One of the core activities that a business undertakes either when they are starting or as they evaluate their position in the market is identifying their competition. One of the core mistakes that I have seen people make is either incorrectly identifying someone as a competitor or foolishly dismissing a company because they don’t believe that a company is truly a compeitor. A common statement I have heard is “No one does this like we do” or “we started this industry so there aren’t any competitors”. Well that’s just flat out wrong. Guess who gets to decide who your competitor is? (hint: it’s not the “experienced” businessman or marketer. It’s the customer. Anything that people see as an alternative to your product is a competitor. You have to separate USP (unique selling position) from the competition. You have to tell them why they should care about the differences between you and the competition. Those differences however don’t put you into a different competitive class.What the customer perceives as relevant is really what will matter. Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg’s recent book Waiting for you cat to bark talks a lot about this and other related concepts.

Technorati Tags: Business Competition, Marketing, Waiting For Your Cat To Bark