What, Ansoff?

According to Wikipedia, Igor (love the name Igor) Ansoff was a genius. They don't actually say this, but he must have been, he was awarded five honorary doctorate degrees and his name is synonymous with strategic planning and management, and is why we have the Ansoff Matrix.

The beauty of the matrix is it's simple and helpful to anyone looking at their organisation's strategy, it can be used to give a general overview of where your organisation is at the moment and an idea as to how you want your organisation to grow (the basis of any strategy). The matrix helps you consider things in 4 ways:

Market Penetration (sounds rude): Selling more of your existing products or services to existing customers or existing markets. Selling more chocolate to kids for example. Low risk.

Product Development: Developing your existing product and/or service. E.g. selling an existing chocolate bar with a twist e.g. peanut butter Kits Kats or almond Snickers bars or high protein Mars bars (or riding a fashion's coat tails, think salted caramel). Medium risk.

Market Development: Entering new markets e.g. selling Kit Kats in Japan (who already have their own well known chocolate brands) or selling to a new market segment; like Kit Kats just for the over 70s. Medium risk.

Diversification: Entering new markets with new products and/or services which, to stretch the chocolate analogy even more, could be Cadbury's creating a special chocolate bar specifically for the Japanese consumer, a green tea Dairy Milk or a sushi Bournville bar... you never know. High risk.

The Igor Ansoff matrix is helpful because you can apply it to your marketing and organisational strategy. Ideally an organisation would have a mix of all 4, both to avoid putting all eggs in one basket and to maximise income. The matrix is super helpful because it gives a lens through to look at your products or services. Kits Kats in the UK are both an existing product in an existing market so how can we sell more? Our green tea Dairy Milk bar is doing well in Japan, shall we introduce the Kit Kat too? Which would be medium risk as we know how to produce a Kit Kat and we know that Japanese people like chocolate.

I'm sure you get the drift! Every now and again, stop, think Igor Ansoff and use the matrix to look at your markets. Also here is the Wikipedia link to Igor, he has an interesting life and if you want to read more about the matrix, here are some helpful links:

Ansoff wikipedia

Pros & cons of Ansoff

Helpful Ansoff