Primary competitors

This group includes companies who are solving the same problem as you are, using the same basic approach or technology. Primary competitors are generally the most obvious threat in a marketplace. Nike is an obvious primary competitor for Adidas. Often, primary competitors are referred to as “direct competition.”

Secondary competitors

This group includes anyone who is solving the same problem as you, but is using an alternative solution. Secondary competitors are typically a little harder to spot than the direct competition. For example, Via Rail is a secondary competitor to Air Canada.

“A solution is the replacement of the current problem by the next level of problem.”
Kim James, management consultant &complexity theorist

Consider that sometimes your toughest “secondary competitor” might actually be your customer in the sense that their prior investment in the status quo acts as “indirect competition” for your offering.

Tertiary competitors

This group is made up of anyone who is not currently solving the same problem as you, but who is in a business position to do so with relative ease if sufficiently motivated. Often, they are much larger companies who tend to dominate entire industries and whose principal interests lie in ensuring a healthy overall economy and market ‘ecosystem’.

Tertiary competitors are seldom obvious at first but frequently become visible later in a venture’s business planning and implementation stages. Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are examples of tertiary competitors for anyone who wants to operate in the online advertising marketplace.

“Life may be short, but it can also be very wide.”
originalthinking

Sometimes referred to as “distant competition,” these tertiary competitors are typically large and acquisitive, and ironically may at some future time simply buy you out rather than fight against you. For instance, Microsoft was once a tertiary competitor for fledging upstart Hotmail, which it decided to acquire - for a substantial sum of cash - rather than try to replicate.

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that a tertiary competitor could also just as easily freeze you out and shut you down. But then if you aren’t paying attention, so could any other competitor.

“More isn’t better, it’s just more.”
originalthinking

When it comes to making things simpler, less is almost always better.

The simpler your ’story’, the more quickly and easily your target audiences – investors, employees, customers, and suppliers alike – will grasp how you can help them reach their goals… and the more likely they’ll be to help you with meeting yours.

But simple is hard. One of the biggest challenges faced by every entrepreneur is making their new and visionary ideas simple enough for others to easily understand and embrace. Still, if history is any guide, the task is worth the effort.

“The best marketing tool you can have is a well designed application.”
Robert Hoekman, jr.

A well designed product isn’t just something that looks good or sounds good, it’s a product that’s been designed to meet a genuine need, and to do it well.

Well-designed products consider the entire life cycle of their existence, and address every aspect of their use or consumption at each step along the way. Well-designed products ‘fit’ with intended users’ ways of seeing and doing things, and contribute toward improving their performance and quality of life.

When you design products with real people and real needs in mind, your prospective customers will connect with them almost intuitively. In other words, to get the most from your marketing efforts, investing in well-designed products just plain makes sense.