The Art of Competition
You can always tell an amateur player from a true competitor. Wannabe’s, or “me-too’s” as we call them in the software industry, will copy ideas directly, from the logo to the messaging to the features of a product, but seem to lack the original thought. They don’t seem to have much passion behind their product or company, they usually just want to “get in the space” and “get a cut of (fill-in-the-blank) industry’s money.” Amateur players merely annoy, more than scare their smarter competitors, because they can see through their tactics and know they will fall apart under scrutiny.
A true competitor makes their competition very nervous. They offer the same features or purpose as another product or service does out of necessity, but they expand greatly on the thought. They make it BETTER, have a product that does MORE, deliver a greater BENEFIT to customers. They see a concept and run with the idea, and fill gaps that everybody else seemed to miss.
A true competitor doesn’t look at what his competition is doing in order to copy it… he looks at what they aren’t doing. Then he adds greater intelligence, depth and sophistication in delivery, to the original idea. When I study a competitor’s product, it’s so I can do things differently or better… not so I can copy them verbatim.
(Aside: There is a distinction in keeping a standard model intact for a user experience, which is something I have done in Twitterface to make it work like Twitter as much as possible vs. copying another product to steal their idea - ie., if someone made another Twitter product that worked just like it, with only those features.)
Harvard Business Publishing has a post on the DNA of a Great Entrepreneur… Secret: Smarts, Guts, and Luck. When I read the article, it reminded me of this competitive aspect that is also needed, so I wanted to share this with you before I forgot it. Tjan says: “The best self-made entrepreneurs possess outstanding street smarts, intuition, emotional and conceptual intelligence as much as—and often more so than—book smarts, analytics, and managerial intelligence.”
This type of intuitive intelligence is needed to make good decisions when it comes to finding your spot amongst competitors. Specifically striving to be different is a competitive art. Specifically looking better physically (your branding, messaging, appearance) is a competitive advantage. Look for:
- missing features in other products
- bad user experiences that you can improve upon
- unmet needs in your industry
- ridiculously over-priced services that you can fairly undercut
- new services you can add that others don’t do for clients
- a better guarantee of satisfaction
- ways to increase customer support channels
- ways to make things more convenient for buyers
Eliminate direct copies of marketing messages, features, identities and services, and make it a FTW (for the win!) TUESDAY! :-)
