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October 30, 2004

Lessons from an "up and coming market"

The Origin of Brands Blog: An up and coming market. Really interesting analysis by Laura Ries of how the (ahem) erectile disfunction market has worked. Some interesting lessons:

1. It is better to be first than it is to be better.
2. A #2 brand that only differentiated by claiming "better" is rarely a big success (not a good enough way to win a dragrace)
3. If you can’t be first, set up a new (sub)category you can be first in.
4. PR builds brands. Advertising maintains them. (This is one to drill home to every start-up)
5. The target is not necessarily the same as the market. (another great lesson - seperate your thinking of your market gap from how you want to target the product, aspirations matter)
6. Names matter. (I am always a huge proponent of putting the time in to come up with the right naming)

Posted by johnza at October 30, 2004 07:34 AM

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