Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This is your go-to podcast for all things marketing, branding, and customer experience. We’re bringing you honest and fun conversations with bite-sized insights. Hosted by BrightSign’s CMO Brian Rowley and Head of Integrated Marketing Laura Smith, you’ll hear from industry pros, creatives, and innovators about what’s actually working in today’s evolving, digital-first world. No fluff — just real insights on how brands are connecting with audiences and driving growth. Tune in for fresh ideas, big thinking, and all the tips you need to take your marketing game to the next level.
Welcome to Prose + Comms: Engagement, Unplugged. I'm Brian Rowley.
Laura Smith:And I'm Laura Smith.
Brian Rowley:And today Laura and I are actually talking about brand competition. Keeping an eye on competitors is obviously a part of good marketing, And it can help teams understand the category and actually avoid operating in a vacuum. But quite honestly, competitive awareness can quickly turn into competitive obsession, where every campaign launch or social post triggers a reaction. So today we're asking how much attention competitors actually deserve.
Laura Smith:Okay. So to start off, let's admit that most marketers have experienced a moment when a competitor launches something and someone immediately asks, should we be doing that? So right, Brian? And you've been there. Right?
Laura Smith:Like, oh, you see it. I see it. It's like, should we be doing that? Yeah. Especially, like, the onset of, like, social and all that, which was crazy.
Laura Smith:But so what's a competitor move that made you or your team panic a little at some point in your career?
Brian Rowley:Well, you know, it was when I was in the wireless space, I mean, there was so much competitiveness. Right? So you had, like, at the at the at the time and again, I'll give you this, it's sort of a lay up here, but I mean, you had, like, Sprint, you had AT and T, and you had Verizon Wireless. Right? They were all sort of in that play.
Brian Rowley:And I can remember when T Mobile came into the mix, everybody was like, oh, it's another competitor. And then it was like, there was there was a lot of panic around it. But then it was like one of those things where they had said like, oh, well, they're small, they're blah blah blah. Don't worry about them. And then the next thing you know, like, were worried about like, T Mobile as like one of our biggest competitive threats.
Brian Rowley:Right? So it's always one of those things, I think, where you're just like, woah, I didn't see them coming. And then next thing you know, they're like right at your doorstep. How about you? I
Laura Smith:would say it's probably when I was in advertising, working for a big brand, and we kinda came up with a splash and really showed up with a new campaign. And then which made a big kinda stink. Right? Like everyone was kinda talking about all the the trades and all that stuff in the industry. And then a competitor basically, you know, as we probably got a little more comfortable, a competitor came out with this, like, big campaign launch and splash that just like, you know, it got all the buzz.
Laura Smith:And it was like, wait a minute. Where does that mean we sit? And I will say, like, and I think in advertising, it happens a lot because easily done with, like, a Super Bowl spot or, like, some kind of big splash. You know, it's big budgets involved. So clearly, people can do big things, but it was definitely, like, more campaign oriented than it was, like, a product or a competitor coming into market, I would say.
Laura Smith:But it was, you know, it puts everyone on their heels. And in the creative business, of course, everyone's like, well, how do we go back and do it better? And so it's the managing of that because it's that's not always the answer. Right? Because I think the interesting thing about the competitive awareness piece of it is we as marketers are very aware, but are consumers as aware?
Laura Smith:Like, I think that's where we get caught up. Like, it kinda goes back to, like, well, we run creative, and we're like, oh, I'm so sick of that. Well, we are sick of it. We see it. Like, maybe somebody saw it once, you know, in the in the market.
Laura Smith:And so it's like that that same kind of feeling of, like, we feel the pressure, but does anyone else notice it? And in some case, they do, I'm sure. But that's Yeah. There's friction there, I think.
Brian Rowley:Yeah. I think it's an interesting, I think it's an interesting approach. And and, you know, for years, I can I can remember, and I I still say it to this day when people are looking at it and they're talking about it, like, if you think about the amount of work that's created to follow someone, like, through a competitive launch or something like that? Right? And sort of be a moment that's like a follow on moment versus your own.
