

Never Criticize Your Competitors - sgrove
http://loiclemeur.com/english/2009/03/never-criticize-your-competitors.html

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maxniederhofer
1\. Never generalize.

2\. This is helpful in the sense that criticism isn't necessarily the best way
to compete, especially if you're growing a new market.

3\. Sometimes it's good to ignore your competition, sometimes it's good to
partner with them, sometimes it's best to undercut them on price, or best them
on features. And sometimes it's best to tell everyone the raw deal they've
been getting.

4\. Criticizing your competition generally works better in established markets
where you're resegmenting.

------
sgrove
It's easy to get too caught up in the heat of competition to remember
civility. Suppressing the, "I'm gonna CRUSH the competition" urges makes for
more enjoyable relationships, a better atmosphere, and most importantly,
better decisions.

------
billswift
Beyond the civility issue, if you think your competition is doing something
wrong, don't criticize them, just do it better and capture more of the market.
(This doesn't apply in his illustration of France Telecom's tactics, but it's
the first thing that occurred to me before I actually read the essay.)

~~~
rbanffy
And, if your competition is doing something really, really wrong (as in
"illegal"), report them to the authorities immediately.

------
xenophanes
Apple's TV ads criticize Microsoft. I think "never" is too strong, but you
should definitely be careful, and do it in good humor.

~~~
sgrove
That's true, but as you said, Apple is very careful in phrasing their
criticisms. Microsoft's flaws are drawn out from comparisons, not explicitly
stated by Apple's guy (I don't know the actor's name). The viewer then makes
the predetermined conclusion on "independently".

It's a crafty technique put to good use by Apple's marketing department.
Whether it's something a small startup could use to put a dent in a market
goliath, I'm not so sure.

~~~
sili
They are also careful to say PC not Microsoft even though everyone understands
what they mean.

~~~
rythie
Yes, and it's annoying. My PC runs Linux and virtually nothing Apple says in
those adverts applies to Linux.

~~~
DrJokepu
And it's not even honest given that ever since they abandoned PowerPC, Macs
are pretty much the same as any other gereric x64, except that they're perhaps
better designed than Dells or HPs and that they ship it with their own custom
OS (which is a lot of difference from a user's perspective but still not quite
honest in my opinion).

------
aw3c2
How can this be missing this:

If you critize your competition, you basically give them a good handle where
to improve themselves. You do not want your competition to improve if you want
to make money.

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JacobAldridge
Even if some of these benefits seem long term or irrelevant (like being bought
out by a competitor), the tip about growing the overall market is both
immediate and gold.

If you have 10% market share you can grow by taking customers from the
competition, or by maintaining that percentage while you and competitors help
the market to grow and grow. Both are worthwhile strategies, the latter
especially so in emerging industries / technologies.

------
ckinnan
Be careful having lunch with competitors; conversations to set prices or
market share are illegal in the US.

~~~
zackattack
At what point does a casual conversation become illegal collusion?

Edit: Alex Rampell, CEO of TrialPay, says this:

don't worry about that. you have to control the market and the market has to
be big enough to cause economic damage if it is controlled. VERY hard to make
an anti-trust case stick.

~~~
ckinnan
There is no economic damage requirement if you engage in explicit price or
output fixing (which could be a verbal agreement). See:
<http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/04/ftcdojguidelines.pdf>

"Types of agreements that have been held per se illegal include agreements
among competitors to fix prices or output, rig bids, or share or divide
markets by allocating customers, suppliers, territories, or lines of commerce.
The courts conclusively presume such agreements, once identified, to be
illegal, without inquiring into their claimed business purposes,
anticompetitive harms, procompetitive benefits, or overall competitive
effects."

Obviously small players aren't worth prosecuting but that's a different
question.

------
edw519
"We are competitors, not enemies." - Bill Clinton

~~~
known
But the reality is competition breeds hatred.

------
benatkin
"Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos does"

After seeing the tense on this, I guessed that this article must have been
written before Amazon bought them. I was right.

I hope the Zappos culture lives on, even though they got bought by Amazon.
They've been a great example for aspiring entrepreneurs.

------
plainspace
brilliant post. there is a fine line here but imagine a world in which
criticism was not the knee jerk reaction? not just in business but in general.
at school, in the playground, on the playing field, in politics. it makes me
think of 2 things: Ben Zander's "the art of possibility" and something else
that I can't remember right now.

