Attack Your Competitor’s Strengths

A commencement speech from Roger Federer at Dartmouth College recently, offered one really important tip for entrepreneurs and future CEOs in the audience.

He spoke about his challenges in becoming the greatest tennis player of all time.

He mentioned having to work hard and shore up his weaknesses, become disciplined, managing himself, and attacking competitor’s strengths head on.

That last point might surprise everyone in business. It’s interesting. Because we’re all told, “don’t compete with the market leader”, because you can’t match their strengths, and you’ll lose. You’re told to back down and resort to weaker battleground strategies for a piece of the pie.

But competing directly up against market leader’s strengths has big benefits, even if at first you look foolish. Nothing makes you stronger than experience on the battlefield — where you’re forced to learn under fire, what works and what doesn’t. And becoming audacious actually is a force that puts you front and center with consumers and builds confidence.

If a lack of confidence is your issue, then you might work that out right here, with a solid strategy.

Why are They the Market Leader?

They’re the market leader because of their strengths, which reflects that’s what travel consumers want (low price, selection, safe reliable bookings, financial strength, 24×7 customer service, etc.). They seem to know what travelers want.

As long as you’re committed and dedicated to winning, and have the analytical skills and energy to improve, then there’s no loss in trying.  It’s all gain. The exercise might even lift your value offer and brand up to iconic level. With a leader and their strength in your gunsights, you have something certain to focus on. And in the travel sector, there are tools, suppliers, designers, brand experts, content strategy experts, and service providers who can help you elevate your brand, travel services and packages.

Please do read my travel marketing articles for some exceptionally competitive ideas on building an unbeatable value proposition and create a brand that travelers will obsess over — making your company the only travel company for them.

And there’s articles on changing consumer’s minds, the power of ideas in travel, supercharging your booking pages, growing your bookings, improving your travel blog, and how to make great travel content. Bold topics that will help you compete head to head with the top travel brands.

The Audacity to Be Confident

Eventually, you’re going to be number one, which Roger became in his sport, as he took down Pete Sampras and other icons from that era. And he lasted a long time winning a lot of major tournaments. Market leaders gain lasting power.

The thing about a strength is that it’s not static or single thing. It’s complicated mix of features, benefits and memories the customer has. Meaning, you could be creative and innovative and wear down their advantage. This is the digital era where a market leader’s brand and advantage can be wiped out quickly.

And if you’re going to attack the leader’s strength, you should know what that is.

What are Your Competitor’s Top Strengths?

• their reputation for excellence (reputation for best overall value)
• brand recognition and trustworthiness (customer loyalty)
• their omnipresence in the market (Google rankings, ads, publisher partners, media, travel journalists, bloggers)
• beautiful presentation of travel packages online (website, marketing pages, blogs, graphics, ads, brochures, social posts)
• comprehensive packages and services (best destinations, tours, and trip packages)
• great travel travel management software technology (user experience, efficiency, mobile friendly)
• international presence and business network (international travel confidence)
• partnerships with great travel companies (airlines, hotels, tour operators, cruiselines, and DMOs (value added)

Take a look at the market leaders such as Viator, Tour Radar, Marriott, Expedia, Bookings.com, TripAdvisor, Air Canada Vacation, Kayak or Intrepid Travel.

The Power of Image

Their biggest strength is their brand promise and recognition. They have an image of power, financial strength, capability, product satisfaction, and convenience that resonates with most travelers and creates their leads and bookings. They have enough credibility and products for niche travel and tours and to appeal to various demographics.

So it’s all about image. Branding is a complex image dependent on perception and memory. There’s a temporariness and looseness that opens up opportunities (but those marketers who engage audiences with heartwarming, immersive descriptions of travel experiences can reach audiences in ways the big companies can’t.

Big companies and brands have an impersonal nature — a corporation with a corporate brand to protect, and this is their weakness. They can’t take their brand experience to this intimate, personal level, but as a niche company, you can. This makes your brand experience more caring, intense and personally relevant. With this mastered, you can compete head to head.

But there’s more to it.

Let’s say you build a brand that incorporates all of the key strengths? That would be powerful, even if you haven’t brought it all together perfectly. That’s part of the growth and optimization challenge.

If your web design, travel packages, and catalog are the same as others, the travel consumer would have to check out your blog to verify your “market leader” best company credentials and see if they actually like you.

So, all things equal then, it’s the immersive, engaging, authentic and relevant voice of your blog where you present your real life expertise, personal connection, shared spirit, knowledge, helpfulness, tone of voice, and caring for the reader, that determines who gets the booking.

Audacity Says a Lot About Conviction to Business

If you have just as much online visibility as they do, you would stand to win those new customers and keep yours loyal.

An important note is about audacity which I’ve mentioned frequently in other blogs. Audacity is the all out conviction of success and sincerity that impresses a lot of people and wins customers. And audacity is very often backed by financial strength. Audacity should be a given when you have enough money to survive total failure.

Consider a mom and pop shop with $100k in the bank versus a new startup with $10 million venture financing. That money is an audacity generator. But it must used expertly as we’re suggesting in this post — challenging market leaders, learning fast, and capturing consumer’s total attention and love.

Customers have a sixth sense about financial strength indicating real capability to deliver. It relates to trust, reliability, and security of money. If they sense your company doesn’t have the funds to meet performance expectations, then they’ll go with another inferior product.  Getting rid of the “weak provider” look is a must.

Looking Like a Top Contender

So showing financial might is very important. Get your financing, and flex those spending muscles to look like a company that’s invested a lot in itself and is sincerely determined to provide the best service and product satisfaction. You’ll need cash for promotion — more proof that you want them as your customer.

A bad website, poor copywriting and graphics, lack of staff, lack of generosity and genuine caring messages, lack of actual happy customer travel experiences, communicates weakness.

When they see you’re all in, that gives them reassurance.  By imitating market leaders and challenging their strengths, you join that club.

As you learn what really matters to travel consumers, you hone your brand and value proposition further to occupy their time and condition their view of the joy of travel. As I said in another post, you’re selling the joy of travel.  Perhaps your market leaders don’t understand that.  One more way to beat them.

A Travel Friend for Life

You begin to resonate with their values and develop a closer friendship through content. The key to this last part is the friendship part.

The voice of your brand is friendship. You know your close friendships are different than acquaintances. It’s not just familiarity. It’s similar values, shared experiences, validation, tastes, expectations, habits, acceptance, and a vision of more shared fun and growth. When fun and growth and sharing end, so does the friendship.

In closing, you can compete head to head on competitor’s strengths and by doing so, you make yourself more compatible to travel consumers. When you look like the market leaders, behave like them, but are more caring and trustworthy, you’re going to win market share at their expense.

Because a lot of people shop at Expedia, Booking.com, hotels.com, Airbnb, Viator, and others out of habit. There’s no real friendship there. It’s more like a transaction with a vending machine. Be more than that.

See more about the quality of travel company management software you must have to compete well in the years to come.

There’s plenty of opportunity for your travel company, so be audacious and go head to head to win!

Call Gord now at 416 998 6246 to win against market leaders.