The first step in product marketing: How to identify competitors?

Recently, I often help some entrepreneurial friends sort out their marketing ideas. When talking about the marketing framework, they can express some ideas about user needs, product selling points, slogans, packaging, and channels in a scattered manner. They especially like to talk about copywriting and show me their product copywriting and packaging copywriting. "Look, I learn from the Xiaomi website every day" and "Isn't the text on the packaging very interesting?"

After listening to their introduction, the first thing I often ask is "Who do you think your opponent is?"

Some friends would say, “I have a new product with new demands, so I have no competitors,” or “We all started at the same time, so let’s see who does better.” Some friends would cite some specific brand competitors.

It seems that people did not understand the "opponent" clearly in their words, or did not think deeply about it, and just carried out the plan in a big way.
The first sentence of the first volume of Selected Works of Mao Zedong:
Who are our enemies and who are our friends? This is the primary question of the revolution.
The business world is like a battlefield, and the essence of the market is competition. What I want to discuss here is that the first step in marketing is to think clearly about who your opponent is.

What I will talk about later will include some things in the product category. I think products are part of marketing. If products do not solve this problem, marketing will be like water without roots, and it will be difficult to become a system and truly effective for sales.

1. Eliminate the resistance that affects your product acceptance in the minds of users

Some people say, of course I know that the first step in doing marketing is to identify the competitors. Every time I make a marketing plan, I first do a market analysis and also do a SWOT analysis.

Yes, you are an expert.

However, most people will limit their efforts to identifying their competitors to a specific peer brand. They will spend a little time identifying an opponent and then spend a lot of time studying the opponent's weaknesses. Think about it, do you often do this?

In emerging industries, most people ultimately conclude through market analysis that there are market gaps, market opportunities, and user needs, rather than identifying competitors. They then begin to refine the differentiated value of the product, determine the target market (population), position the market, find user insights , come up with a slogan, and begin a vigorous promotion.

In traditional marketing thinking, the so-called "opponents" are other competing brands existing in the market.

This is a relatively narrow category that is not applicable to emerging industries and is not conducive to corporate innovation. I think that the opponent should be the resistance in the minds of users that affects the acceptance of your product.

Such opponents can be divided into multiple levels:

• Existing competitive brands in the market - applicable to new brands and new products entering the existing market • Old impressions of users - applicable to brand upgrades in the existing market • Old concepts and habits of users - applicable to new products and emerging markets • Timidity of users - applicable to new products and emerging markets • Inertia of users - applicable to new products and emerging markets • Selection costs of users - applicable to new products and emerging markets…

Marketing is the same as picking up girls.

We assume that you are good enough and worthy of the girl (the product is ready and the needs are identified). You launch an attack on the girl to show your charm (marketing), but you find that the girl is just unwilling to accept you. At this time, don't pose, but smoke a cigarette and think about whether the girl has some resistance in her heart.
Maybe:

• The girl’s parents’ criteria for choosing a son-in-law. OK, then you have to deal with her parents. If you can't change this standard, then try to move up;
• The girl’s job or studies. OK, then you should help her and support her, and make her feel that being in love with you will not affect her work and studies, but will be more beneficial;
• The girl is afraid that if she gets along well with you, she won’t be able to give more love to the cat at home. OK, then you should love her cat better, buy canned food, toys, plant cat grass, clean cat feces... make her feel that the cat will have a better life;
• The girl wanted to remain virgin until her wedding night. OK, then don't show any impatience and give her a platonic love;
• The girl doesn’t believe in love. Ok, then what you need to do is to find out what injuries she has suffered, slowly heal her, and be prepared for a protracted battle.

Based on this example, I would like to talk specifically about "demand".

The foundation of many emerging industries and new products lies in discovering and solving new user needs, so many marketing promotions of such products directly amplify demand.

This is sour and refreshing, just like you strip yourself naked and run to the street to ask for mating. Although everyone has this need, who dares to take off their pants! (Of course, there are extreme cases, but let’s not get too hung up on them.)

