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Steve Blank: Traditional demand-creation marketing in new markets wastes capital

Steve Blank · Mastering modern entrepreneurship | Steve Blank (Author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany) · Dec 21, 2023 · at 28:08

Stanford professor Steve Blank contrasts go-to-market marketing strategies for existing market share capture versus early-stage new market creation.

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“If you're in an existing market, you're spending marketing dollars for demand creation, whether it's web or mobile or healthcare, it doesn't matter to create share. If you took those exact same dollars in a new market and did it, in fact, we ran this experiment in the first internet bubble with Superbowl ads in a new market and spent the exact same dollars with the exact same marketing. You just set that pile of money on fire in the middle of the street, because in a new market, it's a gorilla set of activities for the first couple of years.”

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