I read a good article called The 3 Most Important Levers of Growth for Business. They include:
- Grow the market, or attract new customers;
- Grow volume with existing customers, or sell them more of the same product or new products you roll-out;
- Steal share, or attract a competitor’s customers;
I would add a 4th leve of growth for a CPG business:
- Create a new market with a product/service innovation.
It’s a somewhat fuzzy line to define what is a new market vs. growing an existing market. For example, prior to the late 70’s (or around this time), mobile phones did not exist. Did their introduction signal the start of a new market, or just an innovation in an existing market, which was telecom?
Or, the authors example of the iPad growing an existing market of portable PC’s. However, the iPad is a tablet and can be considered a new market, since people who have a laptop don’t necessarily stop using the laptop.