What are you doing to use surprise and confusing competitive strategy and implementation in your market?
Not much, you say?
If you think the only viable end result of surprising competitive strategy is winning the sales competition in which you are engaged, you could be missing incredible strategic opportunities.
Surprising Competitive Strategy and Confusing Your Competitor
On Monday Night Football this week, the New England Patriots were playing our hometown Kansas City Chiefs. With a fourth down and short yardage situation, the Patriots sent the punt kicking team out on the field. Then, as the players neared the line of scrimmage and with the wave of a few hands, nearly the entire punting unit ran off the field as the "fourth down and go for it" players stormed onto the field.
At that point, facing a very surprising competitive strategy, there were several options for the Kansas City Chiefs:
- Remain in utter confusion
- Try to defend against the Patriots competitive strategy even though mismatched and misaligned
- Take a time out to be able to regroup
The Kansas City Chiefs, as you can see in this brief video of the play, took a time out to be able to regroup.
While the New England Patriots went on to lose the game in a big way, this surprise competitive strategy could have created the confusion to let the Patriots change momentum in the game. As the alternative played out, it forced the Kansas City Chiefs to expend a precious resource (a time out) in the interests of defending the play more successfully.
So while the Patriots didn't win the game, they did win this exchange by forcing the Chiefs to lose a time out.
Think about how this might apply to your company's own competitive strategy.
Are there typical market situations where a surprise strategic move (perhaps a one-off service package, a highly-targeted promotional offer, a strategic price over-reach, etc.) could confuse a competitor and force them to either remain confused and lose business or expand precious resources addressing a unique move you have no intention replicating elsewhere in the market?
Remember, you don't have to win the game to win the moment, so how might your company play a confusion strategy to win the NEXT play in a damaging way for your competitor? – Mike Brown
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The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your strategy and implementation efforts.
