Create new industries within industries.
One of our strengths at Urbane Media is Branding. Our ability to create and market the Brand of the businesses we represent. Some of the challenges that businesses have, which is typical of great brands is their ability to break away from the competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant.
Untapped market space demand creation of something new and yields an opportunity for highly profitable growth.
Successful execution of untapped market space makes the competition irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. That scares the hell out of most business owners and marketers. It is much safer to be a statuesque, mediocre blend in.
Stop Trying to Beat Your Competitors
Business needs to go beyond price competing to sieze new profit and growth opportunities. Some businesses have become experts at competing skillfully with strict analyzing of the economic structures of their industry and choosing a position of low cost differentiation to benchmark the competition. The problem with that approach is it becomes very bloody. It is a flawed strategy and a race to the bottom.
Focusing on beating your competition is flawed because you are competing for a shrinking piece of the pie. Continually attempting to outperform your rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand is grueling. A better approach is to make the competition irrelevant by changing the rules and setting up your own game. Never underestimate the capacity to create new industries within industries.
Strategic Moves and not the Business or the Industry Make all the Difference
Instead of focusing on beating the competition, make the competition irrelevant by placing equal emphasis on increasing value and innovation, while decreasing costs. Value without innovation only yields incremental scale, something that improves value but is not sufficient enough to make you stand out in the marketplace.
There is also a common, but also flawed belief that in order to increase value for your customers, you also increase costs. What we are suggesting is just the opposite of that. Increase customer value and decrease operating costs.
An example of that is our Go Solo Leasing Program at Urbane Apartments that we launched three years ago. The prospect tours the apartment solo. They love it, so it has a high perceived value to the prospect, and at the same time our labor costs are reduced substantially. We have created uncontested space in the apartment rental business by creating an enhanced leasing experience, where we made the rules.
Another example of creating value and driving down costs is Soutwest Airlines known for being a solely-Boeing 737 operator. That alone allows Soutwest to employ pilots and mechanics for only one type of aircraft, thus lowering their cost significantly. That coupled with their “Ten Minute Turn” delighted passengers with on time delivery.
The first questions to ask are “What is everyone in your industry doing that they shouldn’t”. Once you identify those, the next thing is a dose of courage to execute your ideas to catapulte into untapped market space.
Eric Brown
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established Urbane Media, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine. You can connect with Urbane_Media on Twitter. Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications; Multi Housing News Social Media Examiner Search Engine Guide
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