Dedicated entrepreneurs are always paying close attention to their competition. Many useful pointers can be gleaned from watching a successful business in action. If you don’t have a means to keep tabs on the activities of your competition, select a giant of some specific industry and try to learn from their approach. For the sake of argument, let’s use Starbucks as an example.

This company started out as a local sensation in the Pacific Northwest and eventually burgeoned into the best known coffee purveyor in the world. This empire wasn’t built overnight, nor did it involve the implementation of magical ingredients. Like most companies, Starbucks excelled in part because of thoughtful, effective marketing strategies. The company settled upon a brand identity and an image and then reinforced that message to a target demographic.