Product Watch: Tracking Your Competition (Recon Thursday/Product)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Recon Thursday and we’re going to discuss taking a close look at your competitor’s products to identify opportunities for you to raise the bar.

Are you paying close attention to what your competitors are selling?  Do you know which of their products are selling the best?  Which products aren’t moving very fast?  Which products they are not offering at all?  Knowing the answer to these questions will allow you to spot gaps in a competitors offering.  You may be able to fill these by enhancing existing products or adding new products to your product line to surpass your competition.

Let’s revisit our taco stand on the plaza.  Suppose you are operating the stand and a customer comes up and asks if you have gluten free tortillas.  They mention that the restaurant across the street didn’t and they thought you might.  You have to apologize to the customer and tell them you don’t have any gluten free tortillas.  That customer leaves and doesn’t buy from either of you.

The lesson learned is to take note of the customer need and buy gluten free tortillas to have on hand at the taco stand.  Put up a big sign so the next time somebody comes up and asks if you have gluten free tortillas, you are able to say of course, how may I help you?

Take that same approach when you look at your competitors products to see if there are other opportunities that you can leverage to improve your product and attract some of their customers.

You can see that it is a very good idea to have a thorough understanding of the products your competitor offers.  That enables you to develop strategies to enhance your own products and consider how you can fill customer needs that competitors are missing.  Once you’ve enhanced your product mix, make sure you tell your customers because that will distinguish and differential you from the competition.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.