Brian Rowley:I've always said, like, stick with your strategy. Like, don't get like, I look at a lot of that as distraction. And I look at it and say, like, you can either be incredibly distracted by that, completely pivot, have your teams doing a lot of, like, this other creative work associated with this, or you can stay your course. And and and learn from it because I do think there's learnings that you have to pay attention to from competitors. But I don't know that it should be the thing that causes you to shift your course and and start in a different direction in in in probably 90% of the cases.
Laura Smith:Yeah. I think it's like you have there has to be a balance, like like calibrated attention, you know? Like, not to pay attention to see, like, real category shifts in sales and see, like, if the market is changing, but not enough to let them set your agenda. And I think that's right. So I think it's that balance and you can't become obsessive over it because you have to run your own business and to your point, like, maintain the strategy the business has set out.
Laura Smith:You could have some admiration or some, you know, like, I don't know, you're little jealous of what else might be doing because maybe it seems cooler or bigger or better, but that doesn't mean you have to change what you're doing. You just need to notice it. And I think that's it is a little bit of signal and noise. You know? You have to know the difference between the two.
Laura Smith:But I I feel like and I don't know how you feel, but where do you think the obsession comes from? Do you think it's internal pressure, like, from leadership or sales? Like, where do you think because you really think it's marketers, or do you think it's coming from elsewhere?
Brian Rowley:I think it's driven a lot of different places. I think it's coming from leadership, which is ultimately probably being driven by the markets. Because I think, I mean, I still think there's this obsession and I'm thinking about it more from a marketing perspective where someone drops something that does actually become a bit viral, right? Which obviously draws attention to the business and awareness and blah, blah, blah, and all those things. But I think at the end of the day, we all would love to have one of those moments.
Brian Rowley:So when you see someone who's successful in that, there's a lot of questions around, why didn't we do that? Or why didn't we take that same approach? Or, well, how much different they are in terms of they're willing to take risks that we're not willing to take. I mean, everything is about taking risks or not, right? And how much do you have a tolerance for the risks that you do take?
Brian Rowley:I mean, that's really what a lot of the competitiveness does boil down to. Some people are willing to push that envelope really far, others aren't. So I I think there's a lot of factors that play into that competitive approach.
Laura Smith:Yeah. I think the evaluating the competitive landscape becomes marketers jobs. Yes. Right? Understanding all of it and doing the research and making sure that, you know, up to, up to speed on everything that's happening around their own brand.
Laura Smith:But I feel like the actual, like, obsession comes from the leadership. Like, I think that's where because they're not under they're not constantly evaluating it potentially, right, the way same way they're marketing it. So we might have seen it coming or we may have been prepared for maybe what's to come, or maybe we're ready to just not do anything. But it's leadership coming in saying, well, they're doing that. What are we doing?
Laura Smith:Are we gonna do something about that? You know, and we respond to that. So and and that's just because that's what they're gonna be you know, that's leadership has to be thinking about the business as a whole, but marketers tend to have more of a pulse on it that ideally so not creating the fires, I don't think. I think they're just waiting to manage them and preparing for those strategically of how to how to balance it when they see it happening.
Brian Rowley:Yeah. I think though, going back to the way we kick this off, like that, you know, there's there is that balance between healthy competition, right, awareness, right, and obsession. And so, like, I don't think you know, the obsession piece is the part for me, like, I agree with you. Like, we look all the time, like, what are our competitors doing? Where are they showing up?
Brian Rowley:Where aren't we showing up? What what are the like even when you look at, I've been in a lot of different product roles, like looking at like the product set and saying like, where do they have a competitive advantage for there? But I think also spending time to really understand, and this falls back more into a marketing role, but like really being able to articulate, like, what is your value proposition to your customers? Like where does that sit and how does that stand up against some of the competitive environments and really being able to be honest with yourselves around, is that really a competitive advantage or is that just another stake that's in the ground in this particular case? But I do think there's a lot of pieces to it from a marketing perspective where you can balance that and really learn from competitors in terms of where they're really showing up and adding and making an impact.
