Vitality of competitive intelligence: can’t imagine a business life without competitors

Come on, it is time to wake up and to ensure where you stand smarter than your competitors do. To determine where you are standing and how much your uniqueness catches the eyes of your customers, you will need to see your world from your competitors’ eyes. The term ‘competitive intelligence’ refers to how much you know about your competitors, your familiarity with their strengths, weaknesses, their opportunities, their trends and technical advancements. Nowadays, no business would go on the right track without the concern on competitive trends, which denotes the importance of competitive intelligence. Most people just misinterpret the scope of competitive intelligence inside a small circle that lacks to look into wider aspects of competitive intelligence such as:

1.      Inclusive observation of competitors on their abilities of gains and vulnerabilities of threats

2.      Implementing strategies to guard our business if they beat us with their strengths and to beat them using their vulnerabilities

3.      Coming up with a killing product or an idea that influences in their demise  

4.      Incorporating the strategies with promotional campaigns to best inform why our business is unique, best and valuable from all our competitors.  

5.      Practice the strategy of networking for the sake of being industrial friends and to make some of our competitors as the supply chain integrators

Bearing the above concerns, it is clear that competitive intelligence is not just a matter of collecting data about competitors but it has more than to do. Some companies use internet as the prime source of gathering information about competitors, some others go for annual reports and other published data from competitors. However, some of the companies send their employees as the investigative work forces into the competitors’ organizations...somehow these blacksheeps often get caught by the organizations later and will be punished for their illegal deal.       

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The secrets behind viral videos in YouTube; marketing secrets revealed in TechCrunch, sounds to be an ugly game

A guest article was published in TechCrunch on 22^nd November 2007 by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, co-founder of viral video marketing company and the article seems remaining popular from the day it was put online. The article starts as ‘Have you ever watched a video with 100,000 views on YouTube and thought to yourself: “How the hell did that video get so many views?” Chances are pretty good that this didn’t happen naturally, but rather that some company worked hard to make it happen – some company like mine’.

The whole article was spotlighted on how Dan as a viral marketing company owner strategically made some private label branded studios’ videos very popular in YouTube, how his clients were generated with millions of views un-naturally, how they got comments such ‘wow...what a great work’ for a video that had almost nothing insightful. The main reasons for why small startups go behind these viral marketing companies are that they want to gain popularity and recognition for their un-known brands. Very logically, it takes time for these companies to get recognized by their viewers and to start earning considering the massive competition in the web. Therefore, just as an off-line start-up, small online startups too need to find a company that will promote their videos and podcasts. This is the point where it urges a need of thinking on whether these un-natural loadings, comments and likes would really turn a brand into recognition unless if the content of the video is insightful and means something to the viewer.

In case, the content of the video has nothing specifically intuitive and there are millions of views and thousands of comments saying that this is the greatest video that no one revealed yet. Now think a bit, what you would feel on it. Does it sound to be a good marketing technique? Dan’s other strategy was deleting negative comments on the videos that were given by the actual viewers. However, he has forgotten that there have been enormous instances where negative comments were used as a vital marketing tool of popularizing a commercial in the ground of criticisms and one who is saying that he or she is leaving from a site or a video would actually not leave and would come again and see who else is commenting further. Further, Dan seems to be very happy to hire an attractive woman to appear in a video in such a case where there is no superior content. This sex appeal may boost the number of guys who come for that woman and not for that particular brand and most dangerously these viewers will remember the woman and will not listen to what she has to say. It seems like, what these viral marketing companies doing is too artificial and would have the least impact of helping small brands to grow further or they are spamming them. 

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How can you promote your brand among your niche?

This would be the ultimate aim of selecting a profitable niche and if you know how to do correctly, then you will be very successful. You can select advertising, direct marketing, personal selling and even sales promotions as your mean of promoting. It all depends on your product category. Here I am only focusing on advertising.

