The Competition Trap

For an identity with a stable understanding of its emotional values, competition functions differently. Instead of becoming a pressure to imitate, it becomes an opportunity to understand what emotional values create aspiration in the first place.

Competition is aspirational. It’s what you see in others that you don’t have or want. Maybe they found an opportunity that you missed. You can jump on the same opportunity and do some good for yourself because you kept an eye on your competition- great, but also ask:

‘What emotional value does my approach lack that I aspire towards in this context?’

I have seen denim brands wanting to be Levi’s but skipping to see how Levi’s takes pride in their history while their own history remains buried under negligence. Attitudes make a brand.

Take how most people work with trends. From my experience working as a fashion designer, the way trends were used was a bit puzzling. They were treated as a foundational structure. Questions were - “What does Gen Z want?” “What are others selling in the market?” - all important questions but there was an absence of stuff like - “Who are we?” “What do we stand for?” “Why do we connect with people?” Focusing on competition without creating a stable sense of what an identity and its emotional values are is asking for further instability in the understanding and expression of what that identity is. The effect is visible in the outcomes.

All this sounds very basic but under the pressure of performance and quick results, contemplation time required for authentic creation gets skipped and studying competition- an already running machine- takes its place. Still fine. Stay aware of what values attract you to see something as a competition and ask yourself whether those values represent the identity you are in charge of authentically. If yes, take it, learn how those values are being expressed to find an adaptive ‘proven successful’ structure that can be used through the lens of the identity’s own emotional values. If not, drop it immediately before the story moves on to misrepresentation of identity via emotional values.