In the process of pursuing a girl, the girl's needs correspond to your personal characteristics, that is, the key features of the product.

Let's assume that a girl's need is to be handsome, but the reality is that no matter how handsome you are, you may not be able to win the girl's heart, because you have an opponent called the old concept that "handsome men are fickle". So what you have to do is not to show your handsomeness to satisfy the girl's needs, but to find a way to prove that you are not fickle.

Demand is demand, but it does not mean that users will accept it happily once the demand is met.

The job of a marketing dog is to identify the resistance to demand acceptance and resolve it. (What we are discussing here is that the product already has key features that clearly match the real needs of users, that is, the product manager has done an excellent job, and how the marketing dog should think about the market level. If the product lacks key features that meet a certain need, there is no point in launching the product to the market, which is not discussed here.)

2. Why should we identify our opponents first?

After talking about the needs, let's talk about why it is so important to identify competitors from other aspects of marketing work:

Finding a target market

You can't enter the market casually. First, you need to think clearly about the obstacles you face and which market your product faces relatively little resistance, or which market you can solve the current resistance well. That is your target market.

So, identify your opponent first.

▌Find your location

This is easier to understand, just go to the encyclopedia entry:

The essence of market positioning is to strictly distinguish the company from other companies, thereby leaving a special impression in the minds of customers.

It is through this "strict distinction" from your competitors that you achieve the goal of pulling users into the mental battlefield where you have an advantage.

The above is still the scope of brand competition in the existing market. In the emerging market, your opponent is the resistance in the minds of users. It is not about "strict distinction" but "solution".

For example, if you make a tool like Xiaoyuan Search, you meet the students' needs for finding questions, but your opponent may be "parents who are worried that their children will not remember things that are not learned through effort and will not have any learning effect, so they do not allow their children to use it at all."

Then your positioning might as well be "a learning tool that helps deepen the understanding and impression of knowledge points." Taking pictures of questions is only a technical entrance to obtain information and does not serve as a barrier. Managing knowledge points is your key business.
Similarly, if the opponent is seen as "parents who feel that they have no sense of existence after having this thing", then it can be positioned as "an interactive learning tool that deepens the parent-child relationship", just like the mother and son apps of credit cards. When the child searches for questions when alone, the mother's app will have a record, and the child and mother can learn to do the questions together.

The app specifically provides mothers with a set of problem-solving methods that are more conducive to parent-child communication, and tells mothers what the key knowledge points are. When they are together, such as when checking homework, the mother can take out the questions that the child did not know how to solve before and test the child. This can establish the mother's prestige and they can happily discuss the question together.

Whether in existing markets or emerging markets, targeting different competitors will lead to different positioning.

So, identify your opponent first.

▌Extracting differentiated value

Since it is "differentiation", it means that there must be a comparison, and the comparison is with the opponent. This is the scope of brand competition in the existing market.

For emerging industries, differentiation is reflected in the differentiation of users' past experience. For example, when the iPad came out, its competitor was laptop computers, and differentiation was the differentiation of experience relative to laptop computers.

For products in any field, no matter how new, you can always find past experience.

So, identify your opponent first.

Finding Insights

Insights are divided into market insights and communication insights.

I think the key to market insight is not to answer why users use your product or what kind of product users want; but to explore why users do not use your product and what they are dissatisfied with, that is, to find out your competitors.

Jobs said that he never did market research, which sounds a bit arrogant. But if you follow this line of thought, when a user tells you what he wants, it only tells you his basic needs, which does not mean that the user will buy it.

On the contrary, I believe that the usefulness of market research is to find out what users don’t like, that is, what are the obstacles for them to accept a certain product, that is, the opponent you want to identify, and this point is very easy to express clearly. Once the opponent problem is solved, it is an opportunity to further convert users and create products with actual commercial value on top of meeting their needs. This is where the value of determining the opponent lies.

