, no matter which business you’re in. Finding ways to differentiate yourself from other companies in your space — such as offering better support, more competitive pricing, or extra features that are in demand and not offered by your competitors, can entice customers to switch over to your product.

2. Attract non-buyers in your current market

Free trials , targeted content marketing, advertising, and experimenting with pricing strategies can be a useful part of your marketing development strategy, as they can encourage non-users in your existing market to become customers.

Market penetration is a great strategy to start with, but it can only get you so far on its own — at some point you may need to consider a higher risk, higher reward strategy in order to continue steady growth. This is where market development comes in as a beneficial strategy.

Implementing a market development strategy

The ideal methods of a market development strategy will look different for every business, so you should think about this type of strategy in a way that best suits your operations and type of product or service. Here are two examples to consider:

1. Suggest new uses for your existing product

Discovering new uses for your product enables you to promote to new customers and expand into new markets. Humans are curious creatures that are exceptional at being creative and improvising with tools to get the job done, so how you think your product is being used may not be entirely correct. Surveying and interviewing your customers and your team can reveal innovative ways that people are using your product to solve their problems. In turn, this can give you fresh ideas about how to market, and who to market to.

2. Geographic expansion

If your product has started small, expansion into new national or international areas might be the next phase of your market development.

If identifying and developing new market segments is your preferred strategy, careful consideration should be made around:

Whether you have enough resources to expand into a new market

Whether your product will be ultimately successful in this new market

Whether the market is going to be valuable enough to put the resources, budget, and effort into expanding in this direction

Whether the potential new market is already too saturated, or whether you can gain market share and stay competitive

Market development strategy examples

SaaS examples

Slack began life as an internal company tool. Part of Slack’s market development strategy includes obsessing over user behavior to increase its usage and grow revenue from its existing product. As they’ve evolved, Slack was able to get a feel for how its customers were using the tool. This allowed them to better articulate the value of their software.

This differentiation in the market has set them apart from other products with very similar features. No longer was their tool just another group messaging platform, it was for businesses who want to streamline and save costs with “ 75% less email ,” “zero effort knowledge management” and team communication that’s “instantly searchable and available wherever you go.”

By listening to what their customers want, Slack has been able to make minor changes within its app to attract new users in new markets. It now also integrates with many other popular SaaS products such as Dropbox, Zendesk, and Zapier to ensure ongoing growth and user adoption.

Similar to Slack, Facebook started out as a small, localized tool. It enabled college students to compare headshots and choose who was “hot”, or not. As the software became the Facebook we know today, it became increasingly important to reach new users and markets in order to expand.

As a tool that’s free for anyone to use, it was important for the Facebook team to maintain a keen focus on user behavior. By keeping as many people in the app as long as possible, they can drive more revenue through advertising to these users.

With a central focus on how people use the app, and what they are trying to accomplish while they do so, Facebook can constantly develop new market strategies to drive growth, all within their core product.

The infamous ride service app, Uber, has seen significant growth in the last decade through a unique combination of diversification strategy (i.e. food delivery, bikes, scooters, etc.), market development strategy (i.e. ride sharing, luxury upgrades, etc.), and product development strategy. Developed in 2009, and initially introduced to a small San Francisco market in 2010, Uber’s aggressive market development strategy has landed them in over 700 cities worldwide as of 2020.

Non-SaaS examples

The NBA has always dominated the relatively large and lucrative market for professional basketball here in the United States, but the league also had the foresight to recognize how much more lucrative business could be if they could successfully bring their product to international markets. The NBA invested significant resources and years of negotiations to lay the foundation for bringing the NBA to China, and in 2008 their hard work paid off. By implementing a market development strategy, the NBA brought televised games to China, where just a decade later it’s become the most popular sports league in the country and worth more than $4 billion .

For additional examples of market development strategy outside of SaaS, we can look to athletic brands such as Adidas and Nike, who continue to expand their global reach and attract new demographics of customers with their existing footwear products.

Simply put, a market development strategy can be an excellent choice for business growth.

Using your existing product to grow means that your team can save the time and resources it would take to build entirely new products, or attempting to diversify its offerings, and concentrate on leveraging what you already have at hand to increase your revenue.

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Market Development Strategies: Step-by-step guide with examples

Market development is a growth strategy that involves expanding a company’s existing products or services into new markets. This can be achieved by identifying new customer segments, geographic regions, or distribution channels to sell the company’s products or services. Market development strategies require careful planning and execution to ensure success.

Some common steps that companies follow when creating market development strategies:

1. conduct market research: .

The first step in developing a market development strategy is to conduct market research to identify potential new markets. This involves analyzing market trends, customer needs, competition, and other factors that can impact the success of the expansion. Here are the general steps to conduct market research:

Define your research objectives: Identify what you want to learn from your research. What questions do you want to answer? What do you hope to achieve?
Determine your target market: Determine who your potential customers are, what their needs are, and what motivates them to make purchasing decisions.
Choose your research methods: Select the appropriate research methods based on your research objectives and target market. Various research methods include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation.
Develop your research instrument: Design your survey or interview questions to gather the necessary information to meet your research objectives. Ensure that the questions are clear, unbiased, and specific.
Collect your data: Implement your research plan by collecting data through surveys, interviews, or other methods.
Analyze your data: Once you have collected it, organize and analyze it to identify trends, patterns, and insights.
Draw conclusions and make recommendations: Use your data analysis to draw conclusions and make recommendations for your business strategy.
Monitor your findings: Monitor your research findings to track changes in your target market or customer needs.

2. Identify target markets:

Once the company has identified potential new markets, it needs to identify the most attractive segments to target. This can be done by analyzing the target customers’ demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics. Here are some steps to help you identify your target market:

Analyze your product or service: Look at the features of your product or service and determine what benefits it provides. Consider who would be interested in those benefits and why.
Define your ideal customer: Create a customer persona that represents your ideal customer. Consider their age, gender, income level, education level, occupation, lifestyle, interests, and values. You can use market research, customer surveys, and online analytics tools to gather this information.
Conduct market research: Use surveys, focus groups, and customer feedback to learn about your customers’ needs, preferences, and buying habits. You can also use online tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, and keyword research to understand your customers’ online behavior.
Evaluate your competition: Look at your competitors’ target markets and their marketing strategies. Identify gaps in the market that your product or service can fill.
Test and refine: Once you have identified your target market, test your marketing messages and strategies to see what resonates with your customers. Refine your approach based on their feedback and continue monitoring your target market as it evolves.

