AMiable Solution #105: Building a Good Defense

 

In our last blog, we talked about building your offensive team.  As any good sports fan knows, teams don’t survive on offensive plays alone: they need defensive moves, too.  The ability to knock down a threat and turn opportunities into wins.

In marketing, that means countering your competitions’ moves and making big plays.  You can do that two ways.

First, protect your current customers, members, and donors.  In football, players who have possession of the ball protect it from the grasping hands of other players by cradling it their arms and holding it tight against them.  Existing customers need to be handled the same way or else you risk losing them.  Keep them close.  Keep them informed.  Don’t let them feel vulnerable or lost.  Respond to their requests and inquiries promptly.  Talk to them--in voice and in print--with compassion and respect.  Acquiring new customers is important for growth, but holding tight to your existing base is essential for staying in the game.

Second, respond to attacks.  After you’ve worked months or years to acquire and retain new customers, the last thing you want is to see them leave your bench and join the opposing team.  So when a competitor starts targeting your hard-earned market, how can you respond?  What can you do to protect your business and your bottom line?

• Adjust your pricing.  If a competitor targets your pricing structure, it may be time to change yours.  That doesn’t necessarily mean lowering prices to match your competitor’s.  If you can determine that the majority of your customers and new customers would be willing to pay more for greater value, which your product or service possesses that your competitor’s product or service doesn’t, than you may actually be able to increase your price.
• Advertise smarter.  When another company or organization threatens to attack your market, your best marketing response is a repositioning one: identify how your competitor’s product or service differs from yours.  Then, highlight the feature or features that your product has but your competitor’s lacks.
• Improve your product or service.  Here you have three choices: improve your product or service’s strength, improve a weakness, or improve the feature that your competitor excels in.  Just be sure not to change your product or service too much or eliminate features that customers count on or else you risk sabotaging your own efforts.

The most effective defense for any organization is also a simple one: build and maintain a good reputation for quality products and excellent customer service.