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If you can't beat them join them

by Kurt
13 replies
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?
#beat #join
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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
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    I suppose it's similar to Coke and Pepsi. Personally I would rather create something (relatively) "unique."
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Actually, it's common sense.

    A very wealthy land developer in Atlanta told me years ago that he always followed the 'storage unit' facilities. He said those companies excelled at researching future development areas.

    Those container companies bought land when it was low - made money for years on cheaply built individual storage units and sometimes sold those facilities when property around them skyrocketed in price.

    It's the entrepreneur's version of 'location location location."
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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
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    Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

    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.
    No that's interesting. I understand what you said.

    However, it kind of reminds me of something I learned from Gary Halbert.

    (Essentially, he asked his Students what quality they would have if they set up a hamburger stand. Some of the students said they would like the best location ... Some of them wanted the best produce (etc.) ... Then Gary said he could outsell all of them completely with just one attribute: A starving crowd.

    Maybe that's not the best advice in this thread ... However, it will certainly help People trying to sell something their Market doesn't want.
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    Reminds me of a marketing 'joke' I once came upon.

    There are 3 stores next to each other selling the same items.
    The store on the left decide to put up a big 20% off sign in the window.
    The store on the right counters by putting up a big 25% sign in the window.
    The store in the middle counters by putting up a big "Front Door" sign on their door.

    If you don't see the connection, you ain't me and that's your loss!
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by DABK View Post

    Reminds me of a marketing 'joke' I once came upon.

    There are 3 stores next to each other selling the same items.
    The store on the left decide to put up a big 20% off sign in the window.
    The store on the right counters by putting up a big 25% sign in the window.
    The store in the middle counters by putting up a big "Front Door" sign on their door.

    If you don't see the connection, you ain't me and that's your loss!
    Similar story, only it was 3 hair salons.

    Salon on the left had a sign in the window promoting $5 haircuts.

    Salon on the right had a sign promoting $4.99 haircuts.

    Salon in the middle had a big sign -- "We Fix Cheap Haircuts"...

    (Read an article awhile ago that said that 99 cent stores almost put dollar stores out of business over a penny.)
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    My problem with this advice is that it has nothing to do with the internet and ranking well in search engines. We can't exactly decide that we are going to pick our location in the SERPs and place our site between Amazon and Walmart.

    Great advice for brick and mortar businesses, though!
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

      My problem with this advice is that it has nothing to do with the internet and ranking well in search engines. We can't exactly decide that we are going to pick our location in the SERPs and place our site between Amazon and Walmart.

      Great advice for brick and mortar businesses, though!
      Ranking in search engines isn't the only way to market in the Net. But if I wanted to rank in SEs I'd look for places that link to Amazon or Walmart and see if I could get links from those pages too.

      If my competitors sold on Amazon, I'd try to sell on Amazon too. If they sold on Etsy, eBay, Clickbank or AudioJungle, I'd try to sell on those sites as well. If my competitors' products were being sold in someone's email newsletter, I'd try to make contact with that person and get my products mentioned there also.
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        I agree 100%. What you presented is information that people here can actually use with their websites.
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        We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
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  • Profile picture of the author Maxxx333
    This is really dope as a story, the logic is interesting and edifying!
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnVianny
    In Online Marketing it's called....syndication or something like this
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  • Profile picture of the author BryrDe
    this is a great read. However, I do believe that this is a risk. Not all business can be successful with this kind of strategy
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