Remember that identifying your target market is an ongoing process. Stay flexible and open to feedback as you refine your marketing strategy to meet the changing needs of your customers.

3. Develop a marketing plan:

The next step is to develop a marketing plan that outlines how the company will reach and engage the target customers. This includes identifying the most effective marketing channels, messaging, and tactics. Here are some general steps you can follow to create a marketing plan:

Define your target audience: Determine who your ideal customer is and identify their demographics, psychographics, and behaviors. This information will help you create targeted messaging and promotions.
Conduct a SWOT analysis: Analyze your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis will help you identify areas where you can capitalize on your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and prepare for threats.
Set marketing objectives: Identify your goals through your marketing efforts. These objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Develop strategies: Determine the best ways to achieve your marketing objectives. These strategies include social media, email marketing, paid advertising, events, and content marketing.
Create a budget: Determine how much money you can allocate to your marketing efforts and allocate it to the strategies that will be most effective.
How to take offline promotional activities? To better attract your target customers, you can hold various offline activities. There can be several ways but one can be to prepare all kinds of gifts, such as key chains, enamel pins , and stickers are all very good promotional items. Most importantly, these promotional items are metal custom products. This can achieve your marketing goals faster.
Measure and evaluate: Determine how effective your marketing efforts have been by tracking metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, sales, and customer feedback. Use this information to make adjustments to your plan as necessary.

Remember, marketing plans are living documents and should be regularly reviewed and updated as your business and industry evolve.

4. Modify products or services:

Modifying products or services based on the target market involves understanding the needs and preferences of your customers and adapting your offerings to meet those needs. Here are some steps to help you modify your products or services based on your target market:

Conduct market research: Conduct market research to understand the needs and preferences of your target market. This can involve surveys, focus groups, and other forms of research.
Identify customer pain points: Identify the pain points of your target market, such as problems they face with existing products or services and how your product or service can solve those problems.
Analyze customer feedback: Analyze customer feedback from reviews, social media, and other sources to gain insights into what customers like and dislike about your products or services.
Develop a customer persona: Develop a customer persona or profile representing your target market. This includes demographic information, interests, and behavior.
Customize your product or service: Customize your product or service to meet the needs and preferences of your target market. This can involve product design, features, pricing, or marketing changes.
Test and refine: Test your modified product or service with your target market and collect feedback. Use this feedback to refine your product or service and make necessary adjustments.
Repeat the process: Continue to gather feedback and refine your product or service based on the needs and preferences of your target market.

By modifying your products or services based on the target market, you can improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, and build a loyal customer base.

5. Establish distribution channels:

The company must also establish new distribution channels to reach the target markets. This may involve working with new partners or establishing its own distribution channels. Here are some steps you can take to establish new distribution channels (assuming you have already identified the target market):

Analyze existing distribution channels: Take a look at the distribution channels that are currently used to reach your target market. Determine which channels are most effective and which ones are not.
Evaluate new distribution channels: Consider new distribution channels that could reach your target markets, such as e-commerce platforms, social media, or partnerships with other businesses.
Develop a distribution strategy: Once you have identified new distribution channels, develop a strategy for using them. Consider logistics, costs, and the ability to reach your target market effectively.
Establish partnerships: If you are considering partnering with other businesses to establish new distribution channels, contact potential partners to discuss how you can work together.
Launch and monitor: Once you have established new distribution channels, launch them and monitor their effectiveness. Track sales and customer feedback to determine whether the new channels meet your goals.

Remember, establishing new distribution channels can take time and effort. Be patient, persistent, and willing to adjust your strategy if necessary.

6. Monitor and measure success:

Finally, the company needs to monitor and measure the success of its market development efforts. This involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales, customer acquisition costs, and customer satisfaction to determine whether the expansion is meeting its goals.

To monitor and measure the success of market development efforts, you can follow these steps:

Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Determine the metrics that you will use to measure success. Some common KPIs include revenue growth, customer acquisition rate, market share, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction.
Set Goals: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals for each KPI. These goals should be aligned with your overall business objectives and growth strategy.
Track Progress: Regularly track and analyze your progress towards achieving your goals. Use analytics software, surveys, and feedback mechanisms to collect data and measure performance.
Adjust Strategies: If you’re not meeting your KPIs, adjust your market development strategies. Analyze the data to identify areas for improvement and consider making changes to your product, pricing, promotion, or distribution strategies.
Benchmark: Compare your performance to industry benchmarks and your competitors. This will give you an idea of how you’re doing relative to your peers and where to improve.
Report and Communicate: Regularly report your progress to your team and stakeholders. This will help keep everyone informed and motivated to achieve your goals.

By following these steps, you can monitor and measure the success of your market development efforts and make data-driven decisions to improve your performance.

Here are some examples of market development strategies:

Geographic Expansion: A company could expand its market by targeting new regions or countries where its product or service is unavailable. For example, a coffee company that has only been selling its products in the US could expand to Europe or Asia.
New Customer Segments: A company could also develop new markets by targeting new customer segments. For example, a company that sells luxury cars could set up a new line of affordable cars to target the mass market.
Product Modification: A company could modify its existing product or service to appeal to a new market. For example, a company that sells fitness equipment for young people could modify its product line to appeal to seniors.
Strategic Alliances: A company could enter into strategic alliances with other businesses to expand its reach. For example, a software company could partner with a hardware manufacturer to expand its market.
New Sales Channels: A company could also develop new sales channels to reach new markets. For example, a clothing retailer that has only sold its products in stores could develop an online sales channel to reach customers who prefer to shop online.

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How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

89% of consumers read reviews before buying, 79% view case studies, and 52% of B2B buyers prioritize case studies in the evaluation process.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

An engaging headline
A subject and customer introduction
The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
The solution the customer used to solve the problem
The results achieved
Data and statistics to back up claims of success
A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

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What is a market development strategy?

Market development is the set of actions taken to grow your business across new markets — be it by scaling your current product or by diversifying its portfolio.

A market development strategy stands for a less risky approach and helps you position your current product in new markets. A diversification approach, on the other hand, has more considerable baggage and challenges in that it stands for developing new products and services for new markets.

