The Lesser Evil: Being a Better Choice Than Your Competitors
As some of you might know from my Twitter profile, I enjoy following politics and have been an avid spectactor of the on-going 2008 U.S Presidential Elections. It’s very entertaining to see how political parties compete with one another during an election to win votes.
A similar pattern has been repeating itself in the last few months. A candidate makes a statement, his/her opponent absorbs what was said and re-uses it within a campaign ad or a speech, in a manner which weakens the original statement or intent.
The back and forth between the two parties is rapid. A quote from a new interview on TV or print can be integrated into an fresh attack ad in the matter of hours. If someone makes a gaffe or says something politically incorrect, you can expect a rival response condemning it. Everything is fodder to be used in a way which weakens another’s value as a politician.
What’s the end goal of electioneering politics? It’s not just about fighting for a cause and making promises to the people. Sure, most politicians need a strong platform to run on but in the end it all comes down to one thing: being the lesser evil. Or if you’re less cynical, the better choice. It’s all a game of making your opponent look worse than you.
Less qualified, less experienced, less ethical, less intelligent, less patriotic, less in tune with the concerns of the people. If you can do that successfully, you’ll win votes and maybe even an election. Like I’ve mentioned before, political theatre is all about managing perspectives.
The same thing goes for business and marketing. Too often do we believe that we operate in a vacuum. At every single moment, somebody out there is always comparing you to your competitor. Some of them do this out publicly by writing about you in blogs or forums, other do this subconsciously or mentally whenever they are faced with the choice of making a purchase.
To win a customer or reader over, you need to manage their perspectives. You need to win their trust. You need to be the better choice, the lesser evil. To that end, you need an acute understanding and ongoing awareness of your competitors. What are other businesses or sites in your field are doing? What can you do to top their efforts?
Apart from improving the value of your offer, branding or marketing efforts can be created not only to emphasize your promise but the inadequancies of your competitor. Some political theorists advocate the strategy of attacking your opponents strengths instead of their weaknesses, the goal of which is to make people re-question their solidified beliefs.
Of course, these methods do not have to culminate in a overt ‘attack ad’ slamming your competitors. Strong-armed messages will often backfire. Sarcasm, humor and subtle visual references can leech attention from your rival’s strengths and turn consumers onto your offer.
If you’re not doing any ad-based promotions and just want to improve your competitive appeal, try monitoring the web for feedback on your competitor. Understanding how other people feel about them will allow you to revamp yourself accordingly. If they hate a flaw about your rival (e.g poor customer service), advocate your distaste for that particular weakness and take a pro-active stance to promise better-than-others service.
If they love something about your competitor (e.g comprehensive journalism) but crave more meaty or original news, offer content that is more all-encompassing or go in-depth with more feature content on a sub-topic. Turn their strengths or weaknesses into your advantage.
To sum up, this strategy is quite simple: It’s about constantly playing off your competitors actions and their perceived pros/cons. Like political elections, you’ll need to repeatedly adapt swiftly and decisively, in order to position yourself as the better choice than your rivals.
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Is it like being a diplomat…?
when someone does good “tell him in public.. you’ve done a good job”
but when someone does bad.. “keep it upto yourself.. don’t tell anyone..”
Very interesting and topical advice, Maki. It’s interesting how you draw parallels with modern electioneering and marketeering.
With regards trying to maneouvre ahead of your rivals, the analogy is clear.
All political activity is a balance of promoting the positive message of one party’s policies while, at the same time, highlighting the possible negative consequences of following the opposition.
It can be a balancing act that is hard to pull off. Overly negative attacks, especially in respect of ‘character assassination’, are as likely to turn the audience off as they are to win them over.
Todays’ politics would seem to be as much about drawing negative attention to an opponent as it is about communicating the party’s own worthy message to the electorate.
I guess the same applies to the marketplace and the audience of potential customers.
If an organization consistently knocks down their business competitors, the undecided customers- waiting to be seduced by the product or service on offer- could easily be turned off.
In the majority of cases, customers want to feel that they have made the ‘right’ decision when they buy from a supplier. They usually want to be associated with good feelings about their purchase.
Should a negative campaign backfire, the customers with this need for postive reinforcement may not want to have anything to do with your business at all.
The real skill of the marketer is to hit the right note with the audience’s needs. As you suggest, the key is to identify the areas in which you excel, while pointing out those things your competitor does less well.
How would you suggest the marketer practically achieves the fine balance between highlighting your own competitive advantage over your rivals, without alienating the prospective customer?
Do you think it’s possible to be successful while completely ignoring your competitor, or behaving as though you have none? I never thought of my site as having a niche, genre, or competitor. I certainly didn’t consider my blog a writing blog, despite the name. Now I kind of do. I was nominated several times over the weekend for best writing blog. However, I think that if I had thought of myself as a writing blog, I would have paid attention to other writing blogs and probably designed the site differently. I’m certain it would have only been a shadow of what it is.
In other words, become an opportunist. Look for cracks in your competitors veneer and find opportunities to exploit them to your advantage.
Great article.
