How to Penetrate Mid-level Markets Using Market Research and Content

As a professional marketer and blogger, I have developed many varied and somewhat disconnected interests. I think it comes from having to follow this marketing trend for that client and keep on top of that political issue for another. Oh, and if it’s Tuesday, it must be fitness and if it’s Wednesday, the focus is on natural health. (Don’t even ask about Thursday, please.) Through all of this, some of it has stuck with me, so that I find myself reading on and following along with some of these topics long after the client needs me to do so. Sometimes, all of this weird, disconnected stuff comes together in serendipitous ways, bringing me a wealth of info. Other times, I’ll glean just one little gem from some out-of-the-way source that pays off big time. Today was one of the latter cases, and it’s so good, I’ve got to share it with you.

Today, Foreign Policy Watch delivered up a tidy little gem. Now why would a marketer and blogger’s blogger even know about Foreign Policy Watch, let alone read it? It can be awfully stuffy and boring at times, I’ll admit. But when they do stuff like they did today, the marketer in me starts doing the happy dance. Today, they released their list of the 75 fastest growing markets worldwide. As someone who works with business folks, as well as markets my own business, this is tremendous news. Why? Let me explain…..

It should come as no surprise to readers that China dominates the list. And some of the world’s greatest cities, like New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow and Sydney, too, you’d expect. What interested me were the midlevel markets waiting to be tapped, those cities we don’t automatically think of when we think of expanding our client base. But with growth projections in the hundreds of billions of dollars, they are no longer too small to ignore when considering your marketing plans. Let’s look at three:

Toronto – Now, most Canadians will tell you that you can’t do business in Canada without including Toronto. It is, after all, Canada’s largest metropolitan region, as well as its financial and entertainment center. Toronto has recently begun an extensive development plan along the city’s waterfront to add to the already bustling atmosphere. It may be cold up there, folks, but the market growth is hot.
Phoenix – Another hot market, in more ways than one. Phoenix has some of the youngest per capita population in the US. The average age of Phoenix is just 34! That’s a lot of market potential for products geared toward the younger consumer, and a market with a great deal of staying power, too.
Miami – Once considered just the partying playground capital of the southern US, Miami has long had a history as a tourist attraction. Attempting to leave its partying days behind and grow up a bit, Miami has begun a concerted effort to remake itself as a cultured, arty metropolis. Arts festivals, a rejuvenated fashion and arts district and a housing market that hasn’t taken the beating it has in other cities have all marked Miami as a city on the way up. Not that its $250 billion tourist industry doesn’t hurt, either.
So, whether you’re considering where you should concentrate your next marketing strategy, or pondering a physical expansion of your business, don’t forget to look at the midlevel markets on the way up, as well as the ones already at the top.