There are no good or bad strategies, but some strategies won’t fit your business position. Of course, there are no off-the-shelf solutions, as each product and business has its unique context (goal, maturity, team skills, USP, revenue, investment, etc.).

In this post, we’ll go over what market development strategy is and how to achieve it. We’ll go over the key steps to creating an effective market development strategy, as well as review the pros and cons to be aware of.

As we introduced above, a market development strategy helps you position your product in new markets. Every market development strategy is slightly different based on its stage cycle, competitive advantage , goals, and adoption rate in these new markets.

As a result, the touchpoints you may add to your strategy should be completely different if you are in a seed, scaling, or evolving stage.

As an idea, the great internet will always showcase the success story of Slack, Tesla, Uber, or Facebook (and their journeys are absolutely fantastic), but the same strategies and tactics would not be a fit for a startup in Eastern Europe that is still seeking investment rounds to scale the team.

There is a growth process that should be strategically covered in your market development strategy to ensure healthy business growth and scalability.

Key steps for a thriving market development plan

An ideal market development strategy will always be mission-oriented and data-driven.

While there are no ready-to-use tactics, there are documented methodologies and frameworks to help you build a market development plan, no matter what stage you’re at:

0. Know your business and product

This is technically step 0 — a prerequisite. What you measure is what you get done. And make sure you know exactly where you stand before moving to new markets.

Know your audience (through qualitative and quantitative research), identify what sets you apart, and know the main reason your customers stick with you and don’t go to your competition. Know your team, financial status, and goals.

1. Opportunity research

While you have the whole world a click away, so does your competitor.

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There are multiple ways to look at a new market — usually, the go-to would be the biggest pool of prospects available, but keep in mind that you are looking for the most significant opportunities, not the biggest markets.

You can always develop a market in a niche group that’s willing to pay your costs to solve their pain points. The market is not really massive in terms of the number of users.

The easiest way to research your growth opportunities is to start by concatenating your data ( audience segmentation , competitive advantage, or strong points you have with your goals) with new markets that you could enter. You can enter these markets based on either similar audiences or gaps in the market for solutions.

There are various ways to research your business growth opportunities and get a good overview of your market position:

Target audience identification

After carefully analyzing your ICP (ideal client profile), observing customer behavior, interviewing, and checking your analytics, a good practice is to identify who your next audience could be. Frame the pain point, motivation, demographics, mindset segmentation, and persona background in a way that can easily showcase their interest in your product.

A map of your competitive advantage

Now that you know who your next customer can be, it is time to learn where to find them and who their current choice or alternative is (your competition). This analysis will help you identify your competitive advantage, the competition’s touchpoints, the marketing mix, and USP, as well as help you frame your competitive edge and strong assets.

A value-added marketing strategy

No matter if you decide to scale your product (or services) with new features within the same audience or aim for new markets, the best approach you can take is to provide value to your audience.

While a value-added marketing strategy with a mix of collaterals will differ for each business, once you identify your unique way of solving a problem, what makes you stand within the market, and what makes your audience tick, it is easy to concatenate your data and find the right tactics for you.

2. Have clear goals and objectives

Set clear expectations for yourself (and the team) to envision where you want to be in a set amount of time. This will ensure that you will focus your expansion on the markets that will fit your needs.

No matter the goals, also ensure that you will continuously adapt your product and business to the changing needs of your audience. But do that smartly.

3. Prioritize your actions and allocate resources

Be agile . While no methodology is the key to success, building and kicking off a market development strategy is essential to have the priorities aligned with your goals and your team’s skills and velocity.

Having great tactics in place is vital, but the key is to keep an eye on the prize, adapt on the go, and prioritize actions according to the resources you can allocate. This will give you a predictive pace and velocity rather than a chaotic pace based on market volatility.

4. Develop a product and marketing strategy with tactics that fit your new market and launch

A great product and an amazing team will need some marketing to support the adoption of the new market. There are multiple ways to run a strategy. Still, suppose you plan to grow the business across other markets.

In that case, the first steps for your marketing mix and touchpoints should cover localization tokens, cultural components, behaviors, mindset segmentation, and, most importantly, clear communication to showcase how your product will bring value to their work/actions.

5. Analyze and iterate your strategy

“There is nothing like first-hand evidence; as a matter of fact, my mind is entirely made up upon the case, but still, we may as well learn all that is to be learned.”

This is a Sherlock Holmes quote that lives rent-free in my mind; I find it applicable to most iterations and data-driven decisions.

Once launched on the market, you must monitor the traction and iterate according to the market and the changing needs of your users. And while data can be overwhelming, once you get the hang of it and look at all those data points as people and their behaviors, things will make much more sense.

Always analyze all the touchpoints across the customer journey for your segmented market qualitatively and quantitatively. New markets come with unique challenges. In addition to different needs, there are many things to consider: cultural differences, localization, legislation, salaries, mindset segmentation, etc. Make sure to analyze the traction you have from a product, price, competition, and usability adoption perspective, as well as the opportunities you may have given the new market.

Review mining and direct feedback

Another good tactic to analyze and iterate your market development strategy is to recurrently go through review mining, customer interview sessions, and direct feedback analysis (e.g., from the feedback forms or the customer support chats).

Continuously analyze why and how people use your product or service in each market you are in.

A simple segmentation by industry, region, service, and audience would help. Once you decide on your segments, run a review mining and read all reviews. You and your main competitors have to identify patterns and map all the customer service requests based on different metrics, usually related to needs, service, features, price, praise, and more.

And, of course, classic interviews are a great go-to if you want to check your audience’s pulse and gather insights through direct conversations, surveys, and feedback forms. Make sure you ask the right questions at the right time; most people tend to ask questions that lead to the answer they want to hear.

All this data will reveal what people like the most about your service and what can be improved so you can strategically prioritize your next actions. For example, you can capitalize on what people already love about you, prioritize improvements, or launch new features. A good analysis will give you the insight to place everything in a timeline based on data-driven decisions.

The pros and cons of a market development strategy

Most founders or business managers do not know when to build a market development strategy, but the truth is you should always consider market development in your business plan (in different ways based on your maturity and resources, of course). Let’s break it down.

Benefits of market development

Let’s start with the obvious: scalability and revenue. Scaling to new market segments and having a powerful acquisition strategy will help your business increase revenue and market share and expand its pool of customers.

