Why you should be grateful for your competition

Wouldn't it be nice if your business had no competitors? Imagine -- if customers wanted to buy what you were selling, they'd have to buy it from you. Or do without.

Think again. If your small business really had no competition, something would be very wrong. It could mean there's simply no market for your product or service. Maybe others tried it and failed, or customers simply don't want it. As old-time movie mogul Sam Goldwyn put it, "If people don't want to go see your picture, nobody can stop them."

Besides, people often grow to hate companies that don't have competition. Look at Microsoft (especially in the past). Look at the growing grudge many people have against Google. (Not only for their past privacy intrusions but now -- yikes! -- their takeover of DoubleClick. If that doesn't prompt you to start dumping your browser cache and deleting your cookies, I don't know what will.)

Maybe the best example is cable television. You could hear the cheers all over New York after the stranglehold monopoly of cable systems within apartment buildings, condos and co-ops was struck down by the FCC.

Now if only those of us living in small cities had the same choices. For many of us, we have two options: one overpriced cable system -- bloated with hundreds of channels we don't even watch -- or rabbit ears. Do I really have to pay $100+ a month to watch Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert a few times a month?

I wish I had a competing cable system to choose. I know that would drive down prices. Or maybe someone will finally introduce something all cable systems hate and fear: a la carte pricing. That is, you pay only for the channels you want. For most of us, that would probably be 10 or 20, not 200.

Actually, when it comes to television, this guy probably has the best idea.

What you can learn from Hollywood

Southern California isn't the only place that's burning. A big chunk of Hollywood box office is in ashes, too. Sunday's New York Times examines the cause of several of this fall's big-name box office disasters.

“Gone Baby Gone” tanked, despite star Ben Affleck appearing on virtually every talk show except "Wall Street Week." The heavily-promoted "Rendition" also went into the crapper, despite its cheerful theme of torture. “Things We Lost in the Fire” starring Benicio Del Toro and Halle Berry also sank with barely a bubble.

The culprit in all these big name failures: lack of focus. They're not targeted at any particular audience. As the Times put it:

"That doesn’t mean they’re bad pictures. It means they have no obvious appeal to any of the four big demographic groups at which Hollywood has typically aimed its wares: males 17 to 24 years old, males 25 to 49, females 17 to 24 and females 25 to 49.

What has this Hollywood stuff got to do with small business marketing and attracting more customers? Everything. Your small business needs to do exactly what these movies didn't do. You need to focus on entertaining -- uh, I mean serving -- a narrow niche audience.

The headline of the Times piece says it all. It's "How to Find an Audience? Try a Zoom Lens." link

The quickest way to failure is to try to be all things to all people. If you stand for everything, you're remembered for nothing. If you don't create your marketing message for a tightly-designed market, you're doomed to fail -- whether you're a CPA or a Hollywood producer.

"... if the movie business is to keep making these smart little dramas in which ambitious actors and prize-hungry filmmakers take their annual shot at the (Oscars), it will have to start doing what car makers and packaged-goods companies have always done: sharpen the message and narrow the targets.

Where'd he go??

I apologize for disappearing. I have been trying to post but something got screwed up -- I believe a Blogger setting somewhere -- and as a result, nothing I wrote actually showed up. Very frustrating. After a while, I just gave up. Oh, I'd hack at it now and then, but seemed to be getting nowhere.

It's hard to type this because I have my fingers crossed, but I SEEM to have fixed the posting problem. I'm still having a problem with the Atom/RSS feeds, but I'm working on it! (Attention, geeks: Your help is most welcome!)

To everyone, thanks for your patience!

Tom "What happens if I do this?" McKay