Broadcast media (use radio for advertising): Radio may not be considered as glamorous as Tele-vision. It makes it more difficult to attract some talented professionals to design ads. Local radio has a particularly close to a local image and if your niche consists local people, then you can go for it. Talented radio professionals make their listeners to remember the ad.

Tele-vision: Due to the high exposure, glamour, and audiovisual impact of the Tele-vision, it has become the favored medium of buying new products, raising brand awareness and loyalty among your niche. Nowadays re-positioned brands also use this medium to attract their new niches. (Ex: Tigo) Tele-vision ads have short life-spans, most ads last for 15 or 30 seconds.

Outdoor media: Poster advertising is one of the oldest media for consumer goods advertising, sites on walls, hoardings and bus shelters and they can be leased for per calendar month.

Cinema: Cinema advertising takes advantage of high audiovisual impact and the captive audience but still requires a high quality and entertaining value.

Internet: forty years ago, the newest medium was Tele-vision, about 17 years ago it was cable Tele-vision and currently it is the internet. There is evidence that Tele-vision audiences are migrating to the internet. In the US, over a million prime time Tele-vision viewers have shifted to internet. Niche segmentation is very easy to accomplish with internet.

So now you have to decide on which one is really suitable for you. If you have anything to ask, you are encouraged to do so.

Mathangie

Don't forget to read our following articles

Niche marketing Pros and Cons
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Niche marketing Pros and Cons: would you lose your business if you only focusing on one niche?

Ok. Now it seems niche marketing is one way to quickly succeed with your business. However, everything in this world has its pros and cons. So what about niche marketing? There is no doubt that one can easily reach the target by focusing only in a most-significant niche in a small business.

Nevertheless, if your company is quiet big and capable of promoting it well too, then you can go for target markets. In case, a large company only focuses on a small niche, it means that it is losing on sales unless if it is not for specific reasons. However, does it mean that big companies can’t be successful with niche marketing? Yes. They can. How? Let’s say you own a large company that owes different business segments. So that for some segments you can only concentrate with specific niches. For an example, Wal-Mart has started marketing specific mugs that are especially designed for hunters in Africa.

Though you are big company, you still would have some business units that do not financially perform well and other segments, which are more profitable. I would recommend to allocate more budget for the cash cow segment (most profitable) when deciding on your promotional activities. Then for the units that do not financially perform well, you can stick with small niche and that niche should consist of customer who will definitely buy from you. Therefore, you can reduce on your production units and can too ensure that production does not exceed the demand from your small niche.

Mathu

PLease read the following articles for your better understanding of niches and marketing
Why small businesses should turn on niche marketing?
Different strategies of positioning your product
Understand the basic myths behind target markets

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Different strategies of positioning a product in a niche: what would be more successful?

Positioning is an art of capturing a soft corner in your customers’ minds and you can do it in different ways. This is what your customer would know about your product and what would stand for the rest of the world regarding for you too. Let’s see some of the examples of positioning your product in your selected niche or niches.

Price or quality positioning: If your product is such very high in quality, then this is for you. Whenever a product has high quality, which is always consecrated with the highest price margins. Here what you remember when you are saying high-quality, it always results in less-bulk, long life-time, safety, excellent after sales services, warranty, ISO certifications and it should give the feeling to your customer that it worths to their paying. If your product has all of them, then you can set market above price margin for it for sure. In addition, since you have the ability of producing high quality product, it is always advisable to concentrate much on your branding because quality-seekers would prefer to buy bands rather than just looking for products.

Benefits positioning: As a good marketer as well as a good businessperson, you should always say that you are selling benefits rather than just saying you have a product to sell. When your product has a worthy benefit than your competitor, then you can use that as your strategy of positioning. Best example would be Nokia for its user-friendliness.

Unique selling proposition: If you think that your brand or product has a unique feature, then you can go for it. Let’s say you the first to introduce something in your market, then you can always use that as a tactic of promoting yourself.

Competitor based positioning: If you are in a very competitive market, then you should look-into what your competitor is doing. Here you might position your brand against to competitor. For an example, adbrite is positioned against to Google adsense.

