A recent USA Today article caught my attention. Not only because it was chock-full with intense political showdowns between no-name citizens and state senators and representatives, but also because it held a great reminder for us in the business world, too.
Apparently, conservative groups and citizens have taken a cue from the impressive grassroots and social media efforts that President Obama used during his campaign to the White House. They’re using the tactics to mobilize like-minded citizens, provide information and encourage them to attend numerous town hall meetings being held by their local democrats with seats in Washington, D.C., to confront their representatives with concerns on issues like health care reform.
Here’s the part of the article that stuck out for me:
The outpouring of people and the impact they’ve had on the debate has surprised the president’s allies.
“I think people did not expect that people were going to act so vocally,” said Andrew Stern, head of the 2-million-member Service Employee’s International Union, a supporter of Obama’s health care initiative. “I think we were somewhat taken aback.”
Here is the takeaway for you and me:
Don’t underestimate your competition.
Assume they are plotting ways to take your customers, create more compelling marketing communications efforts and chip away at your share of the market. Don’t assume they aren’t sophisticated enough to match your efforts – or even one-up you.
What do you do to make sure you’re not letting your guard down? How do you stay ahead of the competition?
*Image by Cayusa.
David spends his days focused on marketing communications strategies and execution. He blogs here regularly about integrated communications, PR and social media.
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Google Alerts are your friend. I used to do searches everyday for competitors, plus visiting their Web site. Also, constantly educating yourself on the industry helps too.
Good post.
You’re right. Never underestimate your competitors and as Richard Nixon once said in his ten rules of negotiation, leave your adversaries believing you’re capable of anything – that nothing’s off the table. You combat that by recommitting to the strengths of your principles, not engaging in those of your opponents.
The Obama campaign playbook didn’t cover shouting down speakers at events that weren’t their own. But they should have been mindful that the tactics of these groups to disrupt rather than engage could be as effective as they’ve been.
We should be getting all points of view on the table. Reasonable people have legitimate policy differences on health care. Let’s actually listen to everybody. We can only hope that over time, the country will grow tired of those who are shutting people down versus allowing everyone to speak. That in the end, we have to be about country before party and look to a future beyond the mid-term elections. We’ll see.
An excellent reminder! I an avid user of the Google Alerts and bookmark all of my competitors websites as a way to keep an eye on what they are doing. Another good way is to monitor their social networking profiles.
Just using Google alerts can make the difference between success and failure. It’s amazing how simple (and how infrequently people use them) it is to keep an eye on your competition.
Preempt and win.