Ask nearly any manufacturer – be it scientific, technical, or otherwise – who their competitors are, and there is a rather good chance they will be able to whittle off a fairly comprehensive list.

They will know the manufacturers, the product names, probably the specifications. They may even go as far as stating which competitor introduced a new feature this year, reduced its pricing or started investigating another market.

In some businesses, this knowledge may pool to become a comprehensive internal encyclopaedia entry. Teams spend considerable time and effort comparing, contrasting, debating, and analysing performance advantages of one manufacturer over another. All in pursuit of gaining a perhaps elusive competitive edge.

Clearly, knowing who you are competing against in the market is rather important.

But what about the competitors that don’t appear on that list?

If you’re trying to make marketing more effective in your business, follow and subscribe.

The technique you overlooked

The definition of a competitor (in the eyes of a manufacturer) tends to be through products of similar technical capabilities or specifications. Easy enough. Compare specification sheets: check.

However, a customer who is looking to characterise a material, let’s say, has a variety of techniques available at their disposal. Each tackling the problem at hand in a slightly different way.

You may well have the best product in your field of expertise. That doesn’t mean that the customer has decided that your field of expertise is the right one for them. Yet.

Suddenly, you aren’t even competing against a competitor on your list at all.

The argument isn’t about which instrument has the best sensitivity, resolution or speed. Rather, which approach makes the most sense for what your customer is looking to achieve. For their application, resources and existing expertise.

And that opens up a completely separate conversation about positioning...

The competitor that hasn’t arrived. Yet.

Then there are the ones that fly under the radar. The underdogs. The startups or university spin-outs looking to prove a new technology. The research facilities working on an approach that pushes the boundaries of existing product categories.

Absence of commercial success today does not mean continued absence or lack of relevance tomorrow. Particularly when your field of focus and vision on a competitor chart doesn’t consider new players in the field. Favouring instead conventional analysis built on those that already have an established presence.

For all intents and purposes, there isn’t even a credible – or immediate – threat.

Not to say that there isn’t one. It may well be an opportunity to consider where the market is being taken. And perhaps more interestingly and importantly, which long-established assumptions are being challenged through novel approaches and technologies.

After all, established doesn’t necessarily mean permanent.

The competitor without a product

One of your biggest competitors may well be a solution that your customer developed themselves. One that they don’t even regard as a product. Highly unlikely to be on your competitor list.

It may not be the best solution, but it is likely to work for their needs. There is no marketing budget to promote it or sales team to sell it. No specification sheet by which to compare it with yours. It might not even have a name.

It could, however, be the biggest barrier and reason as to why your technically superior product is not purchased.

Scientists and engineers are a rather resourceful bunch. Sometimes we underestimate the ingenuity of our customers.

They may not be looking for, want, or feel that they need another solution.

As far as they are concerned, they already have one.

In all of this, the main challenge isn’t a nicely packaged “we don’t know our competitors well enough”. It is, perhaps, that we have become so accustomed to looking at the market for businesses that resemble our own that we overlook the plethora of ways customers can go about solving the same problem. Or the new approaches that could change how they are solved in the future.

Sometimes, the competitors worth paying attention to are the ones that don’t really look like competitors at all.

Macro photo of air bubbles in an ice cube. By Alex Gordon. Getty Images.

How marketing is understood is a theme I look to explore often.

When marketing in your organisation feels busy but not particularly effective, there is usually a deeper challenge in how marketing is being understood.

The Intuitive Marketing Coach is written for those trying to move beyond the activity, assumptions, and box-ticking, and towards something more deliberate, valued, and commercially effective. It looks to explore a more intuitive approach to business. One that is grounded in better judgement, clearer thinking, and a more considered view of what marketing is actually there to do.

So, if you’re trying to move beyond activity and towards something more logical, intuitive, and ultimately more effective, subscribe.