Laura Smith:Yeah. I think it's interesting because we're, like, in this interesting space where we're joining and it was like, well, who are competitors? And it's like you've you know, we have competitors, but it's not like a one to one. It's a very, you know, depending on what we're offering, depending on you know, of course, we have people that we're watching in the space and all that, but some brands, it's so much easier to identify your top four. And so I think it's just a I mean, as a marketer, it's like you're always like, okay.
Laura Smith:We need to know track those competitors, and we've kind of built our own competitive set. But it is a unique you know, because it's not always an easy one to one. So I think, like, we some brands and some companies are just so much more direct than others. And I think it's then it's like you have to think about you're looking at the market as a whole regardless. Right?
Laura Smith:Just understand, you know, how you position yourself from a marketing and and just organizational level, but it's not always cookie cutter, I guess is my point.
Brian Rowley:Well, not only I think who your competitors are, but even if you just look at the dynamics of it. You look at, for example, if we were to look at ourselves versus a fortune 500 company, right? They just have means beyond any means that we would ever have, right? To be able to get some of that messaging that they have or their competitive advantage out there that their budget is, they spend it on dinner, like what could be an equivalent of what we have for an annual budget, right? Like you know what I mean?
Brian Rowley:You do have to take all of that into account when you're looking at it and just say, where do I make the biggest impact? And I am a firm believer in competitive environments that you cannot be everything to everybody. You need to make sure that you have honest discussions with your team and your internal structure and identify like, where is the true value and take that as far as you possibly can. But a lot of folks get tied up in trying to be everything to everybody. And I think that's because they're constantly chasing all the various competitors that they have trying to weave their message into whatever that competitive set looks like.
Laura Smith:And I remember, you know, in the advertising world, like, doing quarterly competitive analysis was one of the biggest projects that we had to do for each client. And it was fascinating. Mean, these were like 100 plus page decks. Like, it was insane. But it would it it was always an interesting process because, you know, you do have to step back and really dig in on some of these to identify their white spaces or sort of, like, too much noise, all that.
Laura Smith:But I think about just being an agency and the amount of money the clients are spending just to have, like, team of, like, seven to 10 people months on a competitive analysis. And I'm like and I have it multiple times a year. I'm like, that's just I mean, that's, like, so much work for it. So it's like I think that, like, to go back to your point, there's a balance. Like, is it that much time and effort?
Laura Smith:Is there and now, obviously, there's things like AI, that will help with that and automate and things like that. But I just it it amazes me of how much time I remember spending on those reports and analysis of that. And maybe we'd have, like, a couple key insights that would take us to a different place, but sometimes it was just, like, more like learning. And it wasn't a bad thing. Like, you learn and you kinda figure it out.
Laura Smith:But what are you doing with it? And I think that's the piece. And some clients would do something like big with it. And some clients would be like, oh, yeah, sure. Make that little tweak here.
Laura Smith:I'm like, that tweak just cost you a lot of money because we spent so much time on building these presentations. Yeah. Which feels like there's gotta be a better way, which now I'm sure there is.
Brian Rowley:Yeah. I think I do think, and I'm curious for your opinion though, but I do think it's actually become a little bit harder to ignore some of the competitive activity given the things that we see with like, you know, you look at it from a marketing perspective, you've got social feeds, you've got blogs, you've got all the monitoring tools, you've got marketing, everything that can be done, like your voice in the market, where does it peak? Where does it vet? Like all of those types of things. So like, would you agree that it's actually harder than it has been in the past to ignore competitors?
Brian Rowley:Or do you think it's still pretty easy?
Laura Smith:Yeah. No. I think that yeah. I would agree that it's harder to ignore as marketers. But I'll go back to my point earlier that, like, customers don't see the landscape the way marketers do.
