Identify opportunities that the competition is missing:

If you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself,
Then you are a fool and certain to be defeated in every battle.
If you know yourself, but not your enemy,
For every battle won, you will suffer a loss.
If you know your enemy and yourself, you will win every battle.

-Sun Tzu.

Let’s face it, most companies out there find themselves marketing in a crowded space and are continuously vying for the attention of the consumer. We’re advertising in a world where your competitors are bidding on your keywords on Google and targeting your audience on Facebook. Sun Tzu would have called this a digital war between marketers. So how is it possible to get to the front of the pack? Figure out what your competition is forgetting to do. By scanning the various channels that your competitors are using, you can identify just what type of messaging is working best for them and what audience they are targeting the most. Take that information and compare it to the data that you know about the consumer. Perhaps you’ll discover that the competition has gone all-in on targeting household moms but completely neglected another key demographic in your industry. Now is your time to adjust your strategy so you can keep household moms and expand your audience to attract new consumers by launching a campaign on a platform relevant to the demographic (like the gif crazy kids of Tumblr). Assuming you’re marketing a solid product, getting to a new audience first can sometimes be the biggest victory in establishing yourself as the number one brand to them.

Avoid (or spot) a same dress disaster:

There’s no better way to start this section then with a scene from Clueless:

Tai: [pointing at Amber] Cher, ain’t that the same dress that you was wearing yesterday?
Cher: Say, Ambular.
Amber: Hi!
Cher: Was that you going through my laundry?
Amber: As if! Like I would really wear something from Judy’s.
Cher: Do you prefer “fashion victim” or “ensembly challenged”?

Have you ever come up with an awesome campaign only to find out that it was done by someone else a few months back and you had to go back to the drawing board? If so, that’s great because you’re paying attention to the competition and not showing up to the party wearing the dress that someone wore the other day. If not, then you better take off the blinders and see what’s going on around you because you might just not be innovating but rather imitating.

However, there are two sides to the same dress scenario. Perhaps you’re not Amber but rather Cher. Seeing another brand using your same strategies and producing similar campaigns let’s you know three really important things:

1. You’re being watched.
2. What you’re doing works and the competition knows it.
3. This is a great moment in your adult life to use the word “copycat” so don’t pass up the opportunity.

The last thing that you want to do is get upset. Ogilvy said it best, “If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.”

No matter what you will learn something

The best part about looking at the competition is that it’s never a waste of time. No matter what, you’re going to walk away with new knowledge. Perhaps it’s that you didn’t need to worry about them that much after all and they have no clue what their doing. Maybe you’ll see something from your competition that will spark a brilliant idea. You might even realize that your competitors are executing infinitely smarter campaigns than you. Being able to see your competitors presence on their various social media properties, blogs, company websites, online advertising, email campaigns, third party mentions, and press mentions provide you with a truly holistic view of your competitors total marketing presence. Whatever the case, taking the time to see what your competitors are doing can help you market your brand better.

TrackMaven should update their slogan (if they have one) to “Every time you log in you’ll learn something.” If they do, just know that the guy who quoted Sun Tzu, Clueless and Ogilvy in the same article came up with it.