I agree that monitoring your competitor and playing off of their actions, to your benefit, is a way to do it. But the key is to do this while still maintaining the things that make you unique. The strongest competitor is the one that plays off of their OWN strengths. But there’s now doubt, if you don’t have any real strengths that can compare to those of your competitor, you will have to work off of their moves.
Advice for any business or career. If you notice someone at your work doing something above and beyond then join in or create something similar. It will help you stay in the eye of the people who can help your business/career.
The only way to not get left behind is to stay on top of the latest happenings in your industry and company.
I am going to constantly watch over my competitor. You can get ideas from them and learn from their mistakes.
Very, very true. The game has been played by both sides and always will. Think: Obama’s comparison of himself to Bush.
One tactic that always left a bad taste in my mouth is when the webmaster directly claims to be different and uses the same old cliche. “We’re different from the competition because… we have great stuff!” It reminds me of a parody YouTube film I once saw, where it was a mock-ad for a generic college. The dean said in the fake ad: “Like most colleges, we’re different.” Hehe.
It’s an interesting thought to focus on the lesser of two evils…
Accepting that the term “evil” isn’t meant literally it’s bang on target when it comes to the political genre because the idea of “two evils” is a perception that runs through many societies. It’s a common belief held here in the UK too…everyone says it when the conversation crops up.
When it comes to your own business it depends on your market. If your prospects have the perception that the market you’re operating in somehow has some “evil” connotations becoming the “lesser evil” would be a smart move. However, if your prospects do not perceive your competitors as “evil” or anything similar you may not be “in tune” with perceptions…
Glen Crosier
Brighton, UK
When it comes to succeeding in business, nothing works better than actually being better than your competitors. It’s one thing to tell everyone you’re the best. It’s another to actually be the best.
I think this ties in neatly with your recent post on The Power of Understanding and Solving Problems. If you can identify the problems associated with the status quo, or the solutions offered by your competitors, then you can craft your solution and message to match.
Politics is even more direct in this than marketing.
i.e The economy is a problem – my rival suggests we do X to solve it but that will hurt the following people … in the following ways … When elected I will do Y instead.
Agree with half man. The thing to do is to watch what your competitors are doing and try to better it
No point actually mentioning them on your blogs. Actually could prove counter-productive because you wil end up diverting some of your traffic to them
A good way though can be seen in some detergent adverts ontv. They compare themselves to ‘the other big brand’ without naming who this other big brand is
Excellent article, great advice there… but what’s the best way to monitor feedback from your competitor??… I’m not sure that Google always provides all the answers…
As for the U.S. presidential election campaign, it proves one thing to me, that most people are actually dumbasses if they can’t see through the blatantly transparent strategies that both parties engage in, in particular, the republicans (McCain’s choice of running mate, come on!!!)… Many of these strategies have been known to backfire also…
As a neutral observer, I really hope that Obama gets the nod in the end, the whole world will benefit from this… I don’t think that mcCain will be able to stand toe to toe with him when it comes to debate, but you’d never know… ignorance might still win out, and there’s plenty of that to go around…
pessimist?, me?… never!!
Great Post Maki. You can’t miss to keep an an eye on competition in any aspect of life be it business/ job/ politics or blogging. I have seen this lesser evil marketing tactic very frequently in “Coke” and “Pepsi” ads in many countries. I guess this tactic might not be that effective if you do not have strong “Rival” competition (One to One) or you have many competitors at the same level in your target segment.
When it comes to succeeding in anything, knowledge is power. Always know what’s going on around you. Remember that for every minute or hour that you’re not working, someone is out there working twice as hard to be the best there is…Great post, Maki
i think its depend for some person. Not all people will become a lesser evil. Many competitor will think about that right?
This is funny, but I slightly tackled this topic on my recent post – How to blog like a Boxing Champ almost a week ago, although yours is a more profound one. In any competition such as boxing and blogging, we need to study our opponents even before we make our move.
By doing this, we may be able to find ways to defend ourselves and improve our strategy.
Just my 2 cents.
It’s important that you know who are your competitors and what is their position in your industry, so that you would know if how far are you from success.
I agree to a certain extent but I find that taking too much time to watch your competitor takes away from your business. I focus more on what my customers are asking about or requesting and improving my business by what they say, not by what my competitors are doing.
I think I get more results concentrating on my customers and not my competitors!
That’s quite true when it comes to real competition between politics and business. I realize people don’t really remember how good a politician is. They usually remember how bad they were. They compare politician by choosing the less evil instead of the best.
Good point! Thanks for showing me something new!
I agree with Terri. It is important to know your competitors and find out where they are weak so you can also look at your company’s strengths and weaknesses and work on them. But much more important than this is truly knowing your customers, because they are the ones you serve and satisfy. A good rule of thumb is to always overdeliver. Exceed your customers’ expectations. That would definitely bring in more business.
You did it again Maki, great post! =)
Very interesting analogy!
Thanks,
JR
This elections is like a tennis match, back and forth with the attacks and pandering. I should be enjoying it, but am so deathly afraid of another 4 years of mayhem.
Our competitors are very important to us. They motivate us, teach us, help define us and more.
