The Lindbergh Approach

People often confuse marketing with convincing prospects that their products and services are better than the existing one. This is known as the Total Quality Management; most companies go for the better-product strategy. Moreover, it is also touted as the “ultimate” competitive strategy where something called benchmarking is employed which is the process of comparing and evaluating your company’s product against the best in the industry. However, this doesn’t seem to stand successful, why?

Before we get into that I would like to ask you a question.

Who was the first to fly over the Atlantic Ocean? Charles Lindbergh

But who was the second? Bert Hinkler. Although he had a better technique, used less fuel no one remembers him, this is because humans tend to remember what came first and often substitute leading for first too. It isn’t wrong that most of the leading brands today are the ones that entered the market first. The basic issue in marketing is creating a category that you are first in. It is much easier to get into the minds first than to convince that your product is better than the first. Yet most companies opt for the Hinkler approach than the Lindbergh approach. In today’s competitive world a me-too product has little hope of becoming big.

The first leads, for example Hertz (rent-a-cars); IBM (computers); Coca-Cola (cola). After WWII, the first imported beer to make a name for itself in America was Heineken. 425 plus brands have been established after that, some even taste better however Heineken is still the number one with 30% of the market share.

Now this approach has its fair share of drawbacks too like there could be a timing issue one could be first but late. For example: USA Today, the first national newspaper this didn’t stand successful as in the era of televisions its too late for a national newspaper, it has already suffered $800 million in losses. Some firsts might be bad ideas too like the Frosty Paws- first ice-cream for dogs, now the dogs may have liked it but the owners who buy the groceries found this product unnecessary.

The Lindbergh approach not only applies to soft categories like beers or colleges but also hard categories like automobiles and computers. For example: Jeep was first in four-wheel-drive off-the-road vehicles. Acura was first in Japanese luxury cars. IBM was first in mainframe computers. Sun Microsystems was first in workstations. Jeep, Acura, IBM, and Sun are all leading brands. The first minivan was introduced by Chrysler, which today holds 10% of car market and 50% of minivan market.

Another intriguing reason why the firsts lead is because the brand name chosen is usually generic, like Xerox- the first plain-paper copier became the name for all plain-paper copiers. You might stand in front of a Kodak or a Ricoh and you would still ask for a Xerox. Band-aid, Jell-O, Q-tips, Velcro are to name a few more examples. Not only does this become the first brand name but also influence the sales order, like ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory drug)- Advil was first, Nuprin was second, Medipren was third and that is the sales order too: Advil with 51% of the ibuprofen market, Nuprin with 10% and Medipren with 1%.

Now this makes us realize that marketing is a grapple of perceptions not products.

“It’s better to be first than it is to be better.”