Communication insight is more related to creativity. Its essence lies in finding a way of expression that is more conducive to persuading users. Since it is persuasion, it must involve resolving the resistance in the user's mind. This should be easy to understand, so I will not elaborate on it here.

In short, identify your opponent first.

▌Market Strategy

As long as the opponent is clear, the strategy is the path to defeat the opponent and achieve a certain goal. Under the path, we will break down the tactics and methods step by step.

So, identify your opponent first.

3. See how others find opponents

I am a little annoyed after talking about so many ideas. Now let me talk about some practical business cases to help you understand this idea:

▌Mirrorless camera

Before the Sony a7 came out, full-frame cameras were basically dominated by Canon SLRs, and the 5D2 was simply invincible. If Sony still regards Canon's SLR cameras as its competitor and tries to compete with Canon in imaging and operation, it will simply be courting disaster.

I said before that if you define your competitors narrowly as competing brands, it will be detrimental to product innovation, because you are always standing within your competitor's discourse system, and the sky you see is only so big. Only by jumping into the broad concept of competitors can you have a broader perspective from the perspective of users and industries.

Later, Sony discovered that users spent a lot of money to buy SLRs but rarely used them, and the resistance came from "few opportunities to use them." Most ordinary users take photos when traveling, and portability is often the first requirement, and image quality is the second requirement.

So Sony targeted the old concept and bad impression that SLR cameras are too big and heavy to carry, and launched the A7, which immediately dragged the consumer SLR market into the full-frame mirrorless camera field, and Canon was immediately fooled.

If you ask even a professional photographer now whether it’s worth buying a 5D3, he will definitely say that if you don’t make a living with this camera, you should buy a Sony A7R.

▌Diapers

Let me tell you about an emerging market case from a long time ago. This example is very representative and you may have heard of it.

When baby diapers were first introduced, one manufacturer launched an advertisement claiming that using diapers would make mothers more relaxed. This was a demand, and of course mothers wanted to be more relaxed.

A lot of money was spent on advertising, but the products did not sell well, so the manufacturer conducted research, thinking that there were problems with the price, product, or channel. Later, they found that the biggest obstacle was that "moms feel that if they use diapers, their family members will think they are being lazy." After finding this market insight, the manufacturer immediately changed the advertisement, claiming that diapers are more breathable and better for baby's buttocks.

This product became a hit immediately.

▌Express Software

Let’s take Didi as an example from emerging markets.

When Didi first came out, who do you think was its competitor? Is it fast?

They believe that the first competitor is the users’ old habits, and the second competitor is other taxi-hailing apps such as Kuaidi. The former is a contest of "momentum", while the latter is just a competition of "skills". For Didi and other taxi-hailing apps, the first thing to solve is the issue of user habits, including those of drivers and passengers.

To be honest, the convenience of using Didi to take a taxi has not changed qualitatively compared to hailing a taxi on the street or calling 96103, and the income of drivers has not increased either, as supply exceeds demand anyway.

Therefore, Didi and other companies used a lot of manpower (one-on-one offline persuading drivers) and subsidies to cultivate user habits from the very beginning. This may be the only effective way for Didi and others to acquire users in a short period of time. However, the subsidy method has too low technical content and everyone has sufficient capital behind them, which led to the fight later.

When the capital side saw that although a fight had broken out, it was on the right track, and fighting could also create influence, killing two birds with one stone, they decided to just go all out and fight as hard as they could.

If you think about this clearly, it will be fine to spend as much money as possible on subsidies.

Condoms

If you are making condoms, your competitor may not be Durex , but men's increasing sexual apathy due to work pressure.

Then don't promote your product as being ultra-thin and vibrating. Instead, position it as a "full-range solution for sexual intercourse" and make a piece of hardware like an electric mosquito coil. Each box of condoms comes with an aphrodisiac incense stick, which can be inserted into the hardware to emit a scent that has aphrodisiac and mosquito-killing effects.

