When the tech industry was nascent, some clever startups started their journeys and in a short span of time, accumulated million. We are talking about the Tech Strategies ‘four horsemen of the tech’: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon.
Being wary of their place one should never underestimate their own ideas. There is still a hope of carving out a space for yourself in the market.
The following 5 strategies should help you in many ways in competing with tech giants.
1) They have advantages of their own
The likes of Amazon and Apple can:
- Defeat any competition when it comes to marketing
- Use their large resources in achieving anything
- Buy any technology
- Use their customer loyalty to their advantage
- Use tactics to beat others on pricing
While a startup may not enjoy these benefits, it still can:
- Be more customer-oriented because of their small size
- Not be affected by bureaucracy as much as giants
- Develop unflinching relationships with their customers
- Stay on the edge of the market with no problem
- Adjust to the drastic changes brought up in the market
You can grow in many ways considering these advantages over the bigger companies.
2. Create your own signature
In Blue Ocean Strategy, author Renee Mauborgne gives clear-cut advice of not diving into the “blood-red section of water” where firms are “ripping each other apart”. Instead, what a new startup should do is sidestep that war, should “look for opportunities” and “create your own clear space in the market.”
The simple meaning of this is that if you are a new startup and suddenly you find a giant stepping in your niche and finding comfort, then look for something different – a sub-niche. It wouldn’t do massive damage for your startup to steer clear of your main niche just a little. For example, according to Bob Adam who speaks to the Business Town, “a local ski shop faced with competition from a national chain might decide to focus its primary effort on racing skis while retaining some selection for all levels of skiers.”
The efforts of trying hard to stay in a single niche, despite the fact that the giant is ripping the local market off in that sector, are going to go in vain.
Finding a small space to grasp your breath in the market and your niche is called “pivoting”. This should help you understand the ‘pivoting’ point of the benefits.
3) Outpace them with your unparalleled customer services
What is it in for you?
1- The shopkeeper’s advantage.
The opportunity to increase your customer services that are unparalleled even by the giant. As Henry Elkus says in the Wall Street Journal:
A well-tuned small business can easily outperform its larger counterparts in customer service.
2- Building customer trust.
Josiah Humphrey states this well:
…Moreover, effective customer service is crucial to acquiring and retaining customers over the long haul.
Furthermore, at Appster, the recommendations for founders in order to improve their customer service can be summarized as:
- Respond quickly;
- Act politely;
- Reward customers for their loyalty;
- Heed feedbacks;
- Provide free info.
Apart from these recommendations, you can use one of the most powerful tools for retaining valuable customers: Rewards. This should be well incorporated into your frequent-buyer program which can focus on encouraging brand loyalties. As we have learned from the psychology of the customers when it comes to brands, brand loyalty can help you establish yourself as an undying player.
There is a good case for increasing these loyalties. That can be done by offering anything from a valuable discount to gifts or any long-term membership to frequent customers.
As the giant focuses on creating customer bases, you can focus on entrenching yourself in the hearts of your present customers.
4) Grow your backend facilities
Inessential owner Brent Simmons states the indispensable need for every starter to have cloud-based services that are maintained well and can outperform the tech giants. It is better for a customer to explore more and see increased services than just a mobile app or a product.
Backend services can be any service including messaging, cloud storage service, etc. Giving equal attention to such services as is given to the main service can be ample in bringing customers literally in flocks.
5) Compete with them by decreasing your price
One way to beat the giants at their own game is to offer prices that are lower than the ones offered by any thriving business that has attacked your market space. This doesn’t mean that you’d have to reduce the prices to the point where companies sacrifice their profits. Of course, there should be room for your own profit.
Also, in reducing the prices, you should never pay any attention to the idea that the giant you are competing with sells goods at a price lesser than your purchase price. Even if that is true, your main focus should be on reducing prices even one-quarter as compared to the prices of the flourished businesses.
According to Business Town, we can learn this strategy well from Building #19 in Boston. The invading giants of the likes of Walmart could not take over its place of it despite offering prices that are very low. The reason for this was the strategy that we have defined in this section. They offered prices lower than the invaders. What we see now is that Building #19 is still thriving and has a large customer base.
6) Co-Work with the giants
If your startup has something to offer to a tech giant and in return receives something, it can be a massive turnout for your company.
Sharon Hadary has emphasized this in his post on WSJ where he stresses the importance of “…identifying what your company can bring to the relationship that increases the success of both entities.”
You might believe that, since you are a beginner, you wouldn’t have anything to offer the giants. This is misleading. Everyone in this world can offer something to someone. Elaborating on the quote from Hadary, looking scrupulously into your strengths can help you surface. For example, if you are a local company, and you have a deeper relationship with the local customers, or, contractors, you can use that to help the newly launched national or international company in establishing itself. In doing so, you can also reap the fruits of working for your own betterment by choosing the legal terms carefully with the giant.
7) Study their moves
As a startup, anything that can provide you with valuable insights into the growth strategies could be of importance to you. In this respect, choosing to work alongside your competitor can enable you to get a peek into its book of strategies. By studying them profoundly, you can have answers for questions like what are the key points they are focusing on for growth? What can you learn from it? And considering your own business model, how can you benefit from their business model?
Competing with a giant can be drastic as well as lucrative. Lucrative only when there is very good PR with your clientele or customers. Pressfarm is the only destination that can provide you with quality connections with journalists to pitch for in order to cover your press release and build a compelling story.
With a professional press release, come compelling guest posts and an eye-catching media kit from Pressfarm, you can stand out in your industry. In addition to helping you create this content, Pressfarm can also help you to put it in front of the right eyes. By submitting your content to the right media outlets and startup directories, Pressfarm can boost your online visibility. This distribution strategy is designed to help you feature in relevant search results across different search engines.
Finally, as a client, you also get custom media lists and you can use a media database of 1 million+ journalists, bloggers, and influencers. With these contact details, you can connect with the best media professionals in your niche.
One of Pressfarm’s affordable PR packages could be just what you need to generate publicity for your brand.