Follow the leader is a dangerous game, particularly when you follow Hippos…
Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of focusing most of their attention on what competitors are doing instead of gathering firsthand market data.
When entrepreneurs play “follow the leader,” they play a dangerous game that assumes the perceived market leader understands the needs and pains of market buyers.
Market leaders are aware of competitor activity; however, they plan their strategy with firsthand market data.
Market losers set out to do what their competitors are doing…but better.
When you copy what your competitors are doing, you are making one key erroneous assumption: that your competitor knows your market, your buyers, and your buyer’s buying process. ( which is often not the case)
If we recognize that most marketing is developed at boardroom tables with gut, intuition, and “back when I was in the market…” information, following your competitor is a dangerous game to play.
Or as David Daniels put it in his eBook: Is your Product Launch Doomed?…” Mimicking a competitor can lead to lost market opportunity, misdirection of resources, and loss of focus…”
More often than not, marketing strategy is made by HIPPOS; the Highest Paid Person in marketing’s Opinions.
For example, I had to run some errands in Mesa Saturday and imagine my surprise when I returned to my car and I saw a sea of purple windshield fliers in the parking lot creating marketing litter.
In my recent post, I discussed how we must make sure that when we chase new business, we do so in a way consistent with our brand and our brand promise.
In my last post, I shared how Chase Bank used a purple windshield wiper flier to drive new accounts at month-end. Do the leaders at TCF Bank think Purple windshield fliers ( Like Chase Bank) is an industry best practice since one of the market leaders does it? Or were TCF Bank’s nimble, much smaller efforts the reason Chase Bank tried this strategy?
You have been in those meetings…everyone on the cross-functional team shares their views, and then the highest-paid person in the room (hippo) calls an audible from left field based on their gut and/or what a market-leading competitor is currently doing (after they are real smart, right?).
The cross-functional team is left scratching its collective head as strategy direction is made based on the gut and past experience of the highest-paid person in the room.
Market leaders gather first-hand market data and shape their strategy based on current information.
They say ; “rational people, if given the right data will make rational decisions” .What we learn in “rational choice theory” is that people decide how to act by comparing the costs and benefits of different courses of action. Patterns of behavior develop within society as a result of those choices. In this case, the society is competing suppliers battling for market share each day.
Decisions based on current, firsthand market data drive successful strategies.
Strategies that are initiated based on what market-leading competitors do often fail.
How about your organization….
Is Hippo calling an audible without market-data justification?
Does your marketing team kick off campaigns that mirror what market leaders in your industry are doing?
…how’s that working for you?