COMPETITION:
Merriam-Webster defines competition in business as "the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms."
MANAGING COMPETITION -WAYS :
1. Don’t Get into a Price War :
Cutting prices to retain customers or distract them from “opening offers” from the competitors is a game a company can never win and has a number of consequences, including the following:
- It lowers the perceived value of the brand and product.
- Once the company drop the prices it’s hard to put them up again.
- Company risk attracting customers who only care about price points.
- It puts company into the category of “follower,” as if you are being led by someone else’s business plan rather than own .
2. Seize the Opportunity, Be Unique :
Even if the company offer the same products and services, you are never going to be the same as your competition. This is where opportunity lies.
Reviewing what makes the business unique – often it’s a combination of business owner, their team, and all the other factors that differentiate the company from thecompetition.
Refocusing the sales, operational, and marketing efforts to emphasize the unique customer experience that the company offer.
3. Enhance Product Offering :
This is where the company take that data collected on competition, interpret it, and use it to enhance the current product offering.
This can mean a lot of different things depending on business; Reducing prices , Enhancing Features etc .
Asking questions such as these can help determine how to tailor product offering to meet the needs of your target market better than your competitor :
How is their product different than yours?
How is it the same?
What needs is it currently addressing that yours is not?
4. Create an Environment that Promotes Future Growth:
It’s not enough to merely maintain the segment of the market – the company will need to aggressively pursue business growth.
Some businesses wrongly view managing competitive threats as a defensive solution when in reality, it should be more of an offensive strategy.
The company should not only maintain the current customer base, but eventually turn the competitor’s customers into their customers.
This will occur by offering a superior product or other intangible benefit that competitor does not.
5. Reduce Financial Uncertainty :
Sales forecasting is the best way to reduce uncertainty. It means looking several weeks or months down the road and projecting business’s realistic sales potential, based on past sales figures or estimated future sales.
MARKETING IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT:
Product marketing deals with the "7 P's" of marketing, which are product, pricing, place, promotion, physical environment, process and people.
Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing or customer-facing tasks (in the older sense of the phrase).
For example, product management deals with the basics of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as marketing communications ("marcom"), online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, and public relations, although product marketers may use channels such as online for outbound marketing for their product.
A product market
is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the
general public. Product market definition focuses on a narrow statement:
the product type, customer needs (functional needs), customer type, and
geographic area.
Role
Product marketing in a business addresses four important strategic questions:
- What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)?
- Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)?
- How will the products reach those (i.e., the distribution channel and are there viable possibilities that create a solid business model)?
- At what price should the products be offered?
