Competitive Marketing

By Author: karen grahams
Total Articles: 42
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Sometimes the best teacher is your competition.

For someone new to the field of business you aren't always going to know what you need to do to win over the customers in your industry. Just how big should those commercial printing orders be and just how should your business card designs look? Do the people in your industry prefer you to use something like glossy postcards, or do they prefer normal ones?

When entering into a long-standing field you're going to find plenty of companies that have been around and played the game for a long time, and these are the people you go to learn from. Of course, I'm not saying this in a literal sense.

Pick up their advertisements and see what kind of styles they've been using. If they use book printing grab yourself some of those booklets and flip through them. See what language they use, what images they've been putting in, and get a feel for what works.

But this is only the first step in the process, because if all you're doing is the same thing as your competition you won't get very far, now will you? The ...
... point isn't to do the same thing but to improve upon it. Take their advertisements and decide how you can make them better.

Why not poll some people to see what they like and don't like about what the competition is doing? Find the areas they aren't as strong in. Being new means that no one else has had a chance to see what you're up to. You have the element of surprise on your side, and you should use it well.

And no company is without things people would like to see improved. I'd say that a lot of people don't even realize how much they'd like certain things to change until they're actually asked about it and they start to put some thought to the question. If you can give people things they didn't realize they wanted you'll quickly get them taking a good, long look at what you have to offer.

If you don't have a big budget for your marketing then handle as much of it on your own that you can. If you have a computer, and I find it unlikely that you don't, get some design software like QuarkXpress and start churning out those advertisements based on an improved version of your competitors.

Research and timing can more than make up for a lack of funds in the world of marketing. If you offer people something better than any of the other companies are giving, the budget won't be nearly as important anymore. Even a modest amount of marketing along with word of mouth can drive up sales far more than the largest advertising campaign a company might produce.

Just remember that the first step is seeing what everyone else is doing. If you don't know that, you can't do it better.

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