The mid-to-late 90s were a golden era for wrestling fans. You had the two big wrestling companies, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). These two titans of the industry went back and forth with one another, trying to win fans and grow their business.
The WWF (now they’re World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE) had the program Monday Night Raw. WCW had its version with Monday Nitro. Fans would switch between two stations, trying to catch the best of the best action as it happened.
Photo by Martin Martz on Unsplash
Vince McMahon led the WWF. Ted Turner owned the WCW, but Eric Bischoff was the face you would see on television, especially after the Monday Night Wars heated up.
Prior to the Monday Night Wars, Vince McMahon had taken control of various regional wrestling federations. He consolidated them into one gigantic powerhouse. Their move created a major challenge for WCW. What could they do to compete against such a large stable of talent? How could they bring fans to their shows? Could they stay afloat?
Eric Bischoff had a plan. We heard about the plan in the recent Netflix docuseries Mr. McMahon, which chronicled the rise and fall of Vince McMahon. His strategy worked then. It can work now.
3 Ways To Differentiate Yourself From The Competition
Bischoff had to examine the landscape of professional wrestling. He knew WCW couldn’t be better than the WWF. WCW had to stand out. He had to find out what worked, what didn’t, and what hadn’t been tried. What he came up with was genius. He differentiated WCW from the WWF in 3 ways. These 3 differentiators can work for you as well.
1. Go live:
The WWF’s Monday Night Raw was a taped show. The event had taken place days before the show aired. Bischoff set out to differienate WCW by going live.
Monday Nitro was a live one-hour show every Monday night. More than that, Monday Nitro aired at the same time as Monday Night Raw.
By being live, Bischoff was able to have the element of surprise. No one knew the results (except for the bookers and wrestlers). They also had advanced knowledge of what would happen on Monday Raw. They went as far as to spoil major wrestling events by giving the results of a WWF match during their show.
There are a lot of ways you can go live these days. You can be on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, or WhatNot. Social media platforms allow us to go and be live with our audiences. It’s a great thing.
Don’t be a static company. Find a way to go live and interact with your audiences, even if you consider your industry one where it doesn’t matter. It does.
I know I’ve loved interacting with artists like Billy Tucci, leaders such as Dan Miller, and more. You can go live and differentiate yourself from the competition by being you!
2. Give your audience what they want:
The WWF had become a pretty comedic, cartoony entity. The personas of the wrestlers were laughable. Their target audience was kids.
WCW wanted to give people something different. They went serious. They appealed to teenagers and adults.
This change in attitude made WCW the go-to wrestling brand for adults.
You have to find out what your audience wants. You may think they’re good with what you’ve been giving them. What if they’re not?
You need to ask them what they’re looking for. Listen to them. Then give them what they desire.
3. Know where you want to go:
Eric Bischoff said he knew where he didn’t want to land the plane of WCW. He also knew where he wanted it to land. Here, not there.
Bischoff led the WCW to high success and great failure. However, his vision of where he wanted to take the company was front and center in his mind.
That alone differentiated WCW from the competition
Do you know where you want to go? Do you have a vision to get you there?
To differentiate yourself from the competition, you have to know where you want to go. You need to know how that differs from their mission, vision, and goals.
Clearly define where you want to take your organization. The clearer the picture, the more you’ll differentiate yourself.
