Tony Attwood's Blog

When entering a market which has a number of competitors it is always interesting to know what the competition are doing.

For me this includes not just what they are selling and how much for, but how they are advertising.

If the market is dominated by a few big players there is always a great temptation to have a web site and advertising copy that follows the general flow of the advertisements presented by the big operators.  After all, they must be doing well, and therefore they know how to write advertisements.

But this is often not the case.  What the major players may be doing (and indeed are often doing) is trading on their past success.  They sell because they are known.  They are known because they sell.

The problem with joining in this approach is that no matter what you do, unless you come in with a vast amount of backing, you will be a smaller player in the pond.  However if you do something utterly different with your web site you will stand out.

Generally this works better, not least because you will have the chance to design your advertising and web site to suit your idea.

Viewing the competition in everything it does (it’s sales offers, its web sites, its prices etc) is, to my mind, essential and yet is rarely done.  It is part of what we do through Velocity (www.velocity.ac), but it is also something you can do yourself.

But there’s one final word of warning I would offer.   Don’t assume that your competitors might know something you don’t.  They might be setting out their stall in a particular way just because everyone else is.

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Tony Attwood