Next, there’s the benefit of brand awareness. New markets come with new people to learn about your business. If you have a strategic approach, it will help you build the trust and credibility that will differentiate you on the market and help you convert easier.

Finally, you can see growth through new products, features, or services. If your market development strategy is to keep your audience and extend your business, you can explore how to iterate and shape your capabilities into new products, features, or services.

Challenges of market development

But, of course, it is not all rainbows and butterflies, and there are many challenges as well.

The first that comes to mind is having the resources to scale accordingly. A lack of resources and high complexity are risk factors to keep in mind. New markets require skills, capacity, increased costs, and time.

You’ll also need to meet the market’s needs. You may hit resistance to change, legal and compliance challenges, or poor research.

Finally, a big issue can be not adapting the product to the market. Having a good understanding of your new market to customize or adjust properly is hard, and strong competition that already knows the drill will add to your concerns.

In summary, a market development strategy is a vital part of a business trying to expand to new markets. It takes a lot of careful planning and consideration, though, and hopefully, this article was a good layout of that process. Thank you for reading!

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Corina Santoro talks about how her team made the prediction that customers in the beauty school industry are going to prefer digital learning.

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A guide to developing customer profiles

A customer profile is a document that outlines the ideal customers of a business-to-business (B2B) company.

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the execution of marketing strategies in a developing economy: a case study of selected market leaders.

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies

ISSN : 2040-0705

Article publication date: 14 March 2016

The purpose of this paper is to examine how market leaders use marketing strategies to maintain strong performance in their respective sectors within different economic contexts in an emerging developing economy.

Design/methodology/approach

Case studies of three consistent, high performing market leaders based on the Ghana Club 100 rankings over the past decade are conducted. This involves structured interviews with chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief marketing officers (CMOs) of the organisations studied.

The findings indicate that irrespective of the country of origin of the firm, or the economic context in a developing country, effective marketing strategies can be used to enhance the performance of organisations in their respective sectors.

Originality/value

The approach used in this paper enables the authors to address the effectiveness of the marketing strategies across the past three decades covering the periods of pre-, during and post-economic reforms, and to examine the influence of different types of ownership (local, mixed foreign/local ownership and a multinational) on the execution of marketing strategies in a developing economy.

Developing economy
Market leaders
Marketing strategies

Appiah-Adu, K. and Amoako, G.K. (2016), "The execution of marketing strategies in a developing economy: A case study of selected market leaders", African Journal of Economic and Management Studies , Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 9-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJEMS-07-2014-0052

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Ansoff Matrix: Use, Examples, Case Study, and Template – Comprehensive Overview

What is the ansoff matrix.

Ansoff matrix also known as corporate Ansoff matrix and product/market expansion grid is an essential business strategy tool used in business schools globally. The model focuses on providing a structure for business owners and marketers to strategize growth and risks of growth for their businesses. The Ansoff Matrix can be used during various stages of a product or a company life cycle making it one of the most versatile tools for managers. From Strategic Exercise to Market Planning,

Ansoff matrix helps marketers get opportunities to grow their sales and generate revenue by using different combinations of new markets and products and existing markets and products.

Ansoff Matrix finds wide usage in almost every field of management. Ansoff Matrix also helps in identifying potential growth areas and areas where management should retract, making it an important tool for business prioritization as well. The universality of the tool makes it a favorite of strategic consultants who carve out new and niche strategies for the organization. in this blog, we will discuss in detail the history, usage, and advantages of a case study.

Find other Tools for Management assessments here

History of Ansoff matrix

H. Igor Ansoff, an applied mathematician, and business manager developed the Ansoff model. The matrix was first published in Harvard Business Review in 1957 under an article called “strategies for diversification”. In his model, Ansoff has hinted at some of the strongest and weakest business strategies.

According to Ansoff, there are only two approaches to developing a growth strategy, diversifying Product Growth and Market Growth.

Uses of Ansoff matrix

Ansoff matrix can be used to assess the different strategies for business growth also known as the four quadrants of the Ansoff model. The four quadrants are:

Market penetration

Product development, market development.

Diversification

In the first quadrant, market penetration is the safest with minimum risk. This strategy focuses on increasing sales of existing products or offerings in the markets you are already familiar with. This can be achieved by:

Lowering your prices or giving discounts
Promoting your business on a larger scale
Buying or obtaining a rival’s company in the very market
Changing opening hours for stores
Focusing on product refinement

For a better understanding, let us take an example: Popular brands like coca cola are known to focus a lot on getting their brand distributed among the right target audience. They spend a lot of money on getting help from supermarkets, sports stadiums, diners, etc. to penetrate the market and get their brand sold on a higher scale.

In the second quadrant, product development is riskier than market penetration. This strategy focuses on selling new products in the existing markets. You can also modify the products or extend the range of existing products. The strategy also focuses on the needs and welfare of target customers and markets. This can be achieved by:

Making investments in the research and development of new products.
Buying someone else’s products and obtaining the rights to claim them as one’s own.
Acquiring the rights to build someone else’s products
Creating new packaging for the existing products

The strategy also focuses on the needs and welfare of target customers and markets. A good example of product development can be taken from the pharmaceutical companies that have been actively investing in the research and development of new drugs.

Market development or the third quadrant carries furthermore risks. The strategy focuses on sales of existing offerings in new markets and among different types of customers. This can be accomplished by:

Promoting your offerings in different customer segments
Targeting markets in new areas of the country
Foreign marketing
Taking the help of online sales

Market development strategy is not that risky if the new markets are similar to the previous ones that you are familiar with. This can be better understood with an example, such as: google started in California, United States but extended its business to Chinese markets.

Diversification

In the last quadrant, diversification is the riskiest of all. It focuses on taking new products into new markets . Even with high risks, diversification can sometimes procure greater rewards. This strategy can be of two types, related and unrelated.

Related diversification : there remains a connection between the new offerings and the existing firms/businesses.
Unrelated diversification : there are no connections between the businesses and the new offerings.

The strategy proves to give an edge in a way that, if one business fails to flourish, the others will remain unaffected. Let us take two examples to understand each of these diversifications better.

A shoemaker making shoe with leather decides to make belts and bags instead. This is a case of related diversification as the products are different but the raw material is common for both. Another example can be the company Samsung. Samsung offers a variety of products from mobile phones, laptops, and air conditioners to hotel chains, insurance, and chemicals. This example is of unrelated diversification. Even if the hotel chains don’t return promising results, mobile phone sales of Samsung won’t be affected.

