marketing, customer-development, brandI received an email today from a national company asking me to be a “local brand ambassador” for them. Apparently they did not do their research, or they would have seen that I actually run a local business that is in direct competition to them.
So, now I have some advanced notice that a large-scale, national competitor is preparing to release a potentially aggressive marketing/branding strategy in my market. What steps can I take, as a small business with limited time and resources, to defend against this strategy? Or, should I even be worried about it at all?
Note: The company has already been in the market for some time (as an online directory of independent service providers). The only difference is that now they are preparing to become more directly engaged with the local community (i.e., my customer base).
The best way to go against a competitor of yours is to have a greater product than theirs. If you greatly focus on your product and customer service they will have a really hard time in your region. (read Alibaba & Ebay battle in China)
There are many ways you can be at sync with your customers, do meetups, tell them you love them, work for their benefits.. and your customers will eventually notice which company cares more about them.
Its always best to have a few people love you than to have a million people like you.
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