When teams sit around planning for the future, there’s often a rush to look inward — fix the product, improve the service, tighten operations. But growth isn’t born in isolation. It comes from understanding who else is in the customer’s line of sight and designing strategies that don’t just compete, but lead, over time. Building a competitive set marketing strategy isn’t a one-off exercise. It’s a constant practice of measuring yourself not just against the competition, but against the direction your customers are moving.
Too often, businesses build a strategy by picking the loudest competitors or the ones that look most like them. It’s tempting because it feels concrete. But this shortcut misses the deeper game: today’s competition might not be another product in your category — it could be an idea, a cultural movement, or a completely different solution that reframes what customers expect.
When Netflix started mailing DVDs, its competitors weren’t just Blockbuster and local rental shops. It was also late fees, inconvenience, and the feeling of frustration when a store was out of stock. Redefining what you’re competing against expands your view of what success needs to look like.
A strong competitive set is bigger and broader than the immediate product category. It includes adjacent solutions, cultural shifts, and the forces pulling customer attention away. Patagonia isn’t just competing with other outdoor brands; it’s competing with fast fashion, environmental apathy, and a growing distrust of corporate promises. Recognizing these broader forces helps Patagonia lead movements rather than just markets.
To do this well, go beyond standard market research. Watch how your customers spend their time, what problems they solve without you, what alternatives they cobble together. Pay attention to rising habits — like the shift from ownership to access (think Uber, Airbnb) — because these change what customers value.
Once you have a broader view of your competition, the next step is to pressure-test your positioning against it. This doesn’t mean listing features or benefits in a spreadsheet war. It means stress-testing your story against the values and emotions pulling at your customers.
Why would someone pick your brand in a future where convenience beats loyalty? How will you stay essential when customers expect personalization as a given, not a bonus? Companies that endure long-term growth cycles spend less time justifying why they’re better and more time making themselves impossible to replace.
Rediem’s platform quietly reinforces this thinking. By helping brands build community engagement strategies that tie loyalty to real-world actions and social impact, it shifts the relationship from transactional to emotional. In a future where customers demand alignment with their values, this becomes a crucial competitive edge.
There’s a thin line between watching the competition and becoming obsessed with them. Growth leaders watch competitors to gather intelligence, not to chase them. They know the goal isn't to mimic but to find the gaps that others overlook.
Building an intelligence muscle inside the company is vital. This could be something as formal as regular competitive audits or something scrappier, like assigning team members to "adopt" a competitor and track their moves weekly. It’s important, though, that this intelligence fuels bold action rather than cautious imitation.
One brand that does this particularly well is Oatly. While dairy competitors scrambled to position themselves as healthier or cheaper, Oatly doubled down on being bold, irreverent, and deeply aligned with environmental activism. They used competitive intelligence not to out-dairy the dairies, but to make them look outdated altogether.
It’s dangerous to anchor your marketing strategy to the current competitive set without anticipating what comes next. By the time you beat today’s leader, the market may have shifted.
Spotify didn’t just compete with MP3 players and iTunes downloads; it positioned itself for a world where people wouldn’t think of owning music files at all. Building for the next competitor means keeping your strategy fluid and ambitious enough that it doesn’t just respond to change — it creates it.
This is where long-term brand platforms — community, values, experiences — trump short-term tactical wins. Investing in things that are hard to copy, like customer connection and social purpose, creates barriers that features and discounts can't breach.
At the core of every strong competitive marketing strategy is a story. Not a tagline, but a real story about what your brand fights for and why customers should care. The best competitive strategies sound less like “we’re better because X” and more like “we exist because the world needs Y.”
Dollar Shave Club didn’t just sell cheaper razors; they sold an alternative to overpriced, overcomplicated grooming products pushed by out-of-touch conglomerates. They made Gillette look not just expensive, but irrelevant.
Owning your story means saying no — a lot. No to trends that don’t fit. No to customers you can’t serve authentically. No to chasing the competition into a feature arms race. It also means committing to your identity even when the competition shifts tactics or the market gets noisy.
A competitive set strategy geared for long-term growth needs patience. Quick wins are valuable, but sustainable growth comes from loyalty — the kind of loyalty that turns customers into advocates, not just repeat buyers.
This is another area where platforms like Rediem help brands stay anchored. By rewarding customers for meaningful actions (like sustainability initiatives or community participation) rather than just transactions, brands cultivate emotional loyalty that’s much harder to disrupt.
Companies that build their growth engine on authentic customer connection rather than conversion rates create a flywheel effect. Customers bring more customers. Loyalty compounds.
Competitive marketing strategies aren’t documents you file away in Q2. They are living, breathing systems that require continuous tuning. But the goal isn’t just to react faster — it’s to stay brave enough to make moves that feel uncomfortable but necessary.
Apple cannibalized its own iPod sales to launch the iPhone. Amazon consistently eats into its own retail margins to fuel its Prime ecosystem. True growth strategy isn’t about protecting today’s wins. It’s about building the courage and vision to win tomorrow.
And sometimes, the real competition isn’t another company at all. It’s your own attachment to what worked yesterday.
