Yes, competitors are stakeholders

Stakeholders (also known as publics) are groups such as community residents, media representatives, stockholders, financial analysts and others who have an interest in or some influence on marketing performance. Obviously, customers, employees, managers, suppliers, government regulators and others can directly influence a business and its performance, meaning they're particularly important stakeholders.

So why consider competitors as stakeholders? Because every company can, directly or indirectly, affect the performance of its competitors. Often a marketing plan is designed to capture market share from a particular rival or reinforce customer loyalty in the face of competition from a new up-and-comer. Doesn't that make you a stakeholder in your competitors' performance (and your competitors stakeholders in your performance)?

Consider:

• Comet's recent descent into administration is largely due to intense competition from online electronics retailers. If those online competitors didn't exist, Comet would likely still be in business. The competitors intended to increase market share and turnover, and the unintended consequence was that Comet couldn't survive.
• Amazon's Kindle Fire directly competes with Apple's iPad. Amazon actually offers a head-to-head comparison to show how its product beats the iPad. Clearly, both Amazon and Apple are competing for the same customers, with implications for market share and for ongoing revenues from downloaded content.
• BSkyB has seen customer enrollments slow due to more competition from Virgin, BT, and others that are offering good deals to attract customers. Subscribers aren't one-time buyers; losing a customer means losing future revenue, just as gaining a customer means gaining future revenue. The stakes are high.

Show respect for your competitors and take their actions seriously, because what they do may very well change the course of your marketing. I'm not suggesting that competitors consult with each other or collude, because antitrust rules make certain kinds of competitive agreements and coordinated actions like price-fixing illegal.

I am saying that a healthy, competitive industry is in the interests of all participants, including customers. New choices emerge when many companies compete, whereas customers face fewer choices when firms like Comet go into administration. In fact, competition can spark real creativity and innovation when companies are motivated to overtake rivals or recapture market share from rivals.

UPDATES: (1) Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-A-Porter, believes competitors can and should be collaborators. Read more in my 2016 post here.

(2) For quotes from four companies that consider competitors to be stakeholders, look at this 2014 post from my US marketing blog.