Commercial strategy in the most simplistic form is about where you want to be and how do you want to get there. Innate in any commercial strategy is growth. Where is your growth coming from? Is the growth scalable and sustainable? Are you in the right place or going to be in the right place to capture this growth? Do you have the right portfolio, resources, and capabilities to capture this growth?
Fundamental challenge for any commercial growth strategy is not just identifying where the growth is coming from, but also what, where, and how to differentiate and compete more effectively. As the saying, “your reputation precedes you”, so does your brand. Deep understanding of your customers and leveraging on behaviour science is key to developing your brand that connect with your target customer’s value with empathy
Channel in the broad sense refer to "where" - where to buy and/or where to get information. A typical approach to improve accessibility of your products and services is by building multichannel/omnichannel presence.
Geographical expansion can also be considered as multichannel building. The major challenge with venturing into new region lies with the risk and uncertainty. Selecting the right distributor is a critical success factor.
Products and services are the most traditional differentiator that businesses used to distinguish themselves from competitors. The typical measurement is size, speed, quality, accuracy, and price. This often result in messaging on being “cheaper, better and faster”. Such advantages do not last forever and are easily copied and improvised by competitors. The resulting effect is a red ocean competitive environment that erode value and margin. The flip side is the blue ocean strategy that centered on opening and capturing new uncontested market space thereby rendering competition irrelevant – value creation at its best.