A while back, some information came to my attention that just made me smile my evil marketer smile. It was something I had never really thought of before, but is a real no-brainer common sense move. I’m not going to name any names, because that’s not the point. Apparently this company has learned a way to make some bucks off of its competition. Let me explain how…

Company A owns a facility that receives goods from wholesalers and distributes to retail locations all around the US. This type of set up is pretty routine, as most retailers do this type of thing. However, instead of branding the facility with company A’s name, they use a generic company name for the facility… and then they run it like it’s own separate company. This means that the facility is free to accept orders from other locations that aren’t owned by company A, and may even be competing against their corporate masters. What? You may be thinking that it doesn’t sound very smart, but indeed it is.

If you’re doing business in a free economy then you will have competition. This comes in the form of direct competitors and indirect competitors. For example, if you make soda then you are competing against other soda companies, as well as the guys that produce juice, sports drinks, lemonade, tea, and other beverages. They all serve a similar purpose, and they are all competing for a similar market. Like my man Luke Skywalker says “you can profit by this or be destroyed.”

By providing the same service to your competition that you provide to your own company, you can capitalize on this competition and make some money off of them. If they don’t come to you, they will get it from somewhere so it’s not like you’re going to put them out of business by denying service. On top of all that, if the competition begins to rely heavily on your services, you can always pick a strategic time to cease services and kick them while they are down. Hahaha, there’s nothing like pulling the rug from under your competition just when they need you the most. Suckers!