Reliance Takes Unfair Advantage of the Competition

Good marketing should give you an unfair advantage over the competition. You want your prospects and clients to believe that selecting you over the competition is a clear decision. "Duh, of course we will buy from them."

To gain that unfair advantage you might make enemies with your competition. Nothing wrong with that, is there?

Kudos to Reliance Home Comfort in fighting back against the competition.

Reliance Home Comfort is mainly in the business of renting water heaters. The also sell water heaters but renting is far more lucrative for them so that's what they encourage customers to do. They offer other services related to home heating and cooling.

In the past few years there has been an influx of competitors who have marketed themselves by knocking on doors. Notice that the new insurgents into the market attacked on a different front.

When you want to beat the market leader you must attack on a different level. Never go head-to-head with a stronger competitor. The competition was playing unfair.

Apparently, these insurgents were also unfair to their prospects by being deceptive in how they represented themselves. But, they were hurting Reliance Home Comfort because the giant reacted.

Reliance respond by creating a website and campaign to expose these unscrupulous door knockers. The cornerstone is the website www.BurnedAtTheDoor.com At this website you can find information about water heaters and questions to pose to door-to-door sales people. Reliance also posted notices of "Hot Spots" - communities where the competition was actively knocking on doors.

They even allow you to report current hot spots - tapping into the social media urge.

I'm curious about how the competition will fight back.


George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
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