Have you done the research?
There are managers who, for whatever reason, can’t or won’t invest in market research; among them are a few true visionaries who can get away with it. It doesn’t have to be a full-dress oversampling via face-to-face interviews: it can be as simple as a scripted interview with sales or support staff that can put your competitive situation in perspective. Wise Counsel can help you devise baseline and follow-up programs that will demonstrate your progress towards your business objectives.
Have you put your customer at the focal point of your research?
Comparing features, slogans, distribution plans, whatever: These are tactical considerations. They are certainly valuable, but they miss the central competitive premise: “We meet the needs of our customers better than our competitors.” And this is where you can mesh your marketing with your messaging: Uncover the real advantages your company offers and work to get them into every relevant purchase decision.
Have you checked your mirrors?
Head-to-head competitors are easy enough to identify, and can consume your attention. But what about that buzzy little start-up with a hardware appliance that could cut you out of the consumer’s value chain, or that little collection of four or five free apps that is siphoning off a piece of the low end of the market? Many organizations are incented to focus on the competitive status quo, instead of evolving customer needs. Wise Counsel brings a breadth of vision that will help you see both current and potential competitors more clearly.
Are your tags current?
How are your competitors tagging their communications? Where are they popping up in the communications mix? Should you be mirroring their strategies or counterpunching? Understanding their tactics may offer insight into their strategy, and perhaps reveal a new market vector worthy of pursuit. You gotta tag if you want to be It.
Does your research take media fragmentation into account?
They say the future is quantum computing, based on the capacity of subatomic particles to maintain multiple states at once -- to be, in application, of two minds. So as we strive for consistency in our marketing messages, we should also vary the beat of the drum. Bear in mind that “overmediation” means that you can vary the emphasis of your messaging widely and in so doing amplify, rather than dilute, the overall impact of your campaign. Wise Counsel can identify opportunities to target specific competitors with focused messages emphasizing very particular competitive advantages.
