15 Ways Whoever Is Going to Disrupt Your Market Isn’t Like You

15 Ways Whoever Is Going to Disrupt Your Market Isn’t Like You

Published on 13 April 2012 by Mike Brown in Brainzooming
Whoever is going to disrupt your market isn’t like you, which makes them really hard to identify right now.
Number 1? They may not even be in business yet.
That’s a big difference, but it’s not the only one. Here are fourteen other ways whoever is going to disrupt your market isn’t like you, since they:
2. Don’t care about preserving anything about what’s made your brand successful.
3. Are happy to get a small share of the market at a premium price with a dramatically different offering.
4. Are happy to get a bigger share of your market (since it’s related to their market) at a really low price.
5. Don’t have any qualms about introducing a product/service and price point combination that’s really tough to compare to anything else your market has been doing.
6. Make decisions and move really quickly because the stakes are so much lower for them.
7. Can get away with using some, but not all, of the marketing mix to beat you at your own game.
8. Compete really effectively by looking at a couple of things (or maybe even only one thing) in a radically different way.
9. Don’t have to fund their new venture out of the dollars coming from your market.
10. Have figured out a different entry point into the customer model in your industry.
11. Don’t (or aren’t) going to look like you in very fundamental ways – size, structure, scope, etc.
12. Don’t have to have a complete offering since they’re appealing to a different market segment.
13. May have glaring weaknesses compared to traditional competitors (i.e., “you”) in areas traditional competitors think are really important but customers are willing to overlook.
14. Will not be focused on delivering the same benefit package you are.
15. Are fine with putting together parts and pieces tried and thrown out by others to compete in new ways.
And for everyone who points to Apple as the great disruptor, this story from Forbes points out that just as yesterday’s category owners can be disrupted, so can today’s seemingly invincible players.
Start looking for your disruptors. And start looking for who you are going to disrupt, because you’ll be just as hard to identify for them. - Mike Brown