Advantages/Benefits of using Ansoff Matrix

Simplicity : Ansoff Matrix is a very simple yet powerful tool for visualization for managers. Many managers depend on Ansoff Matrix to find the right strategy for the organization

Easier for brainstorming : Unlike other strategic tools, Ansoff Matrix is perfect for a brainstorming session.

Management Summary : The final outcome of a strategic exercise is often very complex. With Ansoff Matrix, it is relatively easier to find a management summary easily. It also becomes easier for an organization to communicate new or changed strategies down the line.

Universality : The Ansoff matrix is very universal. It can be used in a wide range of problems ranging from consulting to new business expansion to strategic marketing problems. It is widely used in assessing the current strategy and finding what’s needed to go to derived strategy

Ansoff Matrix: Case Studies

Founded by Henri Nestle, the famous multinational company, Nestle is one of the world’s largest food and drinks processing companies. Nestle was started in 1866 as a small firm known to produce infant milk and now it has earned the name of a business with the most winning marketing strategy. It is headquartered in Switzerland. The products the company offers are diverse, such as beverages, ice creams, baby food, pet food, bottled water, etc.

For over 150 years, their business has been flourishing. The company also possesses a special focus on sustainable development. They have the largest research and development network in the food and beverage industry which makes them stand out. With the tagline “Good Food, Good Life”, the brand has created a catalyst to promote its sales.

Nestle is a multibillion-dollar company with a market capitalization of more than 247 billion USD. As of 2021, the brand has generated a revenue of around CHF 87.10 billion. Nestle has made use of Ansoff Matrix successfully over the years to become the leading international food processing brand in the world. Let us have a look at the strategic analysis of the Ansoff Matrix of Nestle.

Market penetration by Nestle

For smooth market penetration, Nestle uses its existing products in the existing markets to grow their sales. They focus on aggressive marketing to increase purchases. Nestle uses various tactics to grow their sales such as manufacturing different packaging sizes to give customers a wider choice of selection, offering discounts on larger purchases, lowering prices on certain products, etc.

They are also known to acquire similar brands and companies to reduce competition. Nestle uses promotion strategies like encouraging people to purchase their products by including the customers’ pain points in their advertisements. The brand also keeps on introducing new flavors to keep their customers interested in their products.

Product development by Nestle

Nestle launches new products in the existing markets almost regularly. For instance, they first manufactured chocolates that many customers liked. They later went one step ahead and introduced ice creams using those chocolate flavors.

To promote these ice creams they kept the prices low, advertised more, and used different channels to increase the reach of their products. Once the ice creams were a hit, they adjusted the prices, improved the packaging, and also introduced more variants of the product. All this helped them generate revenue from the ice creams and grew their sales. This is how Nestle focuses on its product development

Market development by Nestle

Nestle uses exciting products in new markets for market development. They expand consistently to new geographical areas where they haven’t marketed yet. They make sure that the products are readily available with the help of different distribution channels to help them increase their reach to the local markets. For this very goal, they also advertise the products through the regional media. They also focus on making the products affordable, targeting the customers’ needs, and introducing variants according to the preference of customers from that particular region. For example, India has more variants of Maggi instant noodles that aren’t available elsewhere.

Diversification by nestle

Nestle regularly launches new products in new markets for diversification. The new products can be related to the existing range of products or can be a different range itself. For example, Nestle offers baby food but they can also launch diapers and other baby products in new markets to grow their sales. Of course, it takes a strategic plan to execute such a stunt with so much risk. But with such marketing understanding, Nestle rarely disappoints.

Coca-Cola is a giant in the beverage industry. It serves almost every continent in the world.

Samrat is a Delhi-based MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. He is a Strategy, AI, and Marketing Enthusiast and passionately writes about core and emerging topics in Management studies. Reach out to his LinkedIn for a discussion or follow his Quora Page

16 case study examples (+ 3 templates to make your own)

Hero image with an icon representing a case study

I like to think of case studies as a business's version of a resume. It highlights what the business can do, lends credibility to its offer, and contains only the positive bullet points that paint it in the best light possible.

Imagine if the guy running your favorite taco truck followed you home so that he could "really dig into how that burrito changed your life." I see the value in the practice. People naturally prefer a tried-and-true burrito just as they prefer tried-and-true products or services.

To help you showcase your success and flesh out your burrito questionnaire, I've put together some case study examples and key takeaways.

What is a case study?

A case study is an in-depth analysis of how your business, product, or service has helped past clients. It can be a document, a webpage, or a slide deck that showcases measurable, real-life results.

For example, if you're a SaaS company, you can analyze your customers' results after a few months of using your product to measure its effectiveness. You can then turn this analysis into a case study that further proves to potential customers what your product can do and how it can help them overcome their challenges.

It changes the narrative from "I promise that we can do X and Y for you" to "Here's what we've done for businesses like yours, and we can do it for you, too."

16 case study examples

While most case studies follow the same structure, quite a few try to break the mold and create something unique. Some businesses lean heavily on design and presentation, while others pursue a detailed, stat-oriented approach. Some businesses try to mix both.

There's no set formula to follow, but I've found that the best case studies utilize impactful design to engage readers and leverage statistics and case details to drive the point home. A case study typically highlights the companies, the challenges, the solution, and the results. The examples below will help inspire you to do it, too.

1. .css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class]{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;cursor:pointer;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class]{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;-webkit-transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;outline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;outline:1px solid transparent;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='ocean']{color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='ocean']:hover{color:#2b2358;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='ocean']:focus{color:#3d4592;outline-color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='white']{color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='white']:hover{color:#a8a5a0;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='white']:focus{color:#fffdf9;outline-color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='primary']{color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='primary']:hover{color:#2b2358;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='primary']:focus{color:#3d4592;outline-color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='secondary']{color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='secondary']:hover{color:#a8a5a0;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='secondary']:focus{color:#fffdf9;outline-color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-weight='inherit']{font-weight:inherit;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-weight='normal']{font-weight:400;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-weight='bold']{font-weight:700;} Volcanica Coffee and AdRoll

On top of a background of coffee beans, a block of text with percentage growth statistics for how AdRoll nitro-fueled Volcanica coffee.

