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>Yeah, I hear even Bill Gates himself says that Win95 is "closing the gap
>on the Mac." "Closing the gap." Jees, it's hard to believe a marketing
>campaign based on being almost as good as a competitor (and I think
>that's stretching it) has been so successful.
Actually, that is niot at all uncommon. Witness Beta VCRs versus VHS VCRs and
IBM versus Remington Rand, both cases where superiormarketing won out. You
don't have to BE better; you need only APPEAR to be better--i.e., convince
enough of the buying public that you/your product is better. As the marketing
gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout said (in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing),
"Marketing is not a battle of products; it's a battle of perceptions."
Of course, they also said, "It's better to be first than it is to be better,"
which is a denial of the other epigram. The first ones are pioneers, and they
get the arrows in their backs. - Herm
***
Herman Holtz [holtz -at- paltech -dot- com], marketing consultant & freelance writer.
Author best-selling How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant (Wiley),
other business books. General writing/copywriting/ghost writing services. PO Box
1731, Wheaton, MD 20915; fax:301-649-5745.
