Art of Marketing
Chapter 14. Deception and Intervention Tactics in Marketing
The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectation. ― Roy H. Williams
How do you take advantage of the power
to become the “dominant” in the market?
If you own a quality product and service,
and see an opportunity to sell a lot of goods
at a high price and profit,
you need to make sure your competitors don’t know
what you are doing
and rush to compete gain market share.
The fact that wherever
there is “profit above market standards”,
competitors will rush into
that market to offer their products
and services has become a norm in the market.
For example, when the real estate market booms,
entrepreneurs will not cooperate with each other
but rush to build and supply more homes and properties.
Soon after,
the market is saturated and the high prices
that attract competitors will be lowered forcing competitors
to quickly withdraw from the market.
No trade will be made unless they want the thing more
than they want their money. ― Roy H. Williams
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Don’t make your competitors “craving”
Your competitors will enter any market
if they sniff out there is a source of higher-than-average profits.
Everything you can do is distract them from the real
and potential benefits that can give you a long
and solid position in the market.
If a competitor or someone you don’t trust
asks you about your current business,
always say it’s “really a constant battle”.
“The market is getting tougher and tougher.
We struggled.”
Every company’s greatest assets are its customers,
because without customers there is no company. — Michael LeBoeu
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Silently appeared
The first strategy when you enter a potentially profitable market
is to appear empty-handed.
Show up quietly and make people believe
that you’re just entering a very small market segment.
I don’t know if this is Apple’s strategy for the iPhone.
But it’s possible that Apple’s competitors ignored the iPhone
and ignored Apple’s marketing efforts until it was too late.
The next course of action is
when the profits are high,
don’t publicize your success
until you’re so far ahead of your competitors
that they can’t keep up with you.
Don’t wave a red cloth
in front of an aggressive bull bearing the names of competitors.
Many companies use a firm positioning strategy in the market,
only to later announce
that they are now strong enough to knock competitors out of the market.
Strategies don’t always work,
but discovering
that a certain product or service suddenly dominates
the market will cause your competitors
to “fall back” and be forced to find a way back.
Approach each customer
with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal,
not of selling a product or service. ― Les Brown
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Keep your plans a secret
Keep it a secret,
especially for new products
or potential market opportunities.
Keep it a secret for as long as possible
until you’re ready to release the product,
like Apple does with the iPod,
iPhone,
and iPad.
When these products were launched,
their sales reached millions of products in just a few months.
Apple has a reputation for tightening internal controls
and security before introducing new products.
Another military strategy used is not
to let the opponents see you
“laying troops, setting up a battle”.
That was the strategy Napoleon often used.
By rallying his forces in secret,
he was able to win one great victory
after another in the greatest and longest military career in history.
Napoleon deliberately divided his army into many places
over a large geographical area
until he was about to wage a major battle.
At that time, he gathered all his forces
in a single place ready for battle.
He can often muster his army in a short period of time,
from 24 to 48 hours,
taking the enemy completely by surprise.
In combat,
he always had the upper hand in communication.
He was able to overwhelm nearly any army in Europe
because he kept them in the dark
until he was ready to unleash his full army.
You too.
Keep product and service development activities private.
Act as if you were in business as usual.
Put a veil of secrecy on your new products
so your competitors don’t know what you’re about to do.
In combat,
surprise is an important strategy to win a glorious victory.
Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours. ―Les Brown
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Divert their attention
Find ways to divert your competitors’ attention away
from your core products,
services,
and markets.
If you have both a high-margin product
and a low-margin product,
when asked about your business,
turn their attention to the mass-produced,
low-margin product to make your competitors feel better.
Your competitors think
that’s the market they should try.
Encourage your competitors to enter markets
that offer you very little return.
Keeping your most profitable product areas secret
is an important marketing strategy.
Often, many businesses have a tendency
to brag about their successes in the marketplace.
They publicize the areas that make them big.
They waved the red cloth
in front of the ferocious bulls aggressive
and invite competitors to bring their own products
or services into the market
even if the competitive quality is not good.
Their sales,
profits and market share will of course decline.
That will be your end
if you encourage other competitors
to enter your market.
A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. ― Marcus Aurelius