People love a good farm-to-table coffee story, and boy am I one of them. But I've shared this case study with you for more reasons than my love of coffee. I enjoyed this study because it was written as though it was a letter.

In this case study, the founder of Volcanica Coffee talks about the journey from founding the company to personally struggling with learning and applying digital marketing to finding and enlisting AdRoll's services.

It felt more authentic, less about AdRoll showcasing their worth and more like a testimonial from a grateful and appreciative client. After the story, the case study wraps up with successes, milestones, and achievements. Note that quite a few percentages are prominently displayed at the top, providing supporting evidence that backs up an inspiring story.

Takeaway: Highlight your goals and measurable results to draw the reader in and provide concise, easily digestible information.

2. Taylor Guitars and Airtable

Screenshot of the Taylor Guitars and Airtable case study, with the title: Taylor Guitars brings more music into the world with Airtable

This Airtable case study on Taylor Guitars comes as close as one can to an optimal structure. It features a video that represents the artistic nature of the client, highlighting key achievements and dissecting each element of Airtable's influence.

It also supplements each section with a testimonial or quote from the client, using their insights as a catalyst for the case study's narrative. For example, the case study quotes the social media manager and project manager's insights regarding team-wide communication and access before explaining in greater detail.

Takeaway: Highlight pain points your business solves for its client, and explore that influence in greater detail.

3. EndeavourX and Figma

Screenshot of the Endeavour and Figma case study, showing a bulleted list about why EndeavourX chose Figma followed by an image of EndeavourX's workspace on Figma

My favorite part of Figma's case study is highlighting why EndeavourX chose its solution. You'll notice an entire section on what Figma does for teams and then specifically for EndeavourX.

It also places a heavy emphasis on numbers and stats. The study, as brief as it is, still manages to pack in a lot of compelling statistics about what's possible with Figma.

Takeaway: Showcase the "how" and "why" of your product's differentiators and how they benefit your customers.

4. ActiveCampaign and Zapier

Screenshot of Zapier's case study with ActiveCampaign, showing three data visualizations on purple backgrounds

Zapier's case study leans heavily on design, using graphics to present statistics and goals in a manner that not only remains consistent with the branding but also actively pushes it forward, drawing users' eyes to the information most important to them.

The graphics, emphasis on branding elements, and cause/effect style tell the story without requiring long, drawn-out copy that risks boring readers. Instead, the cause and effect are concisely portrayed alongside the client company's information for a brief and easily scannable case study.

Takeaway: Lean on design to call attention to the most important elements of your case study, and make sure it stays consistent with your branding.

5. Ironclad and OpenAI

Screenshot of a video from the Ironclad and OpenAI case study showing the Ironclad AI Assist feature

In true OpenAI fashion, this case study is a block of text. There's a distinct lack of imagery, but the study features a narrated video walking readers through the product.

The lack of imagery and color may not be the most inviting, but utilizing video format is commendable. It helps thoroughly communicate how OpenAI supported Ironclad in a way that allows the user to sit back, relax, listen, and be impressed.

Takeaway: Get creative with the media you implement in your case study. Videos can be a very powerful addition when a case study requires more detailed storytelling.

6. Shopify and GitHub

Screenshot of the Shopify and GitHub case study, with the title "Shopify keeps pushing ecommerce forward with help from GitHub tools," followed by a photo of a plant and a Shopify bag on a table on a dark background

GitHub's case study on Shopify is a light read. It addresses client pain points and discusses the different aspects its product considers and improves for clients. It touches on workflow issues, internal systems, automation, and security. It does a great job of representing what one company can do with GitHub.

To drive the point home, the case study features colorful quote callouts from the Shopify team, sharing their insights and perspectives on the partnership, the key issues, and how they were addressed.

Takeaway: Leverage quotes to boost the authoritativeness and trustworthiness of your case study.

7 . Audible and Contentful

Screenshot of the Audible and Contentful case study showing images of titles on Audible

Contentful's case study on Audible features almost every element a case study should. It includes not one but two videos and clearly outlines the challenge, solution, and outcome before diving deeper into what Contentful did for Audible. The language is simple, and the writing is heavy with quotes and personal insights.

This case study is a uniquely original experience. The fact that the companies in question are perhaps two of the most creative brands out there may be the reason. I expected nothing short of a detailed analysis, a compelling story, and video content.

Takeaway: Inject some brand voice into the case study, and create assets that tell the story for you.

8 . Zoom and Asana

Screenshot of Zoom and Asana's case study on a navy blue background and an image of someone sitting on a Zoom call at a desk with the title "Zoom saves 133 work weeks per year with Asana"

Asana's case study on Zoom is longer than the average piece and features detailed data on Zoom's growth since 2020. Instead of relying on imagery and graphics, it features several quotes and testimonials.

It's designed to be direct, informative, and promotional. At some point, the case study reads more like a feature list. There were a few sections that felt a tad too promotional for my liking, but to each their own burrito.

Takeaway: Maintain a balance between promotional and informative. You want to showcase the high-level goals your product helped achieve without losing the reader.

9 . Hickies and Mailchimp

I've always been a fan of Mailchimp's comic-like branding, and this case study does an excellent job of sticking to their tradition of making information easy to understand, casual, and inviting.

It features a short video that briefly covers Hickies as a company and Mailchimp's efforts to serve its needs for customer relationships and education processes. Overall, this case study is a concise overview of the partnership that manages to convey success data and tell a story at the same time. What sets it apart is that it does so in a uniquely colorful and brand-consistent manner.

Takeaway: Be concise to provide as much value in as little text as possible.

10. NVIDIA and Workday

Screenshot of NVIDIA and Workday's case study with a photo of a group of people standing around a tall desk and smiling and the title "NVIDIA hires game changers"

The gaming industry is notoriously difficult to recruit for, as it requires a very specific set of skills and experience. This case study focuses on how Workday was able to help fill that recruitment gap for NVIDIA, one of the biggest names in the gaming world.

Though it doesn't feature videos or graphics, this case study stood out to me in how it structures information like "key products used" to give readers insight into which tools helped achieve these results.

Takeaway: If your company offers multiple products or services, outline exactly which ones were involved in your case study, so readers can assess each tool.

