CREATING NEW MARKET SPACE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Organisations across the globe face increasingly intense competition, making itdifficult to achieve profitable growth. Traditionally, companies try to outperformtheir rivals in order to secure a larger share of the existing market. Yet as theexisting market space becomes more crowded, the prospects for profits andgrowth are reduced.Businesses that wish to succeed in the future need to venture beyond existingmarket boundaries and to explore untapped market space, creating new demandwhich results in the opportunity for highly profitable growth. By doing so, suchcompanies are able to make the competition irrelevant.The purpose of this research was to investigate how companies create newmarket space in South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted at two casesites – Discovery Health and The Pre-Paid Company. Company documentationwas also analysed by the researcher. The researcher found that there is nosimple answer to the question of how to create new market space. Rather, theanswer lies in an integrated approach in terms of which a company should focuson the development of core competencies, adopt a market orientationperspective, occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the customer, identifyunmet and unknown customer and non-customer needs, challenge an industry’sstrategic logic, reconstruct market boundaries, implement strategic moves,simultaneously pursue differentiation and low cost strategies, and demonstratefocus and divergence on an industry strategy canvas.The research should be of value to entrepreneurs, business owners, businessconsultants and academics seeking to understand the way in which companiescan create new market space