AMiable Solution #159: Apples to Apples

If you’re lucky enough to live close to a farm, you could head there this weekend and pick your own apples.  And depending on the farm, you could get to choose from a number of different varieties: Fuji, Cameo, Empire, Jonagold, Red Delicious, etc.  The kind you pick depends on what you like and what you plan to do with them.

Identifying the right competitors to monitor also depends on making appropriate choices.  Are you monitoring the right companies?  Are you comparing your marketing to the marketing of organizations with similar products, goals, markets, and budgets?  In other words, are you comparing apples to apples?

Many of us dream of being in the same league as those companies and organizations robust enough to buy Super Bowl ads, but most of us just don’t have those juicy budgets.  So, we have to keep our comparisons realistic.  We have to identify the companies that are most like our own.

Before you can pick out your true competitors, you have to identify your main products or services, the primary sources of the competition.  Then, you search for companies or organizations that offer similar products or services.  You can do that by performing web searches, checking out social media, looking in the phone book, and talking to consumers.

Be sure to search locally, regionally, and nationally.

Once you can name five to ten competitors, sign up for their mailings and other marketing communications.  Review them when you receive them, and keep regular tabs on their websites. 

It’s important to know the similarities and differences between your products and theirs.  It’s also important to know what advantages they have over your company, including any offers or specials they promote, and the companies’ values and styles.  If your company can’t identify with the strategy of a competitor--for example, if the main selling feature of a competitor’s service isn’t a priority for your customers--it may not be a true competitor.

New competition springs up often, so be sure to not only regularly review what other companies are doing, but also survey the field for new competition.  Doing so will help your organization stay fresh.