Update 2018
Having been involved with dozens of Markstrat simulations now, my original thoughts I mentioned below have slightly evolved.
I no longer believe getting into Vodites/Nutrites/Trigols early is ideal, yes, you can dominate the Vodite/Nutrite/Trigol’s market early on, but the market is really small and you sacrifice your Sonite/Clinite/Squazol products as you don’t have much budget early on. To beat the competition, you do need to enter Vodites/Nutrites/Trigols at some stage, as the contribution margin is ridiculously high in the final periods.
What I’ve experienced as the best strategy now is maintain your Sonite/Clinite/Squazol products, focus on high contribution segments like High Earners and Professionals. Stay away from Savers, which is high volume low contribution, and means you must have a large Commercial Team.
Once you have dominated two Sonite/Clinite/Squazol segments, and you have a decent budget, then you can enter Vodites/Nutrites/Trigols. If you have entered Vodites/Nutrites/Trigols around 4th period, target either Innovators or Followers, and later periods target Followers with a new product. The key to winning is you must have a Followers product at some period.
The problem of being first in Vodites/Nutrites/Trigols is you can’t produce a decent product because of low budget and your don’t know the ideals, so the first to enter is always at a disadvantage. Once the Vodite/Nutrites/Trigols reports come out, you can then tailor an ideal product which should be a closer match then existing products out there.
The key to winning a game is understanding the Brand Perceptions, Advertising and Commercial Team, not just having multiple low quality products out there.
Original post
I will briefly share my learnings about the Vodites/Nutrites/Trigols market.
My main view is to be the first to enter the market. The trick is to enter with the basic and least expensive product, as long as you are the only product in the market, the consumers will have no other choice but to purchase your product. The ad spend doesn’t have to be very high since there would be no competitors. Though you still need to maintain ad spent to increase the market size.
However, if a competitor happens to enter the market at the same time as you, then you won’t gain any market share, especially since the product would not meet ideal values.
The second advantage to entering the market with a basic product is when it is time to R&D the upgrade, you will notice significant (more than 50%) reduced costs. This makes it very easy to upgrade the product as soon as a competitor enters the market.
Target the largest markets first, Innovators and Early Adopters, they will also pay a premium for your products. A rough estimate for RRP for a Voditie product on launch is $1,000 or five times the base cost. If you are the only competitor, you may be able to charge even more.
I am happy to provide general MarkStrat help, or can detail discuss each period’s decisions for a modest fee, feel free to contact to discuss. The below is a recent game I helped from period 6, taking team C to a win. Please make sure all reports have been purchased, as it is very difficult to help without it. Spanish or Portuguese language MarkStrat is okay too.
“My team and I were very fortune to have someone as that support us in our Markstrat project. He helps us to stay in first place the majority of the rounds. We rock it till the end. If we have a question, he explained simple to understand. He answered as soon as possible so it’s an A+++ to have the work done. If there’s a problem that you team have with Markstrat, all you have to do is ask and get info to be support! :)”
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