Who is your real competitor?

If you are Continental your competitor is Maggi. If you are Holden your competitor is Ford. If you are X your competitor is Y. Right?

Wrong!

Not matter what brand you think is the competitor to your brand there is a bigger competitor. It’s the same competitor for all brands and services.

Your biggest competitor is indifference from your consumers.

I begrudgingly give credit for this idea to Harry Beckwith, an American Advertising/Marketing/Design guy. http://www.beckwithpartners.com/

Marketers love their brand. Good. They should. I would too if you hired me to help. But generally consumers don’t.

They usually don’t hate brands either. It’s just that consumers don’t have the time or energy to bestow emotions on a can of soup, no matter what they say in a focus group.

Do you know, I’ve never seen ‘consumer indifference’ on any brief I’ve been given, and I’ve taken thousands! Most briefs assume a fascination with the product category and brand which isn’t really there.

Ok. Here’s a story I’ve told before that illustrates how loyal your ‘loyal customer’ really is.

A young marketer is in a supermarket. He moves to the stock cube section to check his brand, Continental. The packs are a bit messy so he starts to tidy them up. A shopper steps up and takes a pack of the ‘competitors’ brand, Maggi.

The young marketer introduces himself and asks why she chose Maggi not Continental.
The shopper replies that she usually does choose Continental but he was in the way …. so she took the other one.

Indifference. THAT’s what we are up against!



SIDEBAR - Ad man Kevin Roberts has made a career out of selling the Lovemarks idea and range of books to marketers,  because marketers love the idea of consumers loving their brands. http://www.lovemarks.com/ In my humble opinion, consumers are a lot less 'in love' than he suggests.