Make hay at your competitors’ expense

This first quarter of 2012 has proved to be extraordinarily bewildering to the market and analysts alike. The news from a variety of retailers and suppliers has been very contradictory and trying to draw a consistent pattern as to what is exactly happening out there has proved impossible.

Results from a few retailers have been positive, as have results from certain suppliers. But – and it’s a big BUT – many retailers and suppliers have reported dispiriting early results. Flatlining performances are not unexpected in the first quarter, but why then have some companies done well enough to approach the remainder of the year with great confidence? And others with a degree of pessimism?

There is no simple answer, but just looking at worldwide trends and comparing them to our own gives us a clue. We all know that the Eurozone is in a shocking state of disarray because of lack of certainty, yet there are German manufacturers and indeed retailers performing well above average. There are companies in the UK similarly performing and although the UK is not part of the Eurozone, the EU remains their biggest trading partner.

There is some contagion here as Europe is a massive market for this country, but we are vastly better off than most EU countries which remain teetering on the brink. As a member of the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) we are in a much better position than we might have been.

The positive performers locally, both retailers and suppliers, are companies which have simply latched on to an eternal verity. When times are difficult – as they undoubtedly are at present – the true marketers understand the opportunities that present. The half empty glass identified by their timid competitors is viewed by them as a half full glass and with that positive frame of mind they set about converting that into a fuller glass.

Negative sentiments are infectious and if not staunched, spread to all parts of a company. Demoralisation sets in to further underline the negativity. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.

It needn’t be that way. Take the bull by the horns, grasp the elementary fact that the consumer has to be wooed more powerfully, more persuasively, more convincingly and they will respond to that positive message. You will then be part of the industry which will make hay at your competitors’ expense.