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Discover your competitive advarr:?f:

\f,/hat made pirates so good at V Y what they did? They certainly didn't spend millions of gold doubloons on marketing, but they did have stealth and adaptability so they could plan ahead and position themselves close to another ship before it realized what was happening.

The pirates would get upwind of their prey, appearing when and where they were least expected, then fire a cannon ball across the bow of the ship. The other ship had no choice but to surrender. Pirates recognized their superiorities and only went after ships they perceived had a weakness they could exploit. Pirates knew when they had the competitive advantage.

Thinking like a pirate can help you in the business world. To begin, vou need to position your company in the minds of customers by learning what customers really want and determining how you can meet those needs in your particular market. Realize that you don't have to be the biggest and baddest ship on the sea. You can develop a strategy based on foregrounding and building the strengths you already possess. Follow these steps to create a strategy that will give lorr the competitive advantage.

| . St.rdy the waters you're sailing

Bring your management team together to assume the roles of current and potential customers. As a group, determine how your customers perceive and value the fbllowine factors in their buying decisions about your product or service. Assign a percentage to each of these Marketing Mix Factors to equal 1007o.

Price What percentage of a customer's buying decision is based on the product's price? For example, if you produce computer software for the mass market. price is an important consideration-as much as 7oo/c or more of the buying decisron.

General consumers want to pay as little as possible fbr their soft"vare, so they place a high importance on price. while large corporate and government consumers in a different, more specialized market don't care much about price: other fact()rs are more impor-

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