Marketing:

Beware of Your Competition

Without the competition within your industry, your business can’t grow. If you only have one company for a product, after a while you won’t want anything better. But with competition, another company can see the desires of the general public and introduce a product similar but better fitted for the market. Competition expands the market and good healthy jealousies can create a better you by making you think every minute about making a more solid product. By keeping an eye on the competition, a company is able to stay on its toes and jump on opportunities as they show up.

• Shop your competition. Retail stores do this all the time. They want to find how you conduct business and what kind of customer service you offer. If it’s better than their system, they can implement yours for a better effect.
• Know who is behind the curtain. Read resumes or biographies of the people who own and manage your competition.
• For publicly traded companies, buy their stocks. This will keep you up to date on all the workings of your competitor’s company.
• Research your competitor’s customers. Have them fill out a survey on why they prefer them to you.
• Go online and research your competitor’s website if there is one. They can usually offer you a lot of information.
• You can use trade papers like The Wall Street Journal to keep an eye on your competition as well.
• Check the libraries and do your research. If researching is not your thing, you can seek the aid of a librarian to help get you started.
• Go to all the trade shows that concern you and your competitor. Check out their marketing strategies as well as how they to present their products.
• Try to anticipate your competitor’s next move. By doing so you can see the marketing push or new product releases coming out of the competitor’s company and this can better prepare you to face them.
• Keep an eye on potential competition. You never know who might be preparing themselves to fight you for the local market.
• Try to be aware of all the competition yourself instead of employing your assistant to do so.

Never let down your guard when it comes to the competition. More likely than not, they are keeping strict tabs with what is going on in your company. You should make it your duty to always know what is going on with theirs as well. With the ever-changing landscape of business, you no longer know who will pop up tomorrow to question your reign in your market. All you can do is prepare for change.