Politics is Marketing. In fact everything in life is marketing. When you communicate something to your spouse, it is marketing. I can go on and on. All the politicians have speech writers just like marketeers have advertising agencies. Every possible variable must be made use of in business and politics to win the share of the market/electorate.
It’s nice to see someone go Meta on the election and dig (almost spelled that with two g’s) up some useful marketing information. It’s certainly a “timely” article, but not real time locked. It’s something that will still be relevent ten months or more from now. Well done.
yes, having an drogon on eye on competitors will help us really, some times we can learn superb lessons from them
There is no question that the same thing goes for business and marketing, i.e. Pepsi vs. Coke. Those that operate in a vacuum simply won’t thrive and more than likely won’t survive.
The Darwinian model of competition is one way of imaging the world around us, but there are other, older metaphors which use concepts related to cooperation and synergism. I prefer the latter.
I definately loved this thank you for the post it was very informative
Humans seem to always perform better and imporve technology when there is another person/company/race to battle against. USA vs. USSR – Google vs. Microsoft the list goes on, sometimes it gets the best out of people and other times the worst (cheating, spying etc)
I love how you expound on this theme of managing perspectives. In politics, we see it, and we deem it as dirty. Actually, in business, the same applies too.
As what master tactician Sun Tze said: if you know thyself and your enemy, you win all the battles but if only know yourself, you win half of the time, which is a pretty bad track record for a business setup.
Jeflin
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Cheers!
thats awsome…. good work!
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I just voted for your excellent blog for the Bloggers Choice Awards.
Could you please return the favor at:
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Thanks,
SpEdLaw2
I never really thought about business in the political sense like this. Maybe because I was a Political Science major and just hated Politics so much around Election time or maybe because I always looked at trying to beat the competitor.
This is a great post though. Every company has flaws and it’s definitely a good idea to see what your competitors are doing wrong.
I am not as passive though, I would love to attack them for it, lol. They would do it to me.
Another insightful post
-
Chris
Interesting view on situation,,
good pos, dude
I think that strong arming your competition will result in lawsuits. It is always best to ask yourself what is ethical first. Think of it this way, what you say will ultimately steer your audience either away or with you. Steering is illegal in real estate. Why should it be legal in any other business?
For me, when it comes down to “You offended” someone, I think at that point you have taken it too far.
At any rate, great article again!
Well, the only problem with the whole “lesser of two evils” idea is that people may well decide they need neither Coke nor Pepsi and might have some water instead.
As for politics, I don’t really see this election as the lesser of two evils, nor is it Coke vs. Pepsi. More like Refreshing, Delicious Coke (in a bottle) versus Cynanide. But that’s just me.
///To sum up, this strategy is quite simple: It’s about constantly playing off your competitors actions and their perceived pros/cons. Like political elections, you’ll need to repeatedly adapt swiftly and decisively, in order to position yourself as the better choice than your rivals.
Sure but they will begin doing those same things to you – where will it end?
Sooner of later, the propects/ consumers will just get pessimistic about everything they hear and read.
Perhaps, the best overall strategy is to improve yourself and your brand or service as much as possible and get valid relevant reactions from users – then promote those positives heavily and with class
YES THAT IS GREAT!
i like this article a lot Maki.
but i had thought that we are always protected by law.
It is very sad the way politicians flip flop the meaning on these words or statements from their opponents. What really get me is when you find out that the person who is flipping this word or statement from his/her opponent, has used the same word or statement before.
Just doesn’t make sense for an ordinary citizen who swallow the critics.
I’ve read some interesting comments here – I’d like to see what Maki has to say.
As for the concept itself – I’ve seen it work. But it doesn’t always work. As any other marketing concept it boils down to some common sense and basic knowledge afterward it’s just perfecting the tactics you’ve “custom” developed for your particular case. My take on this is that it’ll work better in a place where you can use populism, and probably a larger scale market. But again – there aren’t any absolute laws in marketing.
Hmm, like this article, it would seem my competition is a bit large.
I made my site but it seems I should have chosen a less “blogged about” topic…
I’m not so sure that direct comparisons can be made between politics and Weblogs. Some points in this article are valid to a degree. If you sell products on your site you might benefit from some form of agressive marketing aimed at competition however without strong relationships in the blogging world your seriously in danger of losing inbound links and the respect of people who drive traffic to your blog.
For example my site, in theory is in competition with doshdosh. Doshdosh is far more exposed than mine so it can only benefit me to maintain a good relationship with Maki. Any coverage of my site, good or bad on doshdosh would be great for my traffic but bad coverage would leave a sour taste in a readers mouth before they even arrived!
I like the quote from one of Australia’s best ever race car drivers, Sir Jack Brabham, his motto was “Win in the slowest time possible – but remember to win.”
This was one of those articles that caused a light bulb to flash over my head. Yes, yes, yes! And I thought the political analogy was spot-on. Thanks!
I like to look at a competator who I admire and think, “how would I make this post even better?” its a good excersise and makes you think about your audience.
It is good to know what your competotors are doing and find ways to offer a better service to attract new clients in what ever area you work in.
Knowing the opposition is helpful in planning new moves in any campaign.
Great articles. I am a regular reader