i have a question for you business keepers.

if you were considering advertising somewhere, and found out that several of your direct competitors would be advertising there, would that encourage you or put you off?

to me, it suggests that it is a worthwhile place to advertise and i wouldn't want to be left out. i'm curious what you think.

As a consumer, I like it when lots of ads for different shops are in the same place. It gives me more options.

I'm just starting out in my business - nowhere near the advertising stage yet - but I've thought about places to advertise when the time comes.

Publications like (for instance) BUST appeal to me because they advertise a lot of similar small businesses. I think that if these business owners are satisfied with the exposure they're getting, it must be a good place. And I know it's the right target audience.

My perception about small handcrafting businesses is that they're not really "direct competition" with one another. Customers who buy from one are likely to buy from others as well, because they like handcrafted items and want to support the people who make them - they're not strictly "loyal" to one craftsperson.

At least I hope that, for our sake.

this is a little different, but we rent a space at this neat bohemian coffeehouse here in phx and one year we placed an ad in a popular local magazine for our art that we sell there. lo and behold, all these importers of mexican folk art went and rented spaces after they saw that their merch would fit in there too.

our stuff is all handmade locally so we couldn't afford to price it as cheap as the import stuff.

so ultimately our ad worked against us :-(

p.s. but if it is for a web site, i think its fine to have a little competition, people will check out all the sites!

If all of your competitors are advertising in the same place, then there's probably a good reason. If you discover someplace new to advertise that works for you, don't be surprised if you competitors start showing up.

This sort of reminds me a little of that book Convergence. did anyone read that? It speculated on how similar kinds of stores would spring up in the same area thus forming districts, e.g. garment district or the diamond district.

I think ultimately, it's supposed to work in your favor to be around others who are doing the same thing as you.

Hopefully, by going for it, you have something that is so unique that you don't mind if others are doing something in the same general arena as you! My brother runs restaurants, and they always look to open new ones in areas of town where there are already a number of established restaurants. Of course, not so great if they're *other* Mexican restaurants- but good in general to increase general traffic to that area of town. I know if I want to look for jewelry, I head downtown where there are a variety of unique little shops for persusing. :)