Cultural based positioning: If you love your tradition and religion very much, you can go for positioning your product with cultural symbols or a value that is most respected in your tradition.

So that deciding on your positioning strategy is much depended on your product and its capabilities and it is up to you to select on it.

Mathangie

you may also interested to read our article on is it possible to make million dollars with a specific niche in a small business

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Why small businesses should turn to niche marketing: the real concerns behind niche marketing

Why should a small business stick to a much-significant niche? If doing so, wouldn’t they lose other customers and the gains stimulated by them? This is one of the obligatorily asked questions by everyone who run a small business and in process of finding their actual customers. Let us try to understand the sense behind niche marketing. The ultimate challenge of any business owner in this world is to find their target markets unless their products are such ‘must be used at each home’ and thus there is no need to hunt on who their actual customers are. However when we say ‘target markets’, it seems making a much broader view. If you want to learn the basics about target markets, please read our article on The basic myths behind target markets.

Let’s say you are running a small jewelry shop and producing all kinds of jewels. Now you are targeting everyone who wears jewels and you do not really worry about whether they like gold, or platinum or silver or whatever. Now you decide to focus only on designing gold and right now, you know customers who love wearing gold will only come to you. Later you decide limiting your business with ‘gold wedding rings’ and your shop is also renamed as a gold wedding ring house. So that, only people who are about to marry and love gold will come to your shop. What do you think whether you are losing or gaining? I would say you are gaining and here I have listed the reasons behind.

Think about the cost: earlier, you were focusing at all. Thus, obviously you would have had a greater material cost than you have right now. Also from your material suppliers (gold, silver, and platinum), you would have bought in small quantities. Now you have only one supplier and purchasing from him in a huge quantity. So that, you have better chances of creating better ‘supplier relationship’ and gaining a portion of saving in your purchases.

Think about the varieties: earlier, you would have produced huge variety of rings or whatever jewels. Now you are only focusing on ‘gold wedding rings’ and having an opportunity to produce wide varieties of wedding rings. So that, you can become a specialist in this field.

Customer behavior: Assume yourself as a customer who needs to purchase a wedding ring and what would you do? Will you prefer going for a normal jewel shop or for a wedding ring shop?

Do you now agree that you have better chances with a concentrated niche rather than just targeting everyone in your market coverage area? However, it is not to say a niche will be profitable for all categories of businesses.


See how to make million dollars with your niche
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Understand the basic myths behind target markets before planning on your niche

Before, currying on your niche, you need a basic understanding on what a target market refers to since this would be the very basic of deciding on a niche market. A target market consists of customers who are willing to buy from you and having the ability to access you. When a marketer decides on target markets, he or she should consider the following four bases that remain the prime stones of building on it.

Democratic base: Here you would classify your target customers or segments based on democratic variables such as age, income, sex, occupation and so on. So your business is targeted to a specific set of customers who belong to a similar democratic category. Let’s assume you are producing a product that costs around 500 dollars and now you decide only limiting your promotional activities to those who earn above 1000 dollars per month. This is how you will decide on your target market based on democratic base.

Geographic base: Here you would target a set of people who belong to a specific geographic area. This may be a region, province, or even a nation. Nevertheless, this might be not that an effective way of targeting.

Behavioral base: This is a very sensational way of targeting and a behavioral base target market would consist a set of people belong to have similar behavioral characteristics. This includes knowledge about the product, consumer behavior, purchasing patterns and usage rate etc. However, the marketer needs investing on excellent research to study and to find the appropriate segment here.

Psychographic base: This is also another way of targeting the segments based on their psychographic requirements. This includes status and class classifications. For example, you may have to decide on whether to select an upper class segment or middle class segment for your business. However, it may drawback in the point where you need to study the variable aspects such income on finding out the psychographic segment.

So, got it? Hope you are now having a better understanding and enjoyed this piece. If so, let me know your feedback and read other articles in our blog.

Sen
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