On the web, being unique and offering something different- is difficult. The barriers that allow convenience shopping to thrive on the high street are removed online, and competitors are only a click away.
Add to that the fact that comparison shopping sites are popping up around the web, at a rate of knots – and are being combined with the social web – you’d be right to think that its just as competitive to go online with any product as it is on the high street, and you are going to have to add value.
Embrace the fear and do it anyway.
But what if you embraced all that and did it anyway? Thats what the guys at Contrast are doing with their product GetExceptional – a web based exception tracker for Ruby on Rails. Their marketing struck me as being just as “Exceptional” as their product and worthy of a blog post in its own right.
Zig when others zag
Whilst everyone else online is busy trying to hide the fact that they have competition at all; Contrast are taking a different approach. Zigging whilst everyone else Zags, by actually linking directly to their competition on their website – see below screenshot in the footer.
There’s a saying that “when your competition is doing something wrong- dont disturb them” – well in the age of Web 2.0 this could quite easily be turned around to “when your competition are rubbish – give your potential customers the key to their door and let them decide for themselves”.
Nuttin’ to hide
People do and will check them out anyway; so you might as well say you’ve got nothing to hide. I can’t see major brands having the balls to do this; this is why the smaller guy stands a chance. It’s the reason no one trusts major brand portals, and it’s why you have to make your brand transparent.
Are you confident enough in your product to link to your competitors?
