Your local marketing campaign CAN compete with bigger brands — here’s how

Published December 27, 2013 at 6:44 am

Say you’re not lucky enough to have the financial clout of Apple, or the historical market share of Coca-Cola. Maybe you’re just a small or medium-sized business attempting to reach a target audience awash in messaging from massive, sprawling companies. How can you possibly compete? One thing is for sure — if you attempt to use the exact same strategies that they do, you’re not going to be successful. You’re going to have neither the resources nor the brand awareness necessary to make that work.

Instead, consider your own unique edge.

One of the major advantages your business is going to have is positional flexibility. Ever heard the expression “it’s like turning around an aircraft carrier”? An entrenched company isn’t going to be able to change its course very much or very quickly; as such, it’s fairly constrained to a single branding message. By setting your business up in relation to it, you can reap the benefits of customers who are unsatisfied with a particular part of that experience. You might not be able to beat Walmart on price, but you can certainly provide a better and more targeted consumer experience.

Another upside to this maneuverability is that chance to try new avenues. Web-based marketing, for a behemoth, requires a battery of focus groups and test ads. For a spryer company, you can immediately respond to particular events and connect far more directly with your consumer base. Because a multi-national brand has to worry about how a campaign it runs in Indiana might affect its sales in India, it has much less dexterity when it comes to actively engaging with new channels.

When you’re lacking in clout, it’s important to be savvy.