A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

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What’s The Important Thing, that is powerful enough to override all your deficiencies?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

But, the iPhone did something so well, that people wanted so badly, they would put up with all the other crap: