Proactive vs. Reactive

Sometimes going public with promotional efforts can be stressful. Companies engage in promotional and marketing efforts at every level to increase business, raise awareness, and present a corporate image- all very sound and logical strategies. But what happens when your competition reacts to your well-planned efforts?

Some believe that it's critical to keep your eye on the end goal and move swiftly down the path you've charted. Competitors may react, but you have little or no control over their efforts. Granted, it's something to be wary of, and pay attention to, but it shouldn't alter your direction.

The promotional planning effort is the easy part. The difficult part is often pulling the trigger to launch the strategy. That is when managers really step off the ledge and into the public eye, and onto the radar of their competitors. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

The other alternative, of course, is to do nothing. But by doing that, the initial goal of increasing business, raising awareness, or presenting a corporate image becomes far more difficult to realize.