Mok's Guide to Sustainable Competitve Advantage

The world we live in is not fair. Take a look around you. There are almost an equal number of female to male ratio in Singapore. But why do we see some guys with more girls (market share) while others don’t even get a single one? This question has made me increasingly perplexed and thus I thought I would write a strategy guide to help all those single guys out there (myself not excluded).

I shall extrapolate Philip Kotler’s article on Sustainable Competitive Advantage to come up Philip Mokler’s Strategy to get the girl that you like- A tribute to Cornflake’s Two and Shanice’s suggestion to write my own professional article. *That is why a marketing degree is so useful- You can use it in any situation*

Today, understanding girls in general is not enough. Males are losing their power over females as time goes by because as we know, females are becoming increasingly independent and thus have greater choice and bargaining power over their male counterparts. Under the relationship concept, males gain competitive advantage by designing offers that satisfy their female counterparts needs better than their competitor’s offers. Thus the strategy we adopt to chase the girl must consider not only the needs of them, but the strategies of our competitors.

To plan effective competitive relationship strategies, we need to find out all we can about our competitors. In this way we can constantly compare what we have against those of our competitors. What do we need to know?

1. Who are our competitors
2. What are their objectives?
3. What are their strategies?
4. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
5. What are their reaction patterns?

Who are our competitors?

I can’t stress the importance of identifying our main competitors. If you do like a girl (and secretly), always keep an eye on the movements of your competitor, but don’t give away your position that you are watching them by hiding behind something like a bush. As Sun Tze once said:

Know Your Enemy: The Intelligence Strategy. Know your opponent's moves and do not let your motives be known. Understand their way of thinking.

The key to success are to

1. Gather knowledge of your opponent
2. Learn to read your opponent
3. to hide your observations (thus the bush). The reason is obvious. If your rival doesn’t know about your presence, he is unable to react and predict the moves that you make. The invisible enemy is the most threatening.

Michael Porter suggests that five major forces drive industry competition. Just as there is a model for industry competition, Mokler has come up with the five major forces that drive relationship competition.

New Entrants: You need increase the barriers to entry of the life of the girl you like by reducing their access to distribution channels (meeting new guys) by spreading gossip like “Hey that girl is a whore/ slut bag” or “she has aids” or something like that. That will reduce the threat of new entrants into the girl’s life. Of course, make sure no one can identify the source of those rumors or else your plan will backfire.

Substitutes: Threat of substitutes for you can be anything from the guy sitting next to you in the lecture to other activities the girl has interest to. Always watch the guy sitting next to you with great suspicion. They may smile at you, but may be plotting something behind your back.

The girl: The bargaining power the girl has over you can be things like how hot she is. The hotter she is, and if she knows that you are interested in her, she has greater power over you. Always do not let your intentions be known to her and play the bait and hook game.

Existing Guys in the girl’s life: The more guys there is in the existing girl’s life, the more power they have over you.

The implication is that you should try to influence the balance of forces through strategic moves to strengthen your position. Always anticipate shifts in the factors underlying the forces and respond to them, thus exploiting change.

2. Determining Competitor’s Objective.

It will be most prudent to see all competitors’ objective as trying to get the girl. Some rivals pose less threat to you as they may just be “testing water” to see if the girl is suitable and some maybe going full fledge for the girl. By knowing your competitor’s objective you can design a strategy against them accordingly.

3. Identifying Competitor’s Strategies

The best way to understand a competitor’s strategy, you should engage in the gathering of competitive intelligence by say, getting a spy within the girl’s circle to tell of the going on of her life. But be wary of the spy you select. Never get a sotong 007 to do the spying for you. I learnt this the hard way when my 007 (Kathleen) gave me away (See previous post).

4. Accessing Competitor’s Strength and Weakness

If the girl is currently attached, that doesn’t mean you don’t’ stand a chance. Always look for tiny fractures in the girl’s relationship such as quarrels. When you know what’s going on, you can step in and play the good guy and do things that make her question her existing relationship.

Sun Tze says this:

Be in control. Be assertive. Control your opponent's mind. Move them into your territory.

The Art Of Ultimate Control. Make the first move, fight on your territory where you are comfortable, look for your opponent's weakness and draw them into it, deceive your opponent to make them think they are in control.

5. Estimating Competitor’s Reaction

Sometimes if your rival knows the existence of you, and that you are trying to get the girl he likes, you can use that to your advantage.

According to Sun Tze’s Strategy, maneuver them into weakness: The Ripening For the Sickle Strategy. Continue calculated moves in your position. This will enable you to control the situation and bewilder and exhaust your opponent.

In ancient times, the Chinese generals used to provoke their enemies into making a reckless move by insulting their mother and killing off messengers that were sent to them (think of the movie 300). If the girl is attached, try to get a good relationship with her and than provoke her boyfriend to hit you. Make yourself look like the victim and exaggerate your injuries. Girls have a soft spot for that and hate violence. Play your cards wisely.

6. Selecting competitors to attack or avoid

You need to select your competitors you wish to attack wisely. If your competitor is like the Son of Wing Tai Asia, and compared to him, you are like an ant among giants, I suggest you step back and suck your thumb.

Sun Tze’s advise:

Pick Your Battles wisely: The Perfect Economy Strategy. Fight economically, conserving all your assets. Know your strengths and play to them. War consists of weakening the other side—militarily, financially and morally.

Competitive Strategies

Just as Michael porter has suggested three Generic competitive positioning strategies that companies can follow- overall cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategies, so can we also use these strategies in our day to day relationship to get the girl that we like.

Michael’s Porter’s Strategies:

Similarly, a guy can use Mokler's 3 generic strategy like this:

The idea behind these generic models is to know how you can gain a sustainable competitive advantage over your rivals and get the girl. For example, if you have no money, don’t pretend that you do and take her out to expensive restaurants, buy her lots of gifts and things like that. Because the day your credit card runs out and you face a cash flow crisis, your girl will leave you. That simply is not sustainable. So play your cards right, get real and show yourself for who you really are.

If you have no looks, no money and no intelligence, than all I have to say is sorry, I cannot help you. But if you are good at any of that, you will have a competitive advantage you can use. All the best!

*Note* I take no responsibility for any of the strategies undertaken. Heheh