Playing Poker

Recently, I was playing a type of poker called “Up or Down” with my son, who is home from college. As each card is dealt, the player chooses whether to have it dealt face up (so the other players can see it) or face down. Only one card can be down at any time, so by the end of the deal the players can see four of the five cards in every hand and often have a pretty good idea what the “hole” cards might be. After winning a rather large hand, my son pointed out to me that I was paying too much attention to my own hand and not enough to what the other players had.

This reminded me of the way some companies compete: many are self-focused and develop their products, pricing, strategies, promotions, advertising, etc. based on their own products and their own goals and objectives. They (hopefully) have a general understanding of their competitor’s products, but do not necessarily pay strict attention to their competitors’ actions. Yet, your competitor’s situation may affect your future even more than your own.

Suppose, for example, that you see an opportunity to improve upon a commonly used product. You focus your efforts on creating differentiating features, developing new sources that bring the price down, testing the product to make sure customers appreciate the benefits and indicate a willingness to buy at your price point, and developing a knockout ad campaign to launch it. Meanwhile, one of your competitors has been at work too. But the competitor has gone a different route, developing a piece of equipment that eliminates the need for your shiny new product.

The flip side of this is when you expend energy going head to head with a competitor, developing products with features that have the advantage over their product’s features, pricing relative to their pricing, trying to outfox them in the market, only to find that their hand wasn’t so strong afterall. By not reacting, you would have sold more at a better margin and not been sidetracked (perhaps allowing another competitor to gain ground).

Of course it’s not always easy to find out what competitors are up to, particularly with regard to product development. But be alert to their activities and you may pick up information that will give you an indication of what their “hole card” might be. Have your reps alert you to any changes in the way their reps are selling against you. Look for changes in dealer relationships, company structure, or marketing direction. Is a competitor suddenly gaining or losing ground in a particular category? Have their marketing expenditures changed? Have they made changes to their corporate structure that give more emphasis to a particular market or distribution channel?

In marketing, as in poker, paying attention to everyone’s position, not just your own, is the key to a winning strategy.

Comments

[pasan47]

Poker is one of the most important games.Most of the people become rich. There are so many strategies when play poker. Mind control is quite enough.
....................
Pasan

Highly relevant, efficient advertising to forum, blog, wiki and other types of web sites. Drive large number of visitors to your website and build quality links.

[pasan47]

Poker is one of the most important games.Most of the people become rich. There are so many strategies when play poker. Mind control is quite enough.
....................
Pasan

Highly relevant, efficient advertising to forum, blog, wiki and other types of web sites. Drive large number of visitors to your website and build quality links.