feat(web): Wave 4 — prose layouts + /policies on Tailwind typography
diff --git a/content/posts/2026/the-competitor-playbook-never-name-them-just-outbook-them/index.md b/content/posts/2026/the-competitor-playbook-never-name-them-just-outbook-them/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8918d60 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2026/the-competitor-playbook-never-name-them-just-outbook-them/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title: "The competitor playbook: never name them, just outbook them" +pubDate: 2026-04-05T20:05:09.000Z +updatedDate: 2026-04-05T20:05:09.000Z +draft: false +excerpt: "The instinct when a competitor attacks is to fire back publicly. Name them, expose them, rally your audience against them. That instinct is wrong every single time. Here is the … Read more" +categories: + - Uncategorized +featured: + src: https://cdn.slist.net/posts/the-competitor-playbook-never-name-them-just-outbook-them/cover.png + alt: "Chess board showing strategic competition in dark lighting" +legacy_wp_id: 16041 +--- +The instinct when a competitor attacks is to fire back publicly. Name them, expose them, rally your audience against them. That instinct is wrong every single time. Here is the playbook we developed over two years of competitor conflicts in one of the most politically hostile nightlife scenes in the country. + +## Rule one: never name them + +Every time you name a competitor on social media, you give them free advertising served directly to your audience. Your followers who never heard of the rival now know they exist. Some will check them out. Some will attend their events. You just marketed for your competition using your own platform. + +The strategy: do not mention them until you are three times their size. At that scale, acknowledging a competitor is magnanimous rather than threatened. Until then, they do not exist in your public communications. + +## Out-book them on their own nights + +The most effective competitive response is operational. If a rival runs Thursday nights, you have two options: avoid Thursdays entirely or counter-program with something they cannot match. We chose the latter. Hard techno and industrial on Thursdays, targeting exactly the audience that would otherwise attend the competitor’s night.Diff truncated (63 lines total). View full commit on GitHub →
