Last week I wrote a post about the importance of engaging in competitive research. I’m going to elaborate on that and talk about developing a competitive advantage. Before you can develop your competitive advantage, you need to thoroughly research all of your direct and indirect competition. This is critical, because you do not want to miss any product, idea, service, etc that your competition is offering. Not only will this give you an incredible understanding of your marketplace, but it might give you some good ideas for your company.
Once you have completed your competitive research, it’s time to develop a competitive advantage. This can be defined as something that a firm posseses that gives it an advantage over it’s rivals. It can be one of two things: cost advantage or differentiation advantage. The advantage I am talking about is differentiation because cost advantage is referring to the company having less expenses and therefore more profit. The competitive advantage I am talking about is how you want to differentiate yourself from your competition, which hopefully leads to more profit anyway 🙂
The most important aspect of your competitive advantage should be: You’ve got to offer what your competition is not offering. Your customers will buy from the business that offers what you don’t have. YOU need to be the business that is offering what others are not! Your marketing efforts should be focused around this competitive advantage. Remember, this needs to be an advantage, so if it costs too much, it may not be so advantageous for you. But you can put a lot of time, energy, imagination and knowledge into it.
Once you have completed your competitive research, it’s time to develop a competitive advantage. This can be defined as something that a firm posseses that gives it an advantage over it’s rivals. It can be one of two things: cost advantage or differentiation advantage. The advantage I am talking about is differentiation because cost advantage is referring to the company having less expenses and therefore more profit. The competitive advantage I am talking about is how you want to differentiate yourself from your competition, which hopefully leads to more profit anyway 🙂
The most important aspect of your competitive advantage should be: You’ve got to offer what your competition is not offering. Your customers will buy from the business that offers what you don’t have. YOU need to be the business that is offering what others are not! Your marketing efforts should be focused around this competitive advantage. Remember, this needs to be an advantage, so if it costs too much, it may not be so advantageous for you. But you can put a lot of time, energy, imagination and knowledge into it.
