Make Strategy Decisions

Competition and Exchange

While you are thinking about your product and price strategy, you need to think about competition and the exchange you will offer.

Consider the competition. You should know by now (from secondary data and formative research) what your audience currently does instead of the desired behavior. As you think about the product and price strategies, think about how you can make the desired behavior more appealing than what the audience is already doing. How can you change what you're offering, this package of behavior and benefits, so that it is preferable to competing behaviors?

You should also identify the exchange. People usually act on the premise of self-interest and then make choices about behaviors that fulfill their self-interest. As a marketer, you need to create an exchange that will satisfy the audience's self-interest, while also satisfying your own interests (getting them to do the desired behavior). For the audience to change their behavior, your offer should have a better cost/benefit ratio than the competition. This exchange is created by your determination of the product and price, as well as how well you "sell" the product (or behavior) to the audience.