Photo credit: Plexusisfreedom.com
One key principle of product development and marketing: Mirror your competitors’ best features. Make sure no competitor has a distinguishing feature that you don’t have or relieves a consumer pain point that you don’t.
For market laggards, mirroring features of the leading products in their category may be the only way to survive. Thus, hotel chains have waged a features battle in bedding. Even market leaders mimic competitors. Apple introduced iPhones with larger screens to take market share away from Samsung.
So, having just misplaced my personal American Express card and worried that it might be in nefarious hands, I was intrigued by the newest feature of the Discover Card called “Freeze It.” If you misplace your Discover card, you can use an app, phone call or the Discover website to “Freeze It” and prevent any further transactions or cash withdrawals using your card. You can then “unfreeze” it in the same way. The new feature greatly simplifies the hassles of the old process of having to deactivate the card and issue a new one.
It’s a reassuring feature that is clearly designed to take market share by relieving customer pain. American Express, MasterCard and Visa should mirror or mimic Discover as quickly as possible to ease their customers’ pain when they’ve misplaced a credit card.
What product features do your competitors offer that you don’t? Quickly mirroring their distinguishing features can solidify or enhance your market position – and take away their competitive edge.
It’s also advisable to consider patenting any unique product feature you develop so that competitors can’t easily duplicate it. Getting a patent is an expensive process, but often invaluable in establishing market leadership.
In the end, I found my credit card one day later in the pocket of a shirt going to the dry cleaners. I would have very much welcomed the ability to “Freeze It” during that 24-hour period.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
