If you can't beat them join them

A long time ago, when record shops were popular, I saw an interview with a band called Romeo. They were asked why they chose the name Romeo for their band. They said they picked it because it was alphabetically between the Rolling Stones and Linda Ronstadt who was very popular at the time. They realized they would get a lot of people seeing their albums being between these two popular artists.

About the same time a family owned furniture store opened in Denver. They chose a location between the two largest furniture warehouses in Denver. They made a lot of money from people stopping in while comparison shopping the two big, well-know furniture stores.

I once had a business professor tell us that if he were to open a hamburger joint, he'd do it right next to a McDonalds. He said this because he knew McDonalds did research into all its locations before opening a shop, so he had a pretty good idea that the location would be good. He also said the McDonalds would attract attention for people that liked hamburgers but didn't like McDonalds.

The moral of these stories is to not run away from big successful competition, but instead put yourself as close to them as you can. Where are they selling? Can you place your own business "next" to them?