This is the ninth post of ten in the Predatory Inspiration's series by Ashton Bishop, Head of Strategy at Step Change Marketing.

The theme of this series is Predatory Marketing.

Predatory Marketing is defined as: strike at the weaknesses that arise out of your competitor's greatest strength. If that sounds familiar, then read it again. It's not 'strike at your competitor's weakness' and it's not 'talk about what's different'. This is more powerful.

See, when you strike at the weaknesses that arise out of your competitor's greatest strength you strike at the part of your competitor that they are least willing to change. It also changes the conversation from the same marketing words that every other company in your category uses, to a conversation that leverages your relative advantages.

These case studies demonstrate how Predatory Marketing has been applied.

Having brought back 'Get Some Pork On Your Fork' and working with the client over a number of years to make Australian Pork liked, it was now time to really force reappraisal with a health message.

Our segmentation covered four different usages and attitudes but the issue was the same; think of a protein and people would say Beef, Chicken, Lamb or Fish. Pork needed to knock one off to be remembered when needed.

Target

Beef! The red meat that's great for protein, iron and nutrients.

Greatest strength

A health choice packed full of goodness...right?

The weaknesses that arise from their strength

As well as being packed full of goodness, beef also has a high amount of fat.

Relative advantages

Despite misconceptions, fresh Australian pork has half the fat of red meat and is packed full of iron and 9 essential nutrients.

Predatory recap

Strike at the weakness that arises out of your competitor’s greatest strength. This achieves greatest impact and makes response more difficult.

In the final Predatory Inspiration’s post, Ashton looks at UbyKotex - a brand with 10% market share and a goal of 20% market share. Step Change Marketing created an ad that, during testing, was loved by 50% of women and hated by the other 50%. When you only need 20% to join you to double your share, the odds suddenly look favourable.