Why does moving into a big company’s territory scare the daylights out of some marketers and drive others to go head-on against them?
I asked myself this question while at the parade in my town this past weekend.
A man, who I’ve never heard of, marched to promote his candidacy for county sheriff.
You can see him on the left side of this picture. He’s up against, what we call in political circles, “the machine.”
Taking such a position is not for the faint at heart and will take all the marketing muscle he can muster to win in November.
This is the same type of machine you may be up against as you market products and services to an audience that’s more aware of your competition due to their advertisements on television and radio.
Still, you entered the industry because of your expertise, knowledge, and talent, knowing that there’s a large group of people who are unsatisfied with “the machine” and will give you a chance to prove yourself when they see or hear your marketing message online and through collaborations with local firms that are also bucking the big-company trend.
Some of those collaborations are a result of steadfast networking, which is discussed in the article, How to Turn Casual Conversations into Rewarding Relationships.
When you began your business and launched the first marketing campaign, how did you think large, well-financed competitors would react, and how do things stand now that you’re established?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t worry about how large competitors will react. Instead, I observe their offerings to spot the gaps and thereby learn how my service can fill those.
One of the greatest advantages I have as a small company is the speed with which I can make changes, improvements and launch campaigns. Large competitors must schedule meetings, solicit the input of committees, and get approval from the decision maker before they can make a move. That takes precious time.
Because my company is small I can test ideas, evaluate the results and modify my marketing and services based on it. Correcting my course is relatively inexpensive, compared to a big company that has to liquidate huge inventory that failed in the market.
Hi Flora,
Solo marketers definitely have all of the advantages you mention, and being one, it’s fantastic.
As an example, I recently ordered postcards for a campaign I expected to launch early next month, but now that I’ve tallied the expected revenue for this campaign, I’ve decided to not move forward.
It wasn’t smart for me to order before checking projected revenue, but the cost was just over $10, so I’m not out as much as a larger competitor would have paid.
The lesson for me is to do more of that big company checking beforehand so that I can use all of my money to compete wisely.