From a cost perspective, a rapid market breakthrough is the lowest-cost marketing approach. Just as boiling water with a fierce flame in ten minutes saves more energy than simmering it over a low flame for a day, a rapid market breakthrough is the most cost-effective marketing strategy. Therefore, to launch a market, you need not only sufficient investment but also the ability to concentrate resources for a quick breakthrough. Some companies are reluctant or lack confidence to invest, constantly "testing" with small amounts of resources, resulting in wasted money and poor results. Marketing is about creating momentum; once you find an effective model, you must dare to invest heavily in a short time, which is the most effective way to quickly launch a market. The most uncomfortable situation in marketing is when the market is lukewarm, with moderate investment; you're unsure about increasing investment, yet reluctant to stop investing.
From the perspective of competitive effectiveness, speed can counterbalance scale. Casio's business model is a classic case of the "speed vs. scale" theory. When Casio first entered the market, it found that in the electronic calculator market, the first tier was represented by Sony and Hitachi; the second tier by Panasonic and Toshiba; and the third tier by Sharp. This meant that as a startup, they were up against these giants. However, they carefully studied the market and found that Sharp was the leader. Sharp's approach was different: they launched new models faster than competitors, achieving high profits. When competitors launched new models, Sharp was already preparing to ramp up volume, and as volume increased, unit prices dropped. Then they would stockpile inventory. When competitors launched new models, Sharp already had stock. When competitors followed suit with stockpiling, Sharp would release their stock and launch another new model. They launched new models at a 25% rate, increased production at a 100% rate, and reduced prices at a 50% rate. This competitive approach was extremely powerful. Eventually, Sharp captured 30% market share.
Casio saw Sharp's operation and believed they could only win by being faster than Sharp. So they decided to update models at a 50% rate, increase production at a 200% rate, and reduce prices at a 100% rate. Within 5-6 years, Casio, starting as a very small company, defeated these giants and captured 34% market share. Sharp's share fell to 17%, and major companies like Panasonic withdrew from the market. This shows that companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, must prioritize speed when competing!
Time is the most important marketing resource. When we talk about marketing resources, we often think of product gross margins, personnel investment, brand pull, etc. But in my view, the first resource to fully utilize and exploit is time, because time is the least "flexible" and thus the most important resource. Many Japanese companies value time resources highly. For example, they are very efficient in meetings, never holding useless ones. Before each meeting, they post the cost of the meeting in the conference room: number of participants, duration, hourly labor cost, and the total, so that both the chair and participants are aware. They keep meetings short and efficient, avoiding unnecessary talk. Japanese conference rooms are not as comfortable as those in China; they are simple, with no smoking, no tea, and no chairs—people stand during meetings. This spartan environment controls meeting length, manages time resources, and improves efficiency. When our salespeople request promotional policies from headquarters, have you considered making your daily one- or two-hour morning meetings more efficient? If we truly value time as a marketing resource, for example, when launching new products, if we can distribute to terminals at the fastest speed, get on shelves quickly, and effectively drive consumer pull, we can save many marketing resources that would otherwise be needed to counter competition. Don't you think?
The risk of no speed is the greatest risk. Speed increases risk, just as it's harder to turn on a highway at high speed, but the risk of no speed is the greatest risk; stopping on the highway is not necessarily safer! In the IT industry, there's a case: in the early days of computer development, the market was dominated by mainframes. It wasn't until the late 1970s and early 1980s that personal computers (PCs) began to develop rapidly. To follow this trend, in 1980, IBM, a major mainframe manufacturer, started launching its own PCs. To speed up time-to-market, IBM decided to outsource the operating system for its PCs. Initially, they approached Digital Research, which had the most advanced operating system at the time, CP/M. But Digital Research felt that IBM's PC launch was too rushed and that they didn't have enough time to improve CP/M, so they refused IBM's request. This gave Microsoft the big order. However, Bill Gates also didn't have time to develop a new product. So he took a shortcut: he bought a clone of CP/M called Q-DOS, upgraded it to MS-DOS, and sold it to IBM. Subsequently, Microsoft installed MS-DOS on other IBM-compatible machines, such as Compaq, laying the foundation for becoming the world's largest software company.
Digital Research, due to its excessive focus on perfection and slow response to the market, missed a golden opportunity. Gates, on the other hand, knew the importance of speed over perfection; selling the product first is the first-mover advantage, and improvements can be made later (author's note: in fact, many Microsoft products are imperfect, which is why Microsoft's website always has patches for various versions of its operating systems). Indeed, in today's market, the risk of no speed is the greatest risk. Digital Research failed to recognize the importance of speed, and their pursuit of perfection led to slow response, inevitably meaning falling behind.
Speed boosts employee morale. A top spins only at a certain speed, and employees also need speed to be motivated. When a company is in a rapid growth phase, employee satisfaction and sense of achievement rise accordingly, making them work harder in the future. It also encourages employees to continuously learn and improve themselves, because they know they must adapt to the company's development speed or be eliminated. Of course, improved corporate performance also reinforces this effect through compensation and other material benefits.
As the saying goes, "A big fire burns even wet wood; a great flood carries even sand." Rapid company development also provides employees with more growth space and boosts morale. In a fast-growing company, ordinary talent is used as excellent talent. In a stagnant company, excellent talent is used as ordinary talent. Personal development needs the momentum of the company; when the company grows rapidly, salespeople can leverage that momentum. Wet wood may not burn alone, but with a blazing fire, it can.
In summary, from the five aspects of market expansion cost, competitive effectiveness, acquisition of marketing resources, risk avoidance, and team building, we can see that marketing requires rapid breakthroughs to be more effective. I hope this provides some inspiration for those "slow-paced" marketers.
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