Media and The Message

by Nicholas G. Licata, M.A.

Competing with Yourself [Back to Columns]

A Long Island publisher friend of mine and I had a discussion the other day about one of his newspapers. His weekly tabloid has a circulation of more than 10,000 readers, many of whom are on-line. He was considering launching a website, but could not decide if he wanted to publish the paper in its entirety or use the site as a tool for attracting subscribers.

I suggested that he publish it on the net in its entirety. He was apprehensive, afraid that if he put the whole publication on-line he would lose traditional subscribers. "I don't want to compete with myself," he said to me.

This is a major mistake in the marketing game. Think about it. Would you rather compete with yourself or someone else? When you compete with yourself, there can only be one winner - you! When you compete with others, you will find their actions drive your business decisions. Your marketing strategy becomes reactive instead of proactive. Common sense tells us that it is better to be ahead of the game than trying to catch up with the competition.

I advised my friend that he should "flank" himself. No, that is not an insult. It is a term taken from military strategy. It means to have your own troops join in on a battle at a strategic moment from an unoccupied position to the left or right of the main conflict.

For his geographic area, the internet presented itself as a niche that has not yet been occupied. With the resources he enjoys as an entity that already publishes local news and features, he could easily move in and fill the niche. The alternative would be to have someone else establish themselves as the provider of local news on the internet. Then he would be forced to attack a position that is already defended. The more time he waits, the more of his resources he will need to allocate to attack his competition.

Businesses can learn a lot from the study of military strategy. Many businesses put vast amounts of their resources into products and services that should be abandoned. As a result, they don't allocate enough resources to products and services that should be reinforced. In a military battle, these business leaders would be defeated, overrun, and captured or killed. But, because the consequences of poor marketing strategy are not as severe, they are often left to squander their company's profits for years.

I don't know if my friend will take my advice or not. The most difficult thing for a person to do is to change the way they think. Flexibility, however, is the key to marketing success.