Competition:an inspirational marketing tool

Competition is the engine behind innovation and dynamics in the marketplace. Sectors like public transport,water,energy and telecom are liberalized and deregulated by nationalandinternationalgovernmentsinordertoincreasecompetitionamongcompanies. The ultimate goals are to create transparent markets with ample opportunities for new firms to enter, fair prices and a varied, innovative range of consumer products and services. Competition may indeed stimulate firms to run faster, and to create better products and services by using effectivemarketing practices.This can,for example,readily be observed in the high technology sector. In that sense, competition can be an inspirational and stimulating marketing tool. At the same time, competition can have destructive effectsaswell,whenfirms’primarygoalsbecometobeat orharmtheircompetitors.Thiswas, for example, recently the case in a taxi war in Amsterdam. Constructive and destructive behaviours are partly determined by both the characteristics and rules of the market, the manager and his company. Research is required to fully understand the effects of the various factors on competitive behaviour and subsequently on the performance of the market. This is essential, both for theory development, and for governments, companies and consumers as well.