But My Competition Doesn’t Do That

Most industries, be it ethical fashion on cybersecurity, have a thinking problem.

We all have it. It’s this:

We like to do what others like us do.

We think it’s safe. It’s not:

“My competition doesn’t do that so I don’t have to”

This line of thinking is what keeps us in the middle of the road.

It keeps us from being last… but it also keeps from being first.

And being first (or perhaps second, sometimes) in the eyes of our specific target audience is the only position that matters.

If you lead an eyewear brand and your competitors all offer free shipping, what car dealers do (“take it home for the weekend, try it out”) never occurs to you as an option.

Until it occurs to Warby Parker, and they change the rules of the market.

“I don’t have time to study what other industries do”

This line of thinking tends to follow the former.

We all have time to study what those in our industry do, but seldom appear to have time to study beyond those walls.

[Yellow Tail] wines noticed most beverages not from wine brands stood out with interesting colors and approachable names. Circumventing the learning-curve associated with wine (from the label to the taste) enabled them to capture a market previously unavailable to wine brands.

All they had to do was look beyond their industry to study what others do.

It doesn’t matter what your competition does. What matters is what your market needs. The answers are often outside the confines of our industry.

Your competition hasn’t the time to look…what if you made the time?

Tip: Communicating competitive advantage in a way our audience cares about is tough. BuiltForImpact.net can help with that.