What do you think about "Me Too" products and services?

[yellowbumblebee]

What do you guys think about "Me Too" services and products? I know it's impossible to have a perfectly original product or service - but it seems that there are products and services out there that base their plans on their competitors.

[KuyaDanny]

yellowbumblebee, I hope you can give some specific examples on what "Me Too" products and services are, for the benefit of our members who could be interested in discussing this, but might not be sure of what you are referring to.

To start the discussion:

"Me Too", as a response to competition, is a common phenomenon. The fellow who is first to market does everyone else a favor by identifying a need for which customers are willing to pay to have served. Unfortunately, the "followers" are at a disadvantage if they sell exactly the same product. They tend to trail in such things as awareness, recall, and reputation. So they need to offer something different to overcome these disadvantages. This something different typically includes such things as added features, superior performance, or lower cost.

[wildcat]

Filipinos are notorious for copying and riding on trends.

A recent example is "Zagu",.... Orbitz, Easyway, Gummie, etc followed suit and now we're drowning in pearl shakes.

Then there was the burger craze. After Brothers Burger introduced their gourmet burger, then Bite Club, Hot Shots and others started popping up.

We can also count Pinoyexchange.com, where others are currenly using as a benchmark for an online community. Pinoyforum, Alimasag, Rebelde, etc. are now trying to emulate its success.

[LadyMarmalade]

i think as a consumer, 'me too' products and services are good news. i mean, if they'd be able to improve those of the original ones, then why not right? more and better choices for us :)

[Leigh]

I personally think, there are 3 sides in the story:

a. The group being copied
b. The copying group
c. The consumers or customers

The group being copied might take the things:
a. as a form of flattery...and eventually bank on the idea that they were the first and they usually end up being the most successful because of the recall and branding. (like what KuyaDanny mentioned)

it actually becomes different when "products and services of competitors are based on the frontrunner", eventually, thinking of it as:

b. a rip-off, you do something, for example, you invented a vanilla ice-cream, the other groups makes vanila ice-cream also...when u add rainbow sprinkles and the other one does it also, that's different, it's basically copying items based on what you started. Improving or "revising" might be taken a little lighter, it might come out like a "friendly competition" since you are trying to improve on your product.

The copying group
a. Might just be waiting for the group to "breakground" or
b. Are just not creative enough or
c. Might have seen something that can improve the lives of the consumers and want to make an improvement over the first product.

The consumers
The winners in this case, since they are the ones being served. :D

[StuDmuFFin]

well as long as the "me too" product/service is done right and haven't cut cost or whatever, then it will work and MAYBE it will be better than the original product if they know it's faults/flaws. That's why we consumers have choices. like leigh said, consumers will alwayz end up the winner

If i was to offer the products/service originally, i will be pissed if someone out of the blue copied my product or services. What you can do is copy-right the product but cannot do anything about the service BUT to make it better the competitions, it all boils down to how you market your product/service. Make it show na you are the company on TOP and will ALWAYS be on top.

don't mind me, i'm just wasting your space...it's 2:30am here..my eyes are tired etc..SOMEONE, WHO COULD THAT BE?? MADE ME REPLY TO THIS!!! BWAHAHAHHA *cough* *cough* *ahem*

[maxwell]

indeed, there are three sides to this story, and i have been in all those three sides as well...

as the group being copied
Though there were a couple of dentist websites, myDentista.com was the first one to market the idea. most of our competitors were simply satisfied with giving information to the dentists alone, while we reached out to the patients as well..

after a while, other dentistry related site started popping up...

how did we take it? we took it as a challenge to our technical and marketing know-how. we happily accepted the competition and made us re-think our strategies.

as the group copying
JAS Printing & Publishing is a company that mainly manufactures computer forms. Since our family has been in the printing industry for more than 10 years, we opted to check out the scene here in cebu when in comes to computer forms.

We found out we had only 2 large competitors. By carefully studying their strategies, their flaws, their ideas and marketing techniques we're slowly able to catch the market's attention but with a twist...

Where our competitors flawed, we excelled..


as a consumer

Most "me too" products/services actually turn out to be a better version than that of the original. As a consumer, this definitely gives me the edge in acquiring their products/services, why? more competitors means the prices will go down because of the supply, and i have more choices when it comes to quality.

Though it does create a greater confusion in consumerism, the consumer tends to end as the winner in this frey.