There is an underlying negative sentiment around audiologists who run private clinics. There is irritation, displeasure, and frustration among big hearing aid brands.

• Big-name brands push or incentivize you to sell hearing aids that are not in the best interest of your clients.
• Big-name brands compete with your clinic by setting up a shop in your neighbourhood.
• Big-name brands have bigger budgets to transform their stores, such as Apple’s stores and Genius Bar.
• Plus, they have the advertising budget, so you can’t stop seeing them everywhere and market in ways that diminish your profession and credibility.
• Big-name brands don’t lobby for issues that you think are important, like affordable and accessible insurance plans to cover hearing aid costs for your clients. 
• Big-name brands want to hold a market share of the industry and keep little businesses (in comparison) in their place. 

So no wonder you’re pissed off.

In every industry, groups of big-name brands take the majority of the market share.

In every industry, small businesses experience the same sentiment.

Go to the grocery store, and on the middle shelf are eight different brands of peanut butter. Every brand pays the retail store to access a good spot on the shelf. Yet the retail organization these brands paid to also has its own peanut butter brand with the lowest price sitting right next to it. 

Amazon does the same thing. It has all the data on the best-selling items and then manufacturers the same product at a lower cost to sell with other similar products in the online store. 

This is a classic business strategy. It shouldn’t upset you or something you believe you can’t overcome. There is an answer to overcome this.

You need to concentrate on areas these companies could not or would not do.

At the same time, there are business activities you can do, such as being innovative by using technologies to improve your work, choosing an underserved segment of the market, or taking advantage of risks that do not appear to give massive returns on your investment.

Large companies can’t do any of these things because it costs them too much money for little return, and they operate for stability. 

There is one thing you can do to overtake your big brands.

Bring personality to your company.

Instead of spending all your money and time on SEO or adWord trying to compete for the top spot when there could only be one winner, why not do something other large companies wouldn’t do?

You can contribute your personality and unique point of view (essentially, a strong opinion about something).

Express your human personality throughout your marketing content. No AI will be able to recreate it, and no competitor will be able to mimic it.

For large companies, getting 10,000 employees to think and behave alike takes a lot of work to ensure consistency in messaging. This is why their messaging always appears generic or safe.

Your marketing will be more genuine than if a large company tries it today.

Don’t worry about having an opinion and personality that please everyone. At this stage of your business, you will not or could not attract everyone.

Your goal is to be relevant to people who want to see and hear from you.