Well the knock- out punch for any product comes from none other than the knock off.(sounds rhyming right!).
Well he is undoubtedly the villain in your product lifecycle curve and is responsible for your maximum sales loss. But incredibly the knock offs display certain characteristics common to all sectors:
1. Your ex-vendor: You were the one who outsourced your product to him to make it cheaper while manufacturing, however things fell apart and now he uses the same technical knowhow to become your biggest threat !
2. Price war: That’s his biggest asset- he sells for less !! The product looks identical but sells at half the price.
3. Loopholes in the law: The knock offs are one of those players who are fully aware of the loopholes in the law, especially the geographical limitations- they structure their business accordingly and very rarely get booked.
4. Launching their own brand: This is a recent trend – they have started to invest in R & D in a bid to become a full scale player and not just as price warriors ! Quite a few knock offs are going this way.
Price is undoubtedly a very big factor while making buying decisions- however it is indeed not fair to let someone use your technical knowhow and eat your market share. The best way to deal with this menace is by having stringent protection laws and more importantly by implementing it.
You might like reading:
Vivek Chaturvedi , TEDxNMIMSBangalore 2014
Vivek Chaturvedi is a life-long seeker of the extra-ordinary, finding most things ordinary to be mori-bund and as per-form. Through Un-performing, actively since 2003, he has begun to express his findings through spoken word, music, design and principally by being, fully. According to him, Un-per-formance is the road to true self-expression. He is also the world’s first self-proclaimed more-on! Tags: […]
Marketing 2020 –The shift from ‘acquisition’ to ‘retention’
Gone are the days when people battled for acquiring property, people & territories. Traditional approach of acquiring was always been costly and time consuming. Thus, our beloved Marketers started thinking whether this shift from ‘acquisition’ to ‘retention’ is required or is it better off this strategy. Let’s discuss what our future marketing will look like – A Warrior or A […]
