Being First Can Be a Liability.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Introduction
• The times, they are a changing Bob Dylan,
  1960.
• Competitive rivalries and competitive advantages
• Companies making significant in roads into
  competitors market share.
• One of the new economys rules is
  Being first is better.
  Or Be
  there first, be there fast and you win.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• VisiCalc was the first major personal- computer
  spreadsheet. VisiCalc lost to Lotus 1-2-3 who
  lost to Excel. (Lotus did sell to IBM).
• First laptop was from Osborne.
• Apples Newton was introduced before the Palm
  Pilot creators had their first meeting.
• Boeing didnt pioneer the commercial jet.
  DeHavilland did. But 7 of their first 21 jets
  crashed. Boeing was slower, invested in safer,
  more reliable planes.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• AOL lagged behind Prodigy. In 92, Prodigy had
  2M members AOL had 200,000.
• American Express came eight (8) years after
  Diners card.
• Starbucks didnt pioneer high-end coffee stores.
  
• Wal-Mart didnt pioneer discount retailing. They
  were just better.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• But. the first company to find a global market
  is always at an advantage over competitors making
  the same discovery later. Keegan, Global
  Marketing Management.
• Merck was one of the first companies to figure
  out how to shorten FDAs approval time. Gained
  considerable profits by arriving in the market
  earlier.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Wrap-up
• For years, Kodak had sold X-ray film to hospital
  lab technicians, but slow and late in noticing
  that the purchasing decisions shifted to the
  hospital administrators.
• No ironclad law, but most highly successful
  companies go thru a life cycle.
• They grow mature get big and bloat.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Wrap-up
• After making their founders and early investors
  rich, the companies are lucky to settle into a
  steady, unsuccessful earnings stream. Some of
  them disappear and others like General Motors
  struggle.
• Others like General Electric (GE) figure out ways
  to beat the system.
• Intel first foray into consumer was a flop with
  the digital watch in 1970.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Wrap-up
• PC buyers and makers pay a premium for Intel
  Thats a clear indication of Intels branding
  strategy works.
• Some 1,500 PC makers participate in two Intel
  co-op marketing programs (Intel Inside) The
  rebate program. Get a 6 rebate on chip
  purchases in return for putting the logo on the
  PCs and in the ads.
• Pays 2/3 of the cost of a print ad and 50 for
  broadcast.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Wrap-up
• From Andy Grove Time Magazines Man of the Year
  in 1997 and from his book Only the Paranoid
  Survive.
• Timing is everything.
• If you undertake changes while your company is
  still healthy your on-going business forms a
  protective bubble in which you can experiment
  with new ways of doing business.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Many marketers obsess about brand maintenance
  introducing consumers to the next big thing, like
  Apples iPod or Red Bull.
• What we really mean is being first in the mind,
  not in the marketplace.
• Anybody can be first, but it takes good
  marketing thinking to get into the mind first.
  
• Adv Age columnist and author,
  Al Reis

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Being First Can Be a Liability.

• Wrap-up
• From Andy Grove Time Magazine, Man of the Year
  in 1997 and from his book Only the Paranoid
  Survive.
• You can save much of your companys
  strength, your employees, and your strategic
  position.

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Being First Can Be a Liability.