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Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Robert L Moment
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Article Title: The 7 Steps To Successfully Responding To
Product Knockoffs
Author: Robert L Moment
Word Count: 611
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=69170&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Author's Email Address:
robert[at]howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com (replace [at] with @)
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=69170
================== ARTICLE START ==================
It�s every small business owners nightmare: you find and market
the perfect product or service only to wake up one morning and
find that someone else is producing cheap knock offs of the
same thing.
So how do you deal with it? By following our seven steps�
1. Offer a better product
It sounds simple, but offering a better product is both the
easiest and most effective way to respond to product knock
offs. There is always a market for products which improve on
the ones that have come before them: make sure you're
consistently looking for ways to improve your product, and
you'll remain one step ahead of the knock off sellers.
2. Create a marketing edge
A great deal of good business comes down to great marketing.
This is another area in which it's easy to gain an advantage
over product knock offs. The people who sell knock offs aren't
interested in building a brand, creating a buzz or researching
their market. In fact, they want to spend as little time and
money as they possibly can on selling more units of their
product knock off. By investing in your marketing, you can gain
an important edge.
3. Make quality a priority
You'll never be able to stop knock offs completely. What you
must remember, however, is that knock offs have one big
disadvantage over your product: their quality.
Most knock offs are cheap, mass-produced copies of quality
goods. That's why they're sold for so little. By offering a
product which is truly high quality, you'll appeal to those
buyers who aspire to owning the real thing, and make it much
more difficult for anyone to copy you.
4. Getting a patent does not prevent competition
A patent will help you deal with knock offs to a certain
extent. What it won�t do is eliminate the competition. You'll
never completely eliminate the competition. All you can do is
rise above them by making sure your product, service and
marketing is the best it can possibly be.
5. Target smaller or niche markets where you can have the edge
While you may want to conquer the world with your business,
it's often far more effective to conquer a small part of it by
targeting a niche which you can excel in. By concentrating on a
niche market you can get to know your clients and their needs
inside out, and make sure your product or service is tailor
made to fit that niche. Leave the rest of the world to the
knock off sellers.
6. Adapt to market changes and trends
In business, you have to adapt or die. By allowing your
business to trudge along, doing the same thing in the same way
you leave yourself wide open to competitors who are willing to
be innovative and to move with the times.
7. Provide exceptional customer service
Businesses which produce knock off products often aren't
interested in customer service. People like to do business with
other people they can trust: that may not apply to sellers of
knock-off products, but it should apply to you. If it does, you
have nothing to fear from product knock offs.
Summary
While it's impossible to completely eliminate product knock
offs completely, it is possible to respond to them in such a
way that your own sales don't suffer. This article provides
seven steps to help you make sure that your products and
service are able to stand up to the competition.
About The Author: Robert Moment is an innovative business
strategist and author of ,"It Only Takes a Moment to Score" and
upcoming book "Invisible Profits: The Power of Exceptional
Customer Service" published in Fall 2006. Visit
http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com and download the
FREE Special Report "17 Profitable Ways to Turn Your Ideas into
Wealth".
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