Laura Smith:So internally, we're fixating on the rivalries, but sometimes the customers are barely aware of what's what else is around them. You know? So I think it's there's a gap there. So we as marketers, I think it's harder to ignore, but I don't know if, like, consumers or buyers or whomever you're like, are they really that they're seeing a lot of activity, but do they notice and compare?
Brian Rowley:I think it annoys them, to be honest with you. Like, I can remember in the Verizon days, nothing was more annoying than like, we would launch an ad and then the next thing you know, one of the other carriers would launch one that's very similar saying like, you know, oh, we have the greatest coverage or we have the biggest coverage. And it just used to get so watered down and it was almost like two kids fighting in a playground, right? It was like, all right, just separate each other, right? Because the only people who are like pounding their chest and this means anything to are the two companies.
Brian Rowley:Everyone else, this is just annoying that you're actually doing this, because we all know that the truth is somewhere in between what a is saying and b is Right. Like, I mean, it just got crazy.
Laura Smith:And I think when it comes to pricing, right, like I think pricing is a thing that really does matter because, you know, we know that like for us like retailers and things like they they'll just compete with each other. Know, some retailers say, you see if you get a better price, bring in your receipt and I'll get I'll match that price. So you know, there's all of that that's happening, I think is super important. I even think about like Prime, like Amazon Prime, you know, that's their thing. But this year, maybe it's the first year, I don't know.
Laura Smith:The Walmart, they didn't call it Prime, but they did the same thing
Brian Rowley:Yeah.
Laura Smith:Over different days. I might have done it longer. I forget. But I'm like, oh, I have two options now. Like, here I go.
Laura Smith:But, you know, so Walmart obviously had to follow suit to some degree because they have to keep up. They have they can't lose the opportunity for sale. So I think that, like, the the pricing battle can be one where you see a lot of that. And then the consumers notice it because they're the ones making the decision to purchase from either the brand they're loyal from or from the price that they they want.
Brian Rowley:Yeah. I I guess the the other question, though, which is is is somewhat interesting is, can a brand go too far in that opposite direction and just completely ignore their competitors?
Laura Smith:Yeah. But I think that's the that goes back to like, you can't. You have to have the balance approach. Pay attention enough. Like, notice the signal and noise.
Laura Smith:Like, the signal versus noise. You you can't ignore. Like, I don't think any marketer could ignore. Because where does that that's just gonna they're gonna lose out. You have to be aware.
Laura Smith:You have to kinda study the market. You have to understand what's going on around you. So it would be silly. And I can't imagine many or any people aren't paying attention to what's around them.
Brian Rowley:Yeah. I I I no. I I completely agree. But then at the same time, there's also a lot of companies that are out there. There's a lot of research firms that are out there that to your point, do those very expensive competitive analysis.
Brian Rowley:And you get to the information that you get. And did you really learn a whole lot? Maybe not. Right? Like, you you learned a little, but was it enough that's gonna significantly pivot your business for the amount of money that you spent to do it.
Brian Rowley:So I do think there are some things that you can you don't necessarily need to do. I think your your gut tells you a lot around what your competitors are doing. I think your customers, to be honest with you, are probably the best ones to tell you what your competitors are doing right or wrong. And I think if we spent a little more time listening to some of that, I think a lot of people could benefit from that. Because I think that's probably your biggest your biggest touch point and probably one of your most valuables.
Laura Smith:Yeah, well, I think this was another great discussion, Brian.
Brian Rowley:Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think I think, you know, having at the end of it, I think, you know, having an eye on your competitors, I don't think anyone would argue the fact that that's an important piece. How you use that as a tool to be able to manage the business moving forward is important. But it's one of many tools that I think you have to do. And I think it's really important to make sure that you don't allow it to have you go off course.
Brian Rowley:I think it's an important piece there, but again, signal and noise, big piece. For those of you that are listening, thank you. And most importantly, if you like what you heard today, be sure and follow us.