Penetrating the Market

The Houston Chronicle published a great list of tips on how to penetrate the market: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/develop-market-penetration-31423.html
A lot of the information seems redundant from previous ideas on branding and general marketing, like researching competitors and partnering with distributors to increase customer awareness of your product. One of the best ideas is coupling your product with a more popular item to increase customer awareness. For example, when you buy a bottle of shampoo at the store which has a small sample of a conditioner attached. Competitive pricing or offering bonus value with purchase is a common way to convince consumers to try your product or service.

A clear, recent example of companies competing in the same market is the variety of streaming services. The three main names are Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. For a long time, Netflix was the only service that seemed to have a very strong customer base. You could either stream tv shows and movies or rent more titles through DVD in the mail. With different pricing options, customers had the freedom to choose what they wanted. Hulu has grown significantly in recent years, and for many people is a better choice than Netflix. Hulu shows new releases of tv shows within days and has recently partnered with Showtime, whereas Netflix users often have to wait several months for a full season to be added. Amazon Prime has streaming options, too, but there benefit is more with the ability to rent new releases of movies online rather than waiting for the mail. All three companies have branched out in making their own series and movies to increase their value with customers. All three companies also offer customers a free trial to "hook" them on their services.

In summation, finding your niche with customers or highlighting what makes your product unique or superior will help boost your chances of market penetration.