Marketing professionals look in the mirror and have reflections filled with angst over their competition.
They watch with great anticipation to see what they will do next, how they respond to market changes and they get obsessed about how they price their products.
Of course, a deep understanding of competition matters, but it rarely solves the most critical challenge marketers face.
How can we be true to who we are?
Worrying about competition means that you are always in comparison mode with others. They add a new SKU, so you add one.
They sell through a new channel, so you feel compelled to do the same.
And while you are copying and pasting what they do, brands that are followers often lose their way.
Family Vacation as Metaphor
A simple metaphor is the family vacation. You would never look at the holidays your neighbors take and say, I want to do what they are doing. Your kids may hate Disney World and prefer to go camping. Just because a family down the block took their kids to Europe, it may not be the adventure you want for your children.
As a family, you want to give your children an experience that you and your spouse feel will give them a chance to get away and to open their eyes to a new experience. You want the vacation to resonate with everyone and be authentic to your family, not the neighbors.
If you are copying your neighbors, you aren’t in tune with what matters to you and your family.
The same is true for brands and businesses.
Competition and Marketing
When I work with clients on creating marketing strategies to help them grow, we do review the competition, so we have a baseline understanding of their customer’s choices.
But we quickly move on to find things we can do that reflect who we are, what we believe in and actions that serve our customers in our special way.
These “only we” moments are critical because they give you distance from the competition. They allow your company and brand to have a unique approach to the marketplace.
Finding gaps or areas that competitors don’t serve are helpful and directional.
But until you do things that only your brand does, you’ll remain a blur and won’t break through. The best situation is finding a new dimension of value that your competition doesn’t address.
A new aspect of value is a blue ocean approach to the marketplace, where you aren’t selling based on the same considerations as the competition.
- Cirque du Soleil eliminates the animals from the circus but keeps the exhilaration.
- Daybreaker focuses on dance parties, but they take away the nightclub, late night and alcohol.
- Louboutin focuses on the red soul on each shoe, not just the elegant woman’s shoes.
- Nomacorc, my former employer is a wine closure brand that markets Plantcorc® that is made from sugarcane, creating a new category that no one else sells.
- Nomaco, a client, sells Herculean foam, that is unlike any other foam because of it is both lightweight and strong, replacing wood.
The trick is to focus on a need that your customers have and that your competitor doesn’t sell. Being a copycat does nothing for your customers. You can’t stand out from the crowd, following the competition.
Doing something original that only your brand can deliver can shifts markets.
How does your brand serve customers in a way that your competitors ignore?
Could you use help evaluating your competition and finding your brand’s “only we” position? Call me at 919 720 0995 or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com – or book some time to talk on my calendar.
Photo by Bekah Russom on Unsplash
