WHO IS MY COMPETITION - The Wright Marketing Blueprint, Inc.

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Who Is My Brand's Competition?
By Maggie Wright

In addition to knowing everything about your consumer, it is important to also know who your competitors are and how your Brand sizes up against them. But, before learning about them, you need to determine what market you are really in.

This may sound like such a simple issue... so simple that it may even sound stupid. However, the size and scope can differ. For example, you may decide to take a "micro" view and consider your 'direct' competitors to be your only competitors. Or you could decide to step back and take a broader 'macro' view. When you look at the 'macro' view, you are really changing the definition of your market. It has a broader scope. It gives you a different perspective of your market. It gives you a new way of describing and talking about your market. It's a picture or snapshot of how your market looks. In big-brand marketing terms, it is called your brand's "competitive frame of reference."

It's like looking in a room from a different angle, which can help you to see things differently. You may find a broader understanding of what your brand means and how to compete. This could help your creative juices flow and trigger out-of-the-box thinking.

Why is this important? Actually, it is important for you to look at your market from both micro and macro views. Consumers do not purchase your product or service in a vacuum. They are constantly weighing the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing items in your micro-category. Further, they may be consciously and unconsciously comparing them to other indirect products and services that may meet their needs, but perhaps differently. If you are not aware of this, and your consumers start using another product or service category that you are not aware of as being competitive, then you could lose your shirt.

Let's take the toothpaste example from my previous blogs. If your brand "Kiss X" cleans and whitens teeth, you would need to study your teeth-whitening toothpaste competitors. That is one micro view. But you also need to step back and widen your view to all toothpaste products. They have different claims and capabilities, such as cavity protection, but they are also competitive to your brand. That also is a micro-view, but somewhat broader in perspective. Stepping back further, you need to also study your non-toothpaste competitors that focus only on whitening teeth. For an even more macro view, step back from "teeth." Think about it. What kind of market are you really in? Could it be beauty enhancement? Or could it be health?