Winning Moves: A Strategic Marketing Newsletter from Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications

October 2007 • www.visionsmc.com • 410-849-8095

Editor's Note

Fall is a great time to be sailing on the Chesapeake. We usually have strong winds and this fall it has also been unseasonably warm. It's been great for me to be back on the water racing with friends. We've been racing in a fall series gearing up for the J/105 North Americans this coming weekend.

One of my jobs on the boat is to keep track of the wind—both in terms of direction and velocity. Shifts to the right or left and puffs and lulls can dramatically influence tactics on the racecourse. I also keep an eye on our boat speed, tracking if we are going as fast as we can be depending upon the conditions.

While I'm keeping track of what's going on with our boat, other crew members are looking around the race course to see what is happening around us. While I'm telling them what's going on with our boat, they are reporting on what the wind conditions look like ahead of and around us, as well as how we are doing relative to the other boats we're competing against.

One of the interesting things about sailboat racing is that even if everything is looking great right where we are, doing just what we are doing, we may have to make a decision that compromises boat speed or direction in order to stay ahead of our competition. It's not just how we are performing, it's how we are performing relative to the competition that's important. And this is true in business, too.

Molly Hughes Wilmer

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Feature

Trick or Treat: The Benefits of Getting the Right Balance

There is a tricky balance between doing what's right for your own business, staying true to who you are and where you want to go, and looking over your shoulder watching the competition. On one end, you can operate in a vacuum, ignoring the marketplace. On the other end, you become so engrossed in watching the competition that you hurt your business. With the right balance, you can truly grow the way you need and want to.

Think of a web site. While you may not need to have changed anything on your web site in a year, the World Wide Web is changing every second. How your site is appearing on search engines is changing, even if you haven't done anything to your site. To maintain optimal web results, you need to be aware of what else is on the web, and how your site is positioned in relationship to it.

Like a website, businesses can't operate in a vacuum. By maintaining a clear perspective on the marketplace, you can maintain or improve your company's focus and direction, and your competitive edge. Awareness of developing trends can help you develop the right technologies to meet emerging needs, the right services to meet changing customer expectations, or the right customer to introduce you into your next major market.

Strategies can't be executed in a vacuum, either. Once a tactic has been developed and executed, ongoing measurement and evaluation can show if it is still delivering the expected and desired results. Web sites are one example, promotional offers, sales pitches, pricing strategies are others. These tactics are only compelling and effective if they are correctly positioned within the marketplace.

But don't get paralyzed by looking over your shoulder too much. Obsessing over the marketplace and your competition can take your focus away from your own company. It can also lead to fear of your competition or doubt of your own offer.

Moderation. It's a tricky balance. Sort of like how much Halloween candy you eat on Halloween versus saving it for the next week or two.

What Can You Do?

How are you evaluating your marketplace, and how are you measuring your results? Specific individuals should be tasked with benchmarking your industry and keeping track of your competitive landscape. This knowledge should be passed on to strategic decision makers, as well as anyone else who would benefit.
In the same way, specific individuals should be tasked with tracking your performance metrics. These can range from web results to stock price, but should be as holistic and profit-oriented as possible. Again, these results need to get back to the strategic decision-makers, the people watching the marketplace, and anyone else who could use this information to do a better job.
In a small business, the same person, maybe even the CEO, can do this, but bigger companies will need to divide and conquer.

Ask the Expert

Question
How do you know when you know enough?

Answer
If you are in the game, you should be in the game to win. You should know enough to be an expert panelist at industry symposiums. You should know enough to confidently talk to a reporter. You should know enough to position your company at the head of the pack.

But make sure you get to the last part. Don't just spend your time gabbing with industry analysts and reporters. Bring it back to your company, and get your performance up.

Submit your questions to the editor: molly@visionsmc.com

Want to Know More?

Go learn more about where to find information on your specific business. Audit what you are reading and who you are talking to about business. And look for a future newsletter on performance metrics.

You are welcome to forward this to others. Permission to reprint or reproduce any content in print or electronic means is granted provided it includes this notice: "Copyright 2007, by Molly Hughes Wilmer, Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications. From "Winning Moves", an email newsletter by Molly Hughes Wilmer, Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications. Website: www.visionsmc.com Email molly@visionsmc.com". We would be grateful for a copy of the work containing the reprint or reproduction.

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