Coopetition

So the whole idea of contextual competitive advertising really irritates some people- especially traditional marketers. While coopetition can refer to lots of mainly interactive concepts, it's actually been around for a while it's just that many people don't want to believe it. My Mom- who is a brilliant management and marketing consultant in her own right use the example of Nail Salons as a great example of coopetition at work. By having a Nail Salon on every other corner, it became the thing to do for women young and old to indicate that they are professional and well groomed.

The reality is that if someone has the internet, there is a pretty good chance they know how to use it. that means they are likely to know how to use Google and they are likely to use it in similar way to most other Google users. It's highly important ot be relevant and quality links back and forth and all around on the internet benefits those who pay attention to it. My point is not to be completely exclusive, but to be relevant to enough people that they'll want to read what I have to write. Even if I'm full of it- if I can spark conversation and build relevance, maybe I'll have a fan or at least a reader who will come back. I want to even figure out how to encourage ongoing participation. Why wouldn't all marketers want similar things? Some SAY they want it, but they have no idea how to engage in conversations and often when they are having conversations, they're talking to people trying to convince them of something rather than trying to fill a felt need or solve a real problem. People don;t like being SOLD anything- they want to have their needs satifying and the problems solved. Too many times, marketers are tying to solve a problem they think poepl should have but they haven;t ever bothered to work out whether others agree. The perfect example of a clear violation of this principle is the Chia Pet which is pure marketing at it's worst.

However- if you could buy a Chia Pet at every corner store in America and you needed a gift that says, "I think you may enjoy a clay sheep that has a plant growing out of it." I think I actually bought one for someone at one point. I truly hope that person doesn"t remember that.

That's coopetition at it's best. Home shopping network is another good example of coopetition. Once someone buys something for HSM and the product actually arrives at your door, you're likely to get hooked and feel like it's OK to buy something from it. The same thing is still true about the internet. Some people are still concerned about buying anything online and that still needs to be OK. Other who do buy online are used to waiting for something to be shipped. It's a strange sense of immediate gratification. It kinda feels good, but if you're a shopaholic, it's more likely to feel like kissing your sister. So- how is this related to coopetition? Well if many retailers are in close proximity and the consumer already trusts the vendors that others are cosest to, they're more likely to buy something. I still believe that Dominos really won't spit in my Pizza- they fired those two employees. Branding still MEANS something and coopetition doesn't hurt sales- it helps tremendously. It's still expensive and interactive is still not the perfect vehicle to build a brand.

It's still important to convince people that they should buy something, but it's therefore not necessary to try to prevent others from seeing that they have competition. Coopetition applies in many more cases than most marketers want to admit.

The situation in the Marketing FIELD is facinating as lots of marketers find their niche and allow others to manage their own piece of their customer's technology, advertising -traditional interactive, analytics, BI, etc. If they don't do all of it, they need to encourage another marketing specialist to help their customer out. That's coopetition too.