Bursting the Dam — The ‘Tipping Point’ Market Opportunities

The Best Ideas

In our work, we spend a lot of time conceiving, considering, and evaluating new business, brand, and product ideas — some ours, some others.   This is all in the name of unearthing new market opportunities through new and innovative value propositions.   Some of these ideas are good and some are – well – more of a solution still trying to find their problem.

Over time we've come to realize that some of the best ideas are the ones that identify and tap into what we call ‘tipping point’ opportunities.   These end up being the products, services, and business models that blow open expansive new windows of opportunity for a business (and therefore lead to substantial growth).   There is a method to how these come about and are cultivated.   It goes more or less along the following lines.

Trends Pointing To Market ‘Vacuums’

It starts with watching important trends occurring around us — social, political, economic, technological, environmental, legal, and other trends.   This is generally known as trend watching / trend scouting / trend spotting / trends analysis / and so on.

But it doesn't just sit around and passively watch these trends, rather it actively processes this information to identify where deep–seated unmet nascent needs lie.   These are places where, for example, cultural shifts have changed people's or businesses' value systems and thereby awakened within them the realization that something is wrong or missing.   But yet at the same time, no one is really doing anything (good) about that situation — at least not at any scale.   Sometimes these nascent ‘vacuums’ go unattended for years or even decades.

This tends to create a situation in which individuals or businesses have a ‘big but’ hanging over their heads.   They say things like, “we understand the importance of X, and as a result we really want to do Y, BUT it's just too much cost / effort / time / etc.!” (take your pick).

So, what we have here is what's known as a ‘desire line’… the desire to do something different, but with an unchallenged barrier standing in their way.   This works not unlike a dam on a river, causing a large backup.   In our case, the dam is the unchallenged barrier and the back up is the pent–up demand – sometimes a large pent–up demand – for a solution that does not yet exist but really needs to exist.   Like dynamiting a dam, this barrier is just waiting to be challenged.

When we have a situation like this, it represents what we refer to as a nascent market opportunity… a real, but as of yet unactuated market — often with large potential, just waiting to be actuated.

The ‘Tipping Point’ — Solving for This Unmet Need

And thus the power of the solution that removes the barrier and eliminates the ‘big but’!   With the right business model and the right offering, an organization can bring to market a new value proposition that bursts open the dam and – by solving for this market's unmet need – all of a sudden awakens an entire (potentially huge) nascent market.   Not unlike awakening a sleeping giant.

We call these opportunities ‘tipping point’ opportunities — so named because they live their lives right on the very tipping point of breaking open dams of pent–up demand and opportunity.   Very often it only takes the one right solution to burst the whole thing wide open.   Whenever this is the case, we call these solutions ‘tippers’, for the same and obvious reason.

Of course in all fairness we should point out that just because the solutions here solve for a significant problem with a large pent–up demand does not necessarily mean that commercialization will be easy – or even successful.   Getting the solution into customer's hands will still be lots of work, particularly if one chooses to launch and build a new brand around it.   There may be the need for entirely new marketing channels, new distribution channels, and new production channels — all of which must be considered in the solution's go–to–market strategy.   But even with this consideration, these still tend to be the most impactful and lucrative opportunities for business organizations.

The Take Away

While organizations may review hundreds or even thousands of new ideas, only a small fraction tend to be tippers.   Sadly some organizations do not know how to recognize tippers when they are sitting right under their noses.   But just as important as recognizing them is knowing how to actively generate them.   Once again, there is a process.

If one knows what they are doing – of trend–watching with one eye and business–watching with the other eye – they can quickly recognize when a pent–up demand has grown and a solution the organization can bring to market will unlock the nascent opportunity.   Going one step further, through trendcasting, they can even predict where in the future such situations might evolve.   This process takes time and practice to get good at, but can be mastered.   Once mastered, it allows a good Market Strategist to regularly spot strategically significant business opportunities.   We ourselves have been a part of unlocking a number of these for organizations, and can affirm that they dwarf most of the incremental efforts that otherwise make up most business and product initiatives.

So ask yourself this question… What dams can we find to burst open?   What sleeping giants can we awaken?

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