Are you feeling cornered to clone the enemy?

creative marketer

I had the pleasure of being cc-ed in an email exchange between a retail client and their design agency. I took on the role of sanity checker as the Founder/CEO of the retailer couldn’t quite grasp what he was being asked to do with his website.

Designers are creative types. Usually. In this case, we were dealing with a design doctor in his lab. What he wanted to do was recreate the enemy. To clone the enemy by listing 16 elements of a competitor’s website that his client didn’t.

That list included live chat, price guarantees, pictures of people (any people… usually smiling people). The email was accompanied by a screen shot and red marker pen commentary to guide his client with what was missing.

It was fortunate that the email sent alarm bells ringing. The rationale, from what I could gather, was ‘this worked for your competitor, so let’s do it for you. That way we can be as successful’. The element of fortune was my client’s alert thinking. The WTF moment. He wasn’t in business to clone his competitor. He was in business to outsmart his competitor.

This email exchange took place 6 months ago. It led to the design agency being sacked mid-redesign. It caused all sorts of issues with the delayed relaunch. But, the bigger picture mattered more. You’re not in business to clone the competition.

This wasn’t the only run in post-pitch between the agency and their retail client. It all started swimmingly well with assurances of strategic thinking, consultation and the other blah moments agencies like to include in their proposal.

But, the relationship disintegrated as the agency pushed their ideas on ‘what works best in our experience’ onto their client. They weren’t prepared to listen, they just wanted to push the project forward to completion and launch.

My role, alongside my retail client, dated back a few years. I was there on an ad-hoc basis to provide ideas and sanity check progress. I’d advised to look at creating a 2.0 version of their website to help remove the restrictions of yesteryear technology.

My client, liked to get things done yesterday. So, he ploughed on and spoke to 3 agencies and chose the one that talked the talk. I’m glad I had the opportunity to intervene.

I shrugged the episode off. Then, last week, another chat with an MD of a B2B service where they were being advised one thing and believed another. Their Adwords agency wanted to focus their ads on price rather than a clear differentiator that the business took great pride in.

“Is it right to focus on price?”

  • Are you the cheapest?
  • Is your value proposition focused on the fact you can offer cheaper?
  • Are people really looking for cheaper?

Tick those 3 boxes, and go for it. Tell the world of your economical ways.

If not? Why throw yourself into a price war? Because your competitors are doing it? Because that’s what an Adwords agency has seen success with through their other clients?

COME ON!!!!

I know that business leaders are being thrown do this path of ‘compete on price or die’ and it really scares me. That CEOs are saying goodbye to unique propositions because they’re not ‘what people are looking for’.

STICK TO YOUR GUNS

I’m stood up typing this right now. My hackles are up (metaphorically speaking).

Spend less time worrying about what your competitors are doing and focus your energies on making what’s valuable about your offering valuable to your customer.

Make your differentiators count. Make them clear, make them impactful. Make them resonate.

Make people question the difference between what you offer and what the price-fixated competition are offering.  Cheap is cheap for a reason.

Adding ‘cheap’ to your Ad Copy will increase click thru rate by 35%? Will it really? Does it matter? Does the fact you’re paying for an influx of price-focused prospects add to your bottom line?

You want more visitors to your website? Be a market maker. Fly your flag of difference and invest your budget and energy in connecting with people that believe in what you believe. B2B, retail, luxury or innovative products. The market sector or industry doesn’t matter.

Most differentiating variables of successful businesses do rely upon educating their audience to think a little differently. There’s the message. Education. Go and educate. Just please don’t listen to outside ‘advisors’ telling you to look like your competition or out-price our competition.

Succeed as yourselves.

Final note. Your competition aren’t the enemy. Your enemy are those telling you to follow a new direction because it will make their lives easier (employees or outside advisors)


Written By:
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Ian Rhodes

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First employee of an ecommerce startup back in 1998. I've been using building and growing ecommerce brands ever since (including my own). Get weekly growth lessons from my own work delivered to your inbox below.

One Comment on “Are you feeling cornered to clone the enemy?”

  1. Sanest, most sensible, straight-from-the-shoulder (& heart) market- related comment I’ve read in a long time …to any producer/service provider that reads this: taking this advice to heart and putting it into practice will be the single wisest, most effective decision you’ll take this year!

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