11. KFC and Contentful

Screenshot of KFC and Contentful's case study showing the outcome of the study, showing two stats: 43% increase in YoY digital sales and 50%+ increase in AU digital sales YoY

I'm personally not a big KFC fan, but that's only because I refuse to eat out of a bucket. My aversion to the bucket format aside, Contentful follows its consistent case study format in this one, outlining challenges, solutions, and outcomes before diving into the nitty-gritty details of the project.

Say what you will about KFC, but their primary product (chicken) does present a unique opportunity for wordplay like "Continuing to march to the beat of a digital-first drum(stick)" or "Delivering deep-fried goodness to every channel."

Takeaway: Inject humor into your case study if there's room for it and if it fits your brand.

12. Intuit and Twilio

Screenshot of the Intuit and Twilio case study on a dark background with three small, light green icons illustrating three important data points

Twilio does an excellent job of delivering achievements at the very beginning of the case study and going into detail in this two-minute read. While there aren't many graphics, the way quotes from the Intuit team are implemented adds a certain flair to the study and breaks up the sections nicely.

It's simple, concise, and manages to fit a lot of information in easily digestible sections.

Takeaway: Make sure each section is long enough to inform but brief enough to avoid boring readers. Break down information for each section, and don't go into so much detail that you lose the reader halfway through.

13. Spotify and Salesforce

Screenshot of Spotify and Salesforce's case study showing a still of a video with the title "Automation keeps Spotify's ad business growing year over year"

Salesforce created a video that accurately summarizes the key points of the case study. Beyond that, the page itself is very light on content, and sections are as short as one paragraph.

I especially like how information is broken down into "What you need to know," "Why it matters," and "What the difference looks like." I'm not ashamed of being spoon-fed information. When it's structured so well and so simply, it makes for an entertaining read.

Takeaway: Invest in videos that capture and promote your partnership with your case study subject. Video content plays a promotional role that extends beyond the case study in social media and marketing initiatives .

14. Benchling and Airtable

Screenshot of the Benchling and Airtable case study with the title: How Benchling achieves scientific breakthroughs via efficiency

Benchling is an impressive entity in its own right. Biotech R&D and health care nuances go right over my head. But the research and digging I've been doing in the name of these burritos (case studies) revealed that these products are immensely complex.

And that's precisely why this case study deserves a read—it succeeds at explaining a complex project that readers outside the industry wouldn't know much about.

Takeaway: Simplify complex information, and walk readers through the company's operations and how your business helped streamline them.

15. Chipotle and Hubble

Screenshot of the Chipotle and Hubble case study with the title "Mexican food chain replaces Discoverer with Hubble and sees major efficiency improvements," followed by a photo of the outside of a Chipotle restaurant

The concision of this case study is refreshing. It features two sections—the challenge and the solution—all in 316 words. This goes to show that your case study doesn't necessarily need to be a four-figure investment with video shoots and studio time.

Sometimes, the message is simple and short enough to convey in a handful of paragraphs.

Takeaway: Consider what you should include instead of what you can include. Assess the time, resources, and effort you're able and willing to invest in a case study, and choose which elements you want to include from there.

16. Hudl and Zapier

Screenshot of Hudl and Zapier's case study, showing data visualizations at the bottom, two photos of people playing sports on the top right , and a quote from the Hudl team on the topleft

I may be biased, but I'm a big fan of seeing metrics and achievements represented in branded graphics. It can be a jarring experience to navigate a website, then visit a case study page and feel as though you've gone to a completely different website.

The Zapier format provides nuggets of high-level insights, milestones, and achievements, as well as the challenge, solution, and results. My favorite part of this case study is how it's supplemented with a blog post detailing how Hudl uses Zapier automation to build a seamless user experience.

The case study is essentially the summary, and the blog article is the detailed analysis that provides context beyond X achievement or Y goal.

Takeaway: Keep your case study concise and informative. Create other resources to provide context under your blog, media or press, and product pages.

3 case study templates

Now that you've had your fill of case studies (if that's possible), I've got just what you need: an infinite number of case studies, which you can create yourself with these case study templates.

Case study template 1

Screenshot of Zapier's first case study template, with the title and three spots for data callouts at the top on a light peach-colored background, followed by a place to write the main success of the case study on a dark green background

If you've got a quick hit of stats you want to show off, try this template. The opening section gives space for a short summary and three visually appealing stats you can highlight, followed by a headline and body where you can break the case study down more thoroughly. This one's pretty simple, with only sections for solutions and results, but you can easily continue the formatting to add more sections as needed.

Case study template 2

Screenshot of Zapier's second case study template, with the title, objectives, and overview on a dark blue background with an orange strip in the middle with a place to write the main success of the case study

For a case study template with a little more detail, use this one. Opening with a striking cover page for a quick overview, this one goes on to include context, stakeholders, challenges, multiple quote callouts, and quick-hit stats.

Case study template 3

Screenshot of Zapier's third case study template, with the places for title, objectives, and about the business on a dark green background followed by three spots for data callouts in orange boxes

Whether you want a little structural variation or just like a nice dark green, this template has similar components to the last template but is designed to help tell a story. Move from the client overview through a description of your company before getting to the details of how you fixed said company's problems.

Tips for writing a case study

Examples are all well and good, but you don't learn how to make a burrito just by watching tutorials on YouTube without knowing what any of the ingredients are. You could , but it probably wouldn't be all that good.

Writing a good case study comes down to a mix of creativity, branding, and the capacity to invest in the project. With those details in mind, here are some case study tips to follow:

Have an objective: Define your objective by identifying the challenge, solution, and results. Assess your work with the client and focus on the most prominent wins. You're speaking to multiple businesses and industries through the case study, so make sure you know what you want to say to them.

Focus on persuasive data: Growth percentages and measurable results are your best friends. Extract your most compelling data and highlight it in your case study.

Use eye-grabbing graphics: Branded design goes a long way in accurately representing your brand and retaining readers as they review the study. Leverage unique and eye-catching graphics to keep readers engaged.

Simplify data presentation: Some industries are more complex than others, and sometimes, data can be difficult to understand at a glance. Make sure you present your data in the simplest way possible. Make it concise, informative, and easy to understand.

Use automation to drive results for your case study

A case study example is a source of inspiration you can leverage to determine how to best position your brand's work. Find your unique angle, and refine it over time to help your business stand out. Ask anyone: the best burrito in town doesn't just appear at the number one spot. They find their angle (usually the house sauce) and leverage it to stand out.

