Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
The opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I still remember a big lecture on plagiarism in high school. This dates back to the early days of the Internet, our teacher said, “If you plagiarize a report from the Internet and use someone else’s work as your own, it is against the law.”
Now, when it comes to school papers, it’s clear that someone is copying you. However, this is not always the case in business, and although much copying is done, its legality is debatable.
Sometimes it’s pretty blatant. But sometimes your imitator is just putting their own twist on your idea (and possibly doing it better). Either way, whether the copycat is illegally stealing your work or becoming a legitimate competitor, you have to find a way to deal with it.
Related: How to Stay First in the Copycat World
1. Get Compliments First, Then Do the Legal Checklist
If you see someone copying your business, your first reaction is likely to be furious. You’ve been working on an idea for years and now someone just swipes it? It can certainly be frustrating. But really, it should be commended. Think, “Wow, does someone think we’re successful enough to emulate? I should be pushed.”
So if someone is imitating you, be proud.
Once you’ve complimented yourself, make a mental checklist to see if you’re actually breaking the law. You don’t need to consult a lawyer (yet). All you have to do is check whether your trademarks, copyrighted graphics and texts are not used by so-called competitors. You also need to see if they are infringing on trade dress, in other words, if their product looks and feels so close to yours that it confuses consumers.
In the early days of my company, Trainual, we even had a competitor copy our entire website. They were so blatant and lazy about it that their copy even used “Trainual” in many places. At this point, we hired a lawyer and settled with a simple cease and desist letter. And if someone is clearly impersonating you, you probably need to consult a lawyer.
2. Are your imitators doing a good job?
Many years ago I remember returning from a trip to New York with a bunch of bootleg VHS tapes that a friend had bought on Canal Street. It was a tape someone had just recorded from their seats in the movie theater. Blurry shots, people walking in front of the camera, it was terrible. The tape was barely visible. Just because you saw a bootleg didn’t mean you weren’t going to see the movie in theaters.
This is the same in business. If you have a competitor who is essentially a low-quality pirate copy of your business, don’t worry too much. Needless to say, we no longer have a competitor who copied his entire website. If a copycat tries to sell you such a poor imitation, don’t worry.
However, it can sometimes cause worry.What if your imitator is doing something like good work? Or, worse, are they in better jobs than you? Now you have a legitimate competitor. Think about it. How do you plan to compete with them in the future?
RELATED: Want to turn the heat of competition in your favor? Copy your competitor’s best features.
3. Differentiate Your Strategy
Jeff Bezos once said: “If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we focus on our customers, then in the end we will do well.” , your business becomes a series of anxious, reflexive reactions that end up building the same product or creating the same service as everyone else. Instead, focus on your customers and what they want. That way you can differentiate yourself from the people who matter most.
Take Southwest Airlines, for example. When they first started out, they had to find a way to enter the highly competitive airline industry. So their goal was to become a low-cost airline and they were looking for customers who wanted to travel from one place to another as efficiently as possible.
They did this by making every seat on every plane the same. This meant that we could easily swap personnel from our flights without having to assign seats. (In case you didn’t know, Southwest used to be the only airline that didn’t charge a change fee.) This tactic worked well for Southwest’s low-cost carrier strategy, and now they It has a very loyal fan base.
No other airline with a strategy based on different fare types and classes of service could imitate Southwest Airlines’ open-seat model, even if they found people liked it. Because their strategy doesn’t allow them to sell all seats the same, so “efficient travel” customers will fly with Southwest Airlines. Instead of focusing on what other airlines are doing, Southwest focused on what customers want. And it paid off.
If your strategy is customer-centric, imitators will always be one step behind you because they don’t know what you’ll do next. Ultimately, your customers will perceive you as the original, and counterfeits won’t exist for long if they aren’t differentiated.
