Now it’s really a bandwagon
June 29, 2012 in Media
With Google’s very own tablet entering the market. From a strategic positioning point of view this is very interesting. It remains iPad against the rest. You still have only two choices. Either iPad or something else. Once you have made the decision against iPad you begin sorting through the other offerings. What was basically an iPad vs Samsung choice, Coke vs Pepsi with Kindle Fire 7-Up to the two Colas, became with the entry of Microsoft and Google a messy brew. A strategist and a marketer’s worst nightmare for those in the anti-iPad camp. New entrants galore, some blurring the line between new entrants and substitutes. iPad remains at the very top level of the choice architecture. Even if the first choice goes against them, they still are at the junction where the first choice is being made.
What happens lower down the food chain? Intense competition in a downward price spiral – note the Google price! – commoditization and wafer thin margins.
Of course Apple may still lose out in the end, category definers can lose big time, as did Xerox and Palm (remember Palm!).
What is happening in the non iPad camp has been described beautifully by Harvard marketing strategist Younge Moon in Different: Escaping the competitive herd. A must read for marketers. The rush to compete on features, benchmarking against the competition and incremental differentiation ends up in a blur. She points out, in the end the different coffee brand become irrelevant. What remains is the difference between coffee lovers and tea lovers. Within the categories coffee and tea there is little brand loyalty left.
It is now more than ever difficult to establish a real brand with brand loyalty. If you pull it off the rewards in the world of blur is so much more telling – it made Apple most valuable company in the world.
Johann van Heerden said on June 29, 2012
Hallo Bertie,
Waar kan ek “Different: Escaping the competitive herd” in die hande kry. Navraag gee my onkundige antwoorde.
Groetnis,
Johann
Bertie said on July 2, 2012
Hi Johann
Jammer vir die laat antwoord: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=different%3A+escaping+from+the+competitive+herd
Beste Groete
Chris said on June 29, 2012
Hi Bertie, my prvious remarks about the new News24 blog still satnd
One must expect serious competition with the huge margins on iPhones and iPads. One of my professional mags dissects these gadgets and then shows manufacturing versus selling cost; on these two items the mark-up is 100%. For flat screen TVs it is a mere 10%
Bertie said on June 30, 2012
Hi Chris, great to have you properly on board again! I had wonderful help from the development team. The rss feed and lined in buttons, as well as the subscribe function was not in my default setup and the asap set it up with even more functionality. So I am a very happy camper at the moment and can start seriously developing the blog and making a professional communications platform. The downward stats which your wife found, is because the previous ones were totally unreliable and way too high. I controlled with different analytics. Yes, sure the high margins on the Apple leaves the field open, but the point is that you have a choice between two. Apple and the rest. And in the frenzied killing fields of the rest the margins will be wafer thin. I will report shortly about my migration to the Apple platform, but i am also having my website redesigned at the moment so it is hectic!
Bertie said on July 2, 2012
I will reply re the huge margins on the iPhones and iPads tomorrow morning.
Chris said on June 29, 2012
Hi again, just seen the subscribe button. Left my email and will see what happens
Bertie said on June 30, 2012
Jip the button works. I really appreciate the conversation with you on this site. Your perspectives are always valuable and it stimulates my thinking.
Chris said on June 30, 2012
Hi Bertie, just to let you know that I have not received notification by email of your two replies
Chris said on July 1, 2012
My wife has just told me that this ‘subscribe’ button, that allows you to leave your email address, does not work as she keeps trying it for one of the food bloggers (who were the first to move). However, the ‘follow’ on the regular wordpress blogs definitely does work. Why can’t they put it on your blog?
Maybe this move is a sop to get rid of the blogs on the News24 website as many of those who were moved before you have given up and changed to a regular WordPress blog.
Bertie said on July 2, 2012
Chris, the focus of the Group has shifted away from portals and the accompanying features, such as blogging. Please let me know if the button on my site works or not.
Bertie said on July 2, 2012
Hi Chris, just to be sure, doesn’t the subscribe button to the right work?
Of course I can’t test it. The other buttons definitely work. I am very pleased with the move. I am writing a short book and needed to search for items I had blogged about. The old system only picked up tags, now the search function is an absolute pleasure and in no time at all I had all the blogs on the specific topic I was researching.
Chris said on July 2, 2012
Hi Bertie, I had tried that one as well!
I get this message after I enter my email “To manage your subscription options please login.”
But I do not want to login as I don’t wish to be on this blogsite. My wife tells me that even though her blog on wordpress news24 is still active this function gives her the run-around and does not work. Why don’t you try it with one of the other fin24 blogs that posts daily.
PS I had to visit your blog to see if you had replied