In fact, with the right technology, it can be refined to work better . Explore how Zapier's automation features can help drive results for your case study by making your case study a part of a developed workflow that creates a user journey through your website, your case studies, and into the pipeline.

Case study FAQ

Got your case study template? Great—it's time to gather the team for an awkward semi-vague data collection task. While you do that, here are some case study quick answers for you to skim through while you contemplate what to call your team meeting.

What is an example of a case study?

An example of a case study is when a software company analyzes its results from a client project and creates a webpage, presentation, or document that focuses on high-level results, challenges, and solutions in an attempt to showcase effectiveness and promote the software.

How do you write a case study?

To write a good case study, you should have an objective, identify persuasive and compelling data, leverage graphics, and simplify data. Case studies typically include an analysis of the challenge, solution, and results of the partnership.

What is the format of a case study?

While case studies don't have a set format, they're often portrayed as reports or essays that inform readers about the partnership and its results.

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ethiopia_the_role_of_industry_parks_in_the_local_economy_final_2024.pdf pdf (3.8 MB)

The role of industry parks in the local economy : The case of SMEs in Ethiopia

ethiopia_the_role_of_industry_parks_in_the_local_economy_final_2024.pdf

April 15, 2024

In recent years, Ethiopia has tried to undertake an industrial policy to emerge as a manufacturing hub. Central to this strategy has been the operationalizing of multiple industrial parks post 2014. The study accordingly asks four key questions: What is the pattern of industrial policy in Ethiopia overtime? What is the role of industry park to the local economy, mainly performance of SMEs? What is the implication of political economy on the performance of industry parks in Ethiopia? What are the lessons on industry park to be drawn from best practices of Asian countries?

The study has several key findings. In Ethiopia, manufacturing in general is lagging in terms of value added and value added per-capita compared to other sectors and has not been a strong performer despite some successes. There are many reasons for this, including limited access to finance and raw materials, market demand constraint, poor logistics, quality constraint, skills constraint, forex restrictions, and regulations. The public industrial parks in the country with a major focus on textile and garment have revealed mixed performance in terms of output and employment. The parks have varied occupancy rates depending on management and location, with those closer to bigger cities performing better.

Document Type

Regions and countries, sustainable development goals, related publications, publications, diagnostic study- how to incentivize for private sector i....

Private sectors had been engaged in investments in Ethiopia since late 1880s when the royal family members and foreign investors invested in the manufacturing a...

UNDP Ethiopia Quarterly Economic Profile January 2024

Overall: As Ethiopia enters 2024, the macroeconomic and socioeconomic situation remain challenging. Growth has rebounded after the multiple shocks in recent yea...

Policy and Research Briefs: Making Ethiopian Customary In...

Customary Institutions (CIs), Ethiopian ancient instruments for conflict prevention and management, have served as important platforms in preventing and resolvi...

Ethiopia GDPP Mid Term Review Report

The implementation of GDPP commenced in July 2017 and is slated to end in 2021. Thus, the programme is mid-way implementation and hence the need for a mid-term...

Quarterly Economic Profile July 2022

What’s changed since Q1 2022? • Growth: Official estimate for real GDP growth in 2022 is 6.6%, while UNDP projects 3.0% and IMF 3.8%. • Inflation: Worsening o...

Communication Landscape in Ethiopia : Assessment of Legis...

The assessment of the communications landscape and the accompanying media overview were undertaken to provide a comprehensive picture of the existing government...

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Unlocking success: key elements of sustainable business models in the wooden multistory building sector provisionally accepted.

1 Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
2 Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland
3 Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Finland
4 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
5 University of Helsinki, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Few studies have investigated the processes and strategic interactions among the Wooden Multistory Construction (WMC) industry actors, its customers, and local policymakers. Further insights into this field are needed for a sustainability transition in the construction sector. This study aims to explain WMC's corporate sustainability strategies for co-creation with customers and municipalities. This was based on interviews with key informants in the sector and WMC actors using three case studies in Sweden. Our interviews focused on business processes, interactions with users and municipalities, sustainability, and innovation in the WMC market. The findings reflect the notion of a slow transition in the Swedish WMC market toward using more wood as a bearing structure, which is supported by the competitive advantages and climate performance of wood. The three case studies indicated that the corporate focus is currently placed on incremental improvements in operations, price competitiveness, and successful project management. However, in contexts where wood construction is seen as a unique advantage, collaborations between the construction industry and end users have developed and served as novel platforms for WMC market development.

Keywords: business strategy, Co-creation of value, sustainability transition, Sustainable business model, timber construction

Received: 02 Jan 2024; Accepted: 11 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Nagy, Jussila, Häyrinen, Lähtinen, Mark-Herbert, Toivonen, Toppinen and Roos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Prof. Anders Roos, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, 75651, Uppsala, Sweden

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Market Development Strategy In 6 Steps (With Free Template)

What Is A Market Development Strategy?

Examples Of Market Development Strategies

How To Create A Market Development Strategy: 6-Step Process

Step 1: Understand your current market position

Step 2: Identify market development opportunities

Step 3: Set goals and allocate resources

Step 4: Create your plan

Step 5: Execute your plan

Step 6: Monitor and adapt your strategy

Benefits Of A Market Development Strategy

3 Famous Market Development Examples And Their Strategies

Example #1: Nike

Example #2: Coca-Cola

Example #3: McDonald’s

Execute Your Market Development Strategy With Cascade 🚀

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What are the three key points of a market development strategy?

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What is market development?

Market Penetration

Free Marketing Plan Template

You're all set!

Product Launches

Product Development

Market Development

Geographic Expansion

Franchising

Diversification

Similar Product Diversification

Unique Product Diversification

How to Create a Market Development Strategy

Free Market Research Kit

Step 1. Research your development opportunities.

Review Your Buyer Personas

Research Your Market

Survey Your Customers

Step 2. Set your growth goals.

Step 3. Create your marketing plan.

Email Marketing

Social Media

Local Marketing

Content & SEO

Step 4: Go to market.

Campaign Planning

Sales Planning

Team Email Updates

Step 5: Analyze your results.

The Benefits of Building a Marketing Development Strategy

You can get an edge over competitors.

You’ll reduce risk through preparation.

You can brave the unexplored.

Market Development Strategy Examples

2. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Market Penetration

3. The Lash Lounge — Franchise

4. Unilever — Diversification

Developing Your Market

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