Almabrands Talk at EtMday 2024 “How to Make the Competition Irrelevant”

Almabrands Talk at EtMday 2024 “How to Make the Competition Irrelevant”

Almabrands is committed to Chile’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. That’s why, from Thursday, November 21 to Saturday, November 23, we took part in EtMday 2024, the largest networking event in Latin America, where innovative ideas, industry leaders and great business opportunities come together.

 

One of the event’s best-attended activities—with more than 150 people—was the talk-workshop led by our founding partner, Carolina Altschwager, whose provocative title, “How to Make the Competition Irrelevant,” energized the audience.

 

Through a hands-on, participatory approach, Carolina Altschwager shared key tools and insights to help companies differentiate themselves and stay relevant. Here are some highlights:

 

“After all our years of work, I believe you have to look at the competition with great humility, but also with a learning mindset—and this is where the opportunity lies for entrepreneurs. Looking at the competition is a creative act that lets us discover what we can do better and differently.”

 

«The challenge isn’t to compete; it’s to be relevant in a world where everything competes for our customers’ attention.”

 

Competitive landscape

 

Defining a company’s strategy requires looking at three fundamental elements, she said: identifying the competition, the customer and the project itself.

 

Competition shouldn’t be understood narrowly, but as a broad spectrum that includes indirect players. For example, TV channels don’t just compete with each other, but also with streaming platforms, social media and even parks or shopping malls, which capture people’s time and attention. Understanding this landscape reveals new opportunities to stand out.

 

A common mistake is failing to correctly identify the competition. Examples like Blockbuster show how a narrow focus on a specific format (video rental) proved damaging against innovative players like Netflix, which understood its business as “access to entertainment content.” Similarly, companies like COPEC expanded their offering by analyzing their customers’ mobility and food needs, creating a more relevant proposition.

 

“What Pronto COPEC did was understand how people eat, how they meet their mobility needs, and even their basic needs in the city or while traveling across Chile. And that’s what led to the offering they have today.”

 

Beyond analyzing the competition, it’s vital to know the customer or consumer in depth. This means identifying their needs, desires and the ways they relate to the category in which the company operates.

 

Companies must also reflect on their own project, highlighting what makes them unique and leveraging their “capital.” This approach makes it possible to build a sustainable competitive advantage and adapt to the opportunities the market offers.

 

But keep in mind that the competitive landscape is constantly changing. This means staying alert to how categories evolve, as seen with potato chips, where variety and sophistication have grown exponentially.

 

Competing on preference or on relevance

 

Defining a clear competitive strategy is crucial. Here, Carolina Altschwager draws on David Aaker, noting that there are two main ways to compete (put simply): “on preference” or “on relevance.” Although both are valid and can coexist, they respond to different goals and methods that shape consumer perception and brand positioning in different ways.

 

A preference strategy focuses on showing that a brand, product or service is better than the competition in specific respects. It seeks superiority on category attributes such as speed, price, service quality, or even intangible values like happiness, as Coca-Cola does. The key is to build differentiation that is sustained over time, which requires consistency and innovation to maintain leadership on the chosen attributes. Classic examples include Volvo, which stands out for safety.

 

A relevance strategy, on the other hand, doesn’t aim to be the “best” within an existing category, but to create a new space in the consumer’s mind. This approach focuses on rewriting the rules of the game, introducing categories that transform market needs. One example is energy drinks, which shifted the perception from “quenching thirst” to “getting energy.” Here, innovation isn’t just incremental; it must be transformative to establish a unique consumption territory that makes existing competition irrelevant.

 

Both strategies have their merits and challenges. While competing on preference requires maintaining differentiation against established rivals, competing on relevance calls for a creative, bold vision to identify and develop new categories. The key question for any business is which of these strategies best fits its capabilities and goals, and how it can implement it to stand out in a crowded market.

 

Our speaker and Almabrands founding partner closed by emphasizing that creativity and openness are essential to turning challenges into opportunities and making a meaningful difference in the market.