If you want to continue using aphrodisiac incense, then continue buying condoms. Now that you have product barriers, you can sell sex toys as well.

The core of the market is to explain that this incense is safe and effective.

Milk

If you are in the milk business, your competitor may not be Yili or Mengniu, but the habit of forgetting to drink milk.

You might as well make a milk that is positioned as "specially for drinking before bedtime". In addition to the enhanced sleep-inducing effect of the formula, you can also cooperate with smart hardware to provide some interesting reminders and rewards.

In terms of marketing creativity, we keep saying “Don’t forget to drink at ten o’clock, don’t forget to drink at ten o’clock, don’t forget to drink at ten o’clock”.

Everyone knows about cross-border marketing. Have you ever thought about trying to find competitors across borders? That would create interesting patterns and produce unexpected lethality.

There is a saying called "cross-border attack" now. If you think you don't have much chance in this field, you might as well try cross-border, which is similar to the "new combination of old elements" in the classic creative technique:

• If you are making TVs, your competitors may not be other Sony or Samsung companies , but computers;
• If you are in the bicycle business, your competitor may not be Giant, but the gym;
• If you are in the wine business, your competitor may not be red or white beer, but health products;
• If you are in the home textile business, your competitor may not be Rollai\Mercury, but a boring bedroom;
• If you are in the fresh food delivery business, your competitor may not be the supermarket, but the kitchen seasonings.

4. The stronger the opponent, the greater the victory

I also can’t help but talk a few words about copywriting.

Copywriting has been very popular in the past two years. As a former copywriter, I am of course glad that copywriting is respected. But I feel a little puzzled that copywriting has been made mysterious.

A good copy, whether it is a product copy or a communication copy, is a manifestation of persuasive skills.

When I was working in an advertising company, my master taught me that the most important thing about copywriting is to be able to think from the user's perspective when writing, and to quickly switch between the user and the brand. You must constantly think about what the user may care about, what objections he may have to the product, how to resolve them in the copy, and how to simulate the user's feelings in a usage scenario.

Now think about it, this includes the opponent's thinking.

The entire copywriting process is to constantly fight against the possible resistance in the user's mind in an elegant manner. What reflects a copywriter's skills is not how good his writing skills are, but his insight, his ability to accurately identify the resistance in users' minds and resolve it with words.

It's time to close down here.

There is a saying that goes "Don't focus on your opponents, focus on the future." As I understand it, the "opponents" mentioned in this sentence are existing market competitors, and the "future" refers to the resistance that may be resolved in people's minds as market factors such as technology and concepts change. These are your real opponents.

Whether you are a founder or a marketing manager, while integrating resources from all aspects, you might as well spend more time finding the right opponent. This is the first thing you need to do. But be careful not to be like Don Quixote and find a competitor that doesn't exist. If you can't find a competitor at all, it is possible that your business model may not be valid at all.

Once you have found your opponent, market positioning, interest point extraction, target population, user insights, slogans, activities, PR, packaging, channels... as well as product research and development and manufacturing key points will all become clear.

So, if I were to prescribe the right medicine for your condition, then the first thing my medicine would treat would definitely not be your superficial symptoms, but your opponent.

Identifying opponents is a process that can be constantly refined. You can break them down gradually and focus your attacks, or you can move up a dimension and open up a large battlefield.

Your business empire will only be big enough when you find a big enough opponent and you are confident of defeating it.

Alibaba ’s goal is to “make business easy for everyone”, and its opponent is “difficult business”; Xiaomi’s goal is to “let everyone enjoy the fun of technology”, and its opponent is “the high-end and unfriendly technology products”. These are the corporate visions and they are also big enough opponents.

Nike has a very good ad copy:

The stronger the opponent, the greater the victory.

I know some marketing gurus will approach the market from different angles and it will work. I am just providing you with a way of thinking based on my experience.

I would be very pleased if you could follow this line of thought and find a new way to succeed for your product.

The author of this article @老蒋 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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