The Anna Karenina Principle is that failure can occur in many ways, but success only happens in one way. It comes from the opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Applied to market entry and exporting, the idea is that success requires a specific mix of factors. The factors that must be mixed correctly are the product, how it has been costed and priced, the chosen route to market, and how it has been positioned and advertised – in other words the Marketing Mix.
By doing thorough market research and planning to get the mix right, I have repeatedly orchestrated successful launches of consumer and industrial products and services markets onto new markets in Ireland, Germany, and the US.
My approach is: Understand the market deeply. Build competitive capability. Execute with discipline. If that clarity appeals to you, please do contact me.
These are the tasks that I do to develop winning marketing mixes for my clients that have led to profitable, sustained home and export market share growth. It starts with a focused, punchy product launch.
I start by researching and understanding the market, pooling my information with my client’s. Desk research works a bit like “discovery” in the legal world. It serves to find out what information is available and thus to put structure on what can be learned and tested. That means that we are better set up to efficiently go after on-the-ground information. We do that through conversations with my own networks, buyers, distributors, and local experts. Thorough analysis of the findings creates the groundwork for developing a marketing mix that properly aligns the company’s offering with the chosen market.
Like the Marketing Mix, Positioning is an enduring concept. It is about thinking through how the company will position its product on the top, or near top rung of a product category in the target market. Think of the great Avis comparative positioning "Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So why go with us? We try harder." Having a winning positioning may even mean creating a new category, like Kerrygold's "dairy products from grass-fed cows". Getting the positioning right takes analysing competitors, clarifying the company’s unique value proposition, and shaping its story to appeal to that market’s customers and culture.
I use the experience I gained as a product line manager for Nike and Nobel to help my clients to align their products with the chosen market's local regulations and standards and buyer expectations. The product must also fit into the constraints of the rest of the mix, the pricing, the route to market and advertising budget. Services must first be "productized" to fit into this scheme. There is a balance to be struck between making the product fit seamlessly into the new market’s requirements while retaining what makes it distinct.
Exporting brings new costs and new risks. It's best to first test them 'pen and paper', so to speak. I have export costing models that cover product adaptation, compliance, and localisation; freight, tariffs, and customs; insurance, finance, and distributor margins; and overheads like staffing, systems, and legal costs as well as exchange rate risks, returns, and travel. I work with your team to use the models to ensure that the plan is financially sound — and that any available supports (such as Enterprise Ireland funding) are secured.
There is no one right route — it depends on the product, the market, and the company’s stage of development. I guide clients in selecting and managing the right mix of agents, distributors, partners, or direct channels, and in building the relationships, systems, and contracts that make those channels perform reliably. As with pricing, it requires iterative thinking to get the right channel for the product and the right product for the channel.
Advertising is fundamental because “if they don’t know about it, they can’t buy it.” You will have also heard the quip “I know that half my advertising is wasted but I just don’t know which half.” The key, therefore, is cost-efficiency. I can offer the benefit of my years of experience to get the right message to the right people at the right time. To grow market share means selling, which also requires efficiency. As a former sales manager, I understand what it takes to build a sales system that works. So, I can help you to adopt measurable professional selling practices and to implement a clear, repeatable process that converts leads to loyal customers.
This approach makes exporting into a disciplined growth process. It will help you to build long-term success in international markets — and build the platform for product line extensions and further new market entries.
Thanks to my training at RJR, Nike, and Nobel and my long experience as a consultant – I founded Aspire in 1994 – and ten years as General Manager in two interim roles, I have the wider experience to be able to offer support in areas like Strategy, Information systems and Operations.
I have seen repeatedly how a solid strategy creates focus and momentum in an organization. I know how to work with the team to get such a strategy thought out and written down. It is worth considering that although we often use the words “strategy” and “plan” interchangeably, but they are very different things. A strategy is much more powerful than a plan. It is a broad decision that guides executive decision-making. Plans or more accurately, plans of action – guided by the agreed strategy – set out the specific steps, resources, and timelines to implement the strategy and achieve long-term goals.
Sometimes, the data are there but the information isn’t. It’s like having the flight sensors but no instrument panel. I am not an IT specialist, but I can certainly help to specify and select right system; It’s something I have done successfully several times. Having to manually pull together raw data each time a report is due is a drain on productivity. With the right systems, reports, and management routines, you can spot issues early, seize opportunities, and make better decisions every day, week, and month. You get a core business that is more resilient, more profitable, easier to run, and thus a stronger foundation for export growth.
Exporting brings new demands on the business’ workings, and I have hands-on experience of running and streamlining operations. The bottleneck that can be managed now with a bit of pushing and pulling may well be a critical choke point when sales take off in the new market. As a seasoned Product Manager, I bring a specialist’s input to operations management that can hugely increase productivity. For example, formal Product Management can greatly ease the interaction between Operations and Sales; it’s the antidote to the chaos of “specials” and the way to balance demands from the one side to ‘make what we sell’ and from the other ‘to sell what we make’. I know how to work sensitively with your team to identify and make the changes to operations and workflows – the muscle and sinew of the business – that may arise out of a new marketing mix. For instance, it may be necessary to introduce a new package size to meet a new price point, or it may be necessary to introduce a postponement strategy to meet new market demands for customization.
Please feel free to get in touch with me; I will be pleased to talk to you about the export opportunities you want to grasp and the challenges you face. I offer my product launch experience and expertise to get your export business up and running and I offer my wider experience to help your organization to drive your overseas growth to ambitious heights.
