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50 Part I: Getting Started in Marketing

Playing the Competitive Field

Competition is the driving force in nature and it’s also the core of the free
enterprise system as we’re lucky to know it. Competition occurs whenever
winning attention is necessary for selection and survival. In nature, the pea-
cock’s tail, the rose’s scent, and the apple’s sweetness are the marketing
tools, while in business the battle is fought and won with marketing programs
designed to attract customers to one business over another.

Thanks to the forces of competition, the free enterprise system is undergoing
constant improvement. Here are a few examples:

ߜ Competition prompts product upgrades and innovations.

ߜ Competition leads to higher quality and lower prices.

ߜ Competition enhances selection.

ߜ Competition inspires business efficiencies.

Competition is the contest between businesses for customers and sales. The
opposite of competition is a monopoly, where a single company has complete
control of an industry or service offering.

The terminology of competition

Your sales figures provide your first indication of how you’re doing in your
competitive arena. If they are strong and growing, your business is on the
right track. If they’re sliding downhill, you have your work cut out for you.
Either way, you can take control of your sales — and therefore of your busi-
ness success — by using the information in this chapter to gauge and grow
your “share” of business, as defined by your market share, share of customer,
and share of opportunity.

Market share

Market share is your slice of the market pie — or your portion of all the sales
of products like yours that are taking place in your market area. For example,
say that you manage a movie theatre in a market with a dozen other movie
theatres within a reasonable driving distance. Your market share would be
the percentage that your theatre sells of all the movie tickets sold by all 13
movie theatres. See the “Calculating Your Market Share” section later in this
chapter for tips on how to determine and grow your market share.