Turn that idea from a chihuahua to a bulldog

I notice this when I ask a person what their plans are, their branding and company image and why. When I ask what colours they will use and why. One even answered: "because it's my favourite colour, silly". (Oh, and that was a man, don't ask!). When I ask who their competitors are, what works, and what doesn't in their prospective industry. I mean when I ask finances and client acquisition, I have heard the weirdest and incomplete answers like: "oh, we will build a website" (then the silence is broken by chirping of crickets).

These few questions give a marketer an idea of the direction of the ship. It is not about quickly opening shop but about being the best at something (innovation like Samsung or customer service like Vodacom) within your class. So if you are in this space, here are just three points to consider, just a few hints and tips, a wink and a nudge, ones and two's... well... you get the picture.

Number one: research, research and plenty of it

You have probably heard this a thousand times so a thousand and one would not hurt. Let's try to make it sink in this time, shall we?

Firstly, I see it as imperative to research the market you want go into - which should give you an indication of how successful your idea could be. So if you want go into the toilet paper business, which holds great potential profits for obvious reasons, you might want to research barriers of entry or if there are any.

You might also want to research what is the best way for you to enter that market in a way that will sustain you till you hit the big bucks, whether it would be supplying businesses (which promises an almost fixed way up - generally the less risky way up) or directly going retail (which could require a few rands in your pocket for a marketing campaign and in-store activations with companies such as The Creative Counsel).

You may also want to research the look and feel of your brand, more especially for you to come up with an appealing name and colours for your market. For example: I read somewhere about the psychology of colours and what they mean, red is said to represent power and demands attention while pink is more softer and more sophisticated. So to give it away, pink would go better for a toilet paper than red right? I mean no one wants a 'powerful' toilet paper, I would rather go for a softer one.

Number two: know your market then there will be hundreds

This cannot be over emphasised but I'll try. No business will ever succeed without its clients and understanding them thereof. Prior to setting up shop you need to clearly determine who your target market is, where they are, what they do, watch, and consume. This will give you an indication of how you can best reach them.

If you want to compete with (for example) spree.co.za and zando.co.za your target is an upper-mid to upper class tech-savvy 20-30+ year old who resides in metropolitan areas and prefers to go online than to stores. You may also want to find out how much your target market currently spends with online purchases and how you can increase those numbers.

Number three: check your finances and possible profits thereof

Now that you have done the first two exceptionally well, you should have an idea of how financially viable your idea is and if it is worth all the trouble. Then comes the dreaded word, 'capital'. That is not part of marketing, but because you are the boss and marketing specialists always make a plan about everything, I would say that if it is hard to get capital to get to your customers.

Switch it around get customers (or interested individuals) then use that as basis to prove how well your proposal will work - so much so that you have customers knocking at your door asking you to open shop. Having done so you would have turned your idea from black and white to full colour HD, and from a chihuahua to a mean-looking bulldog for business.