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Product Marketing
Stop Chasing the Competition: How to Build Your Own Path and Win
In my work as a go-to-market consultant, one of the most common requests my team receives is to map out competitive landscapes and create benchmarking reports. We’re always happy to do the work—competitive awareness is crucial, especially in fast-moving industries like software. But here's the truth: constantly tracking competitors and trying to beat them at their own game is a losing strategy, particularly if you’re just entering a crowded market.
Think of cross-country skiing: it’s more efficient to follow the tracks laid down by someone ahead of you. But overtaking the trailblazer? That’s tough—really tough. Very few succeed. The better approach? Blaze your own trail.
If you're serious about creating your own market path and dominating a niche, stop benchmarking competitors and instead focus on understanding and deeply valuing your ideal customers. Let me explain why this shift in mindset is crucial.
Take the U.S. restaurant industry, for example. It’s a massive and complex market, valued at over $1 trillion with more than one million establishments. The spectrum of potential customers is vast, ranging from food trucks to multinational franchise conglomerates. No single company can effectively serve this entire market. Instead, your mission is to find the "tribe" you can best serve, those who will not only recognize your value but be willing to pay for it—and, crucially, tell others how great you are.
Once you’ve identified your tribe, the temptation is to study who already serves them and try to one-up the competition with slightly better features or pricing. But in reality, customer attention spans are short, and their patience for incremental improvements is even shorter. You need to be radically different, not just marginally better. Address well-recognized pain points with maximum clarity and impact. Your product should scream, "I’m solving your biggest problem," without any fluff.
How do you achieve this level of focus and clarity? You must genuinely care about your tribe. Spend time with them. Observe their work, talk to their employees, and immerse yourself in their world. Walk through their neighborhoods, share meals, and, ideally, become their friend. This is when you'll start to care deeply—not about your success, not about your valuation, but about their success.
At this point, something powerful happens. You'll start to see what truly needs to be in your product and strip away unnecessary distractions. You'll build, speak, and present undeniable value. And when your tribe receives that value, they’ll not only recognize it—they’ll tell others about it.
So, stop chasing the competition. Care about your customers. That’s how you win. Need to some help? Brand Strategic's Go-To-Market Solutions is here for you. Reach out.
