There are two monopolies: Ownership & positioning.
In our last post, we discussed legal monopoly as one of the five “maximum” strategies.
Legal monopolies, for our conversation today, are ownership monopolies.
What do we mean by ownership?
That you “own” an asset that legally keeps competitors out of the market. For example:
- A regulatory carve-out
- A government contract
- A patent
- A licencing agreement
- An exclusive asset (land, raw material, proprietary tooling, etc.)
- An exclusive contract with a supplier, customer, or employee
Although you may first think of a utility as a monopoly, these ownership monopolies are much more common that you’d initially believe.
The other type of monopoly is a positioning monopoly.
That is working to secure mindspace in you customer’s brain.
For example, there is nothing particularly outstanding about a Kleenex facial tissue. But it used positioning to become the leader in their market.
Ditto with the big tech players: Google (speed), Apple (design), Facebook (connection), Amazon (ease)
And a number of these positioning monopolies got that way due to visionary storytelling.
So, it is worth asking yourself, which option are you pursuing? Ownership? Positioning? Both?
Your turn.
Now go spark that revolution.