Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Ride the Wave of Change - Part 2

Part 2: Capitalize On Your "Unfair"Competitive Advantages

The stunning sales velocity that Apple has achieved with the iPad (1 Million iPads in just 28 days) is truly inspiring. As a luxury real estate marketing professional, when you study and stay focused on these kinds of results you will attract more of what you want for yourself.

In part one of this series we looked at how Apple spotted two trends and rode these waves to propel sales of the iPad. Those trends are the popularity of netbooks and e-books. Here in Part 2, we look at a question that Steve Jobs must have asked himself to stage such a stupendous encore to the iPhone: What else can Apple do better than anyone else in the world? If market leadership is your quest, this is a question that you need to ask yourself as well; just rephrase the question to, “What can I (or my company) do better than anyone else in my marketplace? What are your “unfair” competitive advantages?

Apparently, Jobs had been asking himself these questions about the tablet computer for some time. He must have determined that Apple’s “unfair” competitive advantages included:

The feedback received by consumers (of all ages) who rave about the simplicity of user interface experience with other Apple products including the touch screen of the iPhone and iPod Touch
The world’s largest selection of Apps (applications) from other Apple products
The iTunes Store with established accounts of millions of customers already in place, which would make it easy for iPad owners to buy more products and services from Apple.

Prior to the launch iPad, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble had an unfair competitive advantage in the e-book space (as categories or niches are referred to in marketing terms) over other e-book readers. That is their vast databases of customers with established customer accounts, plus established relationships with publishers. But, Apple, who was an unlikely competitor, ALSO has established iTunes accounts with a significant number of Amazon and Barnes and Noble customers. And, for about $150 more someone who is considering buying a Kindle or Nook can get a very powerful computer. Needless to say the other e-book readers’ chances of achieving market leadership are “slim-to-none”.

The real shocker that turned the tables and made the iPad a game changer was the low price. Apple’s purchase of the chip maker that runs the iPad also became an “unfair” competitive advantage.

Capitalize on what you can do better than anyone else in your luxury real estate marketplace. Leverage your “unfair” competitive advantage!