When teams sit around planning for the future, there’s often a rush to look inward — fix the product, improve the service, tighten operations. But growth isn’t born in isolation. It comes from understanding who else is in the customer’s line of sight and designing strategies that don’t just compete, but lead, over time. Building a competitive set marketing strategy isn’t a one-off exercise. It’s a constant practice of measuring yourself not just against the competition, but against the direction your customers are moving.
Too often, businesses build a strategy by picking the loudest competitors or the ones that look most like them. It’s tempting because it feels concrete. But this shortcut misses the deeper game: today’s competition might not be another product in your category — it could be an idea, a cultural movement, or a completely different solution that reframes what customers expect.
When Netflix started mailing DVDs, its competitors weren’t just Blockbuster and local rental shops. It was also late fees, inconvenience, and the feeling of frustration when a store was out of stock. Redefining what you’re competing against expands your view of what success needs to look like.
A strong competitive set is bigger and broader than the immediate product category. It includes adjacent solutions, cultural shifts, and the forces pulling customer attention away. Patagonia isn’t just competing with other outdoor brands; it’s competing with fast fashion, environmental apathy, and a growing distrust of corporate promises. Recognizing these broader forces helps Patagonia lead movements rather than just markets.
To do this well, go beyond standard market research. Watch how your customers spend their time, what problems they solve without you, what alternatives they cobble together. Pay attention to rising habits — like the shift from ownership to access (think Uber, Airbnb) — because these change what customers value.
Once you have a broader view of your competition, the next step is to pressure-test your positioning against it. This doesn’t mean listing features or benefits in a spreadsheet war. It means stress-testing your story against the values and emotions pulling at your customers.
Why would someone pick your brand in a future where convenience beats loyalty? How will you stay essential when customers expect personalization as a given, not a bonus? Companies that endure long-term growth cycles spend less time justifying why they’re better and more time making themselves impossible to replace.
Rediem’s platform quietly reinforces this thinking. By helping brands build community engagement strategies that tie loyalty to real-world actions and social impact, it shifts the relationship from transactional to emotional. In a future where customers demand alignment with their values, this becomes a crucial competitive edge.
There’s a thin line between watching the competition and becoming obsessed with them. Growth leaders watch competitors to gather intelligence, not to chase them. They know the goal isn't to mimic but to find the gaps that others overlook.
Building an intelligence muscle inside the company is vital. This could be something as formal as regular competitive audits or something scrappier, like assigning team members to "adopt" a competitor and track their moves weekly. It’s important, though, that this intelligence fuels bold action rather than cautious imitation.
One brand that does this particularly well is Oatly. While dairy competitors scrambled to position themselves as healthier or cheaper, Oatly doubled down on being bold, irreverent, and deeply aligned with environmental activism. They used competitive intelligence not to out-dairy the dairies, but to make them look outdated altogether.
It’s dangerous to anchor your marketing strategy to the current competitive set without anticipating what comes next. By the time you beat today’s leader, the market may have shifted.
Spotify didn’t just compete with MP3 players and iTunes downloads; it positioned itself for a world where people wouldn’t think of owning music files at all. Building for the next competitor means keeping your strategy fluid and ambitious enough that it doesn’t just respond to change — it creates it.
This is where long-term brand platforms — community, values, experiences — trump short-term tactical wins. Investing in things that are hard to copy, like customer connection and social purpose, creates barriers that features and discounts can't breach.
At the core of every strong competitive marketing strategy is a story. Not a tagline, but a real story about what your brand fights for and why customers should care. The best competitive strategies sound less like “we’re better because X” and more like “we exist because the world needs Y.”
Dollar Shave Club didn’t just sell cheaper razors; they sold an alternative to overpriced, overcomplicated grooming products pushed by out-of-touch conglomerates. They made Gillette look not just expensive, but irrelevant.
Owning your story means saying no — a lot. No to trends that don’t fit. No to customers you can’t serve authentically. No to chasing the competition into a feature arms race. It also means committing to your identity even when the competition shifts tactics or the market gets noisy.
A competitive set strategy geared for long-term growth needs patience. Quick wins are valuable, but sustainable growth comes from loyalty — the kind of loyalty that turns customers into advocates, not just repeat buyers.
This is another area where platforms like Rediem help brands stay anchored. By rewarding customers for meaningful actions (like sustainability initiatives or community participation) rather than just transactions, brands cultivate emotional loyalty that’s much harder to disrupt.
Companies that build their growth engine on authentic customer connection rather than conversion rates create a flywheel effect. Customers bring more customers. Loyalty compounds.
Competitive marketing strategies aren’t documents you file away in Q2. They are living, breathing systems that require continuous tuning. But the goal isn’t just to react faster — it’s to stay brave enough to make moves that feel uncomfortable but necessary.
Apple cannibalized its own iPod sales to launch the iPhone. Amazon consistently eats into its own retail margins to fuel its Prime ecosystem. True growth strategy isn’t about protecting today’s wins. It’s about building the courage and vision to win tomorrow.
And sometimes, the real competition isn’t another company at all. It’s your own attachment to what worked yesterday.
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