“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every battle.”
– Sun-Tzu, The Art of War
What this means to modern marketers is that competitive analysis is a critical factor when planning marketing strategy. Knowing your competitor’s history gives you insight to their future strategy. Essentially, behavior predicts behavior.
While it seems a simple conclusion, companies tend do the same thing over and over even when it is wrong. Change is hard and people will change only when they really have to change. This means that the behavior and the strategies of your competitors are largely predictable.
To predict the future, all you have to do is to look backwards.
Oh, and one more thing. Try to learn from your own mistakes and don’t repeat them if you can.
John Bradley Jackson
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