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Hard won marketing lesson: being different is way better than being better. Scott McNealy polarized this further -- he would say, I want half the potential cus
by pmarca 13y ago
Hard won marketing lesson: being different is way better than being better.
Scott McNealy polarized this further -- he would say, I want half the potential customers to hate my products but half to love them.
- philsnow 13y agoAhhh, that reminds me of the wonderful success that was OS/2. Makes perfect sense now, thanks.
- pmarca 13y agoYep. Scott's nightmare was that everyone would think his products were fine.
- elamadej 13y agoYou can be better only for so long. Being different can be timeless if you're only different enough.
- wmougayar 13y agoActually, being "differentiated" is what's needed, not being different. There is a difference :) sorry for the pun. Differentiated means that your statement is very defensible, and the competition cannot copy it or it will backfire on them. Differentiated means very unique to you, and it creates a position in the minds of your prospects that lodges you there and keeps you there. For e.g., "“a16z enables entrepreneurs to utilize expertise from Operating Partners who specialize in business development, technical talent, executive talent, market intelligence, marketing and brand building” is a differentiated statement, but "Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth stage funding to the best new technology companies" is not. I wrote a long post on Positioning: The Battle for Your Startup- that explains a modern version of Positioning, http://startupmanagement.org/2013/04/18/positioning-the-battle-for-your-startup/ http://startupmanagement.org/2013/04/18/positioning-the-batt...