Archive for the ‘Competition’ Category
Timing is Everything
Last week I wrote about having a crisis communications plan for when your competition is having a crisis.
In light of the recent events with BP in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell is taking an aggressive proactive approach touting the work they are doing to improve fuel efficiency and alternative sources of energy.
With this in mind, imagine my surprise when I saw a billboard in Atlanta announcing Gulf Oil. The Legend Is Back.
It appears that Gulf Oil, much like Shell, is trying to leverage BP’s misfortune to their advantage by expanding into the Atlanta market.
I know Gulf Oil is a reputable company – with no involvement in the current crisis – and has been serving the Northeast for decades. Unfortunately, their timing is off. I’m just not sure this is the best time to put the words “gulf” and “oil” together – especially in the South.
Is Shell Exploiting BP?
In recent weeks, Shell Oil has increased its media presence through aggressive advertising. Ads highlight Shell’s Eco-marathon car race where this year’s winner was able to travel “8,870 on the equivalent of one gallon of fuel”.
As a marketer, you have to appreciate the speed in which Shell got their message out, and their approach to differentiate themselves against the backdrop of BP’s Gulf disaster.
Companies tend to have crisis communications plans in place when they are the ones in crisis. Equally important is having a plan in place when your competition is in trouble.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you prepared to take advantage of your competition when they stumble?
- Do you have a strategy in place to set your company apart if your competitors’ actions hurt your industry’s image?
- What are your plans to assure your customers that what happened to your competition won’t happen to you?
Being prepared isn’t exploitation. It’s smart business.
Is Your Brand Indispensable?
Two years ago, who would have thought Coke and Energizer could ever be cast aside by retailers?
Well – it’s happening.
Costco recently announced it was no longer selling Coca-Cola products as a result of a price battle. CVS is dropping most Energizer products and will only carry Duracell and its private label. Following this trend, Wal-Mart continues to move towards its product mix goal of one top brand, one value brand and its private label.
Costco is betting people will continue to come to Costco and buy alternatives to Coke. CVS has used its customer shopping data to predict a minimal sales drop if they no longer sell Energizer.
What should all businesses take away from this?
Few brands are indispensable to the customer. In fact, you know your customers could find a pretty good alternative if you were no longer in business.
So what can you do to become as close to indispensable as possible?
Know your customers
- Why do they choose to buy your product/service?
- What do you offer them that they can’t get anywhere else?
- Why do they buy from your competitors if you aren’t available?
- What do your competitors offer that you don’t?
- How are they using your product or service?
- How do they use your competitor’s product or service?
(These questions can be easily answered through one-on-one interviews and quantified through online research.)
Know your competition
- What are they offering that you don’t?
- What makes them unique in the market?
- Do they partner with other companies?
Upon learning about your customers, develop service offerings that they can only get from your company. Some ideas could be:
- Guarantees
- Special hours
- Rewards programs
- Loyal customer specials
- Packaged service offering
- Something extra every time they do business with you (for example, a local Chinese restaurant gives you an extra appetizer as their way of saying thank you)
Why no mention of lowering prices on these lists? Making your brand indispensable is not about price; it is about creating value that your audience can not receive anywhere else.
How are you creating value to make your brand indispensable?
Post your comments so others can learn from what you are doing.
RedBox Succeeds With Blue Ocean
First came Blockbuster movie rentals and its counterparts.
Then, as videos gave way to DVDs, Netflix reinvented movie rental with its monthly subscription service. Its pitch was simple: DVDs delivered right to your door with no late fees.
Now, Netflix and others are evolving that model and delivering movies right to your computer or TV.
So how can a company succeed by making people drive to pick up their DVDs again?
RedBox has found a way, by finding Blue Ocean – a new way of thinking - among the crowded Red Ocean movie rental industry.
In this case, RedBox knew there was an opportunity in DVD rentals outside of what the biggest players were doing today. The key was finding a competitive position that would meet an unmet need.
So RedBox started using Blue Ocean thinking for DVD rentals, just like Netflix did a few years ago.
RedBox is a series of self-serve kiosks located at very convenient locations like grocery stores, drug stores, etc. You can grab a movie after you do your regular shopping. A RedBox rental costs $1 – with no late fees – and you can return your DVD at any RedBox location.
RedBox took this Blue Ocean approach and changed the game based on some key consumer insights.
- Consumers don’t want to wait for their movie in the mail. Movies are as close as the nearest RedBox, located in the places people already frequent (so they seem even more convenient).
- Consumers don’t want to pay subscription fees. RedBox lets you rent on your own terms and timeline.
- Consumers don’t like late fees (confirming Netflix’s experience).
As an added bonus, RedBox lets you reserve your favorite movies at the most convenient location through their website.
RedBox results: 147% growth last year; 105% growth the year prior.
Now is a great time to think about your business and determine what you can do differently from your competition. Costs to implement any changes are lower than they’ve been in years and the manpower and mindpower is available.
What Blue Ocean thinking can you apply to recreate your industry?
Check Out Your Competition's Web Analytics
Sorry about another quick post this week, but I came across a service that has me very excited. It is called Compete.
Compete is a website that allows you to not only track your company’s web analytics but also check your competition’s web activity. It does so by gathering information based on IP traffic.
Compete’s subscription service is pretty robust and can run anywhere from $200 – $500 a month , but even using its free tool you can still get a lot of information like:
- monthly visitors
- monthly unique visitors
- average page views
- average time per visit
This is not a perfect science but it is pretty close. I compared the web analytics of some of my clients with the data received by Compete and it was off by about 5% – 10%. So while it is not the end-all in web analytics, it is a great tool to help you monitor trends.
For example, if your competition launches a new ad campaign you can track any upticks in its unique visitors to measure the impact. More important you can see what type of comparative impact it has on your site.
Compete also provides you frame of reference. You may think having 5 web page views per visit is a good number, now you can see if it really is and map out your plan accordingly.
Understanding your competition and having an industry frame of reference are key tools to being a better marketer and now Compete.com helps you market smarter.
Google Alerts – A Small Tidbit Before Thanksgiving.
Every business wants to know what their competitors are doing and while it is difficult to know everything they are doing – Google Alerts helps you discover what they are doing on the web. You can receive daily alerts when your competitors’ names show up on websites, news articles, blogs, etc.
To provide the best results you should use quotation marks like “M Is For Marketing” so you are not receiving updates on everything with the word marketing in it.
While this is certainly, not the only competitive reconnaissance you should do, it does provide interesting information to see where your competition is and who is talking about them. Which, in turn, helps you market smarter.
RSS Feed
Latest Work
Recent Comments