Flat Cat Marketing - Competition Marketing

Beating the competition

Getting the upper hand on competitors is not a simple matter of advertising. Flat Cat Rule #1 draws the distinction between advertising and marketing. Beating the competition begins with marketing and may involve changing or enhancing products and services. Unless you have a monopoly, any business has to compete with other businesses offering the same or similar products or services. If competitors offer the same product, the product becomes a commodity and price becomes the only means of competing. The way to avoid this is to differentiate by identifying or creating a unique selling proposition, which makes a product or service better than a competitor's. Although, to be fair, a product or service doesn't have to be better - it simply needs to be better suited to a particular part of the market. This enables a business to work in a niche within the market.

Finding a niche

Developing a marketing strategy includes a comprehensive competitor analysis and the resulting market map shows the various niches being serviced or ignored. To understand how niches work, consider the sale of shoes. There are plenty of shoe shops in the world so they are forced to differentiate to compete. Of all the people in the world, some work in heavy industry or dangerous working environments. Some shoe shops may service this niche in the market by supplying steel-capped work boots. Other shoe shops specialise in shoes for people with large feet. Then there are always price niches - from budget shoes through to designer labels. Altough product is important, some businesses choose to differentiate with service. For instance, a petrol station where someone fills the tank for you is hard to find but some businesses choose to compete with superior service. Flat Cat's competitor analysis identifies the best niche market for a business to focus on. The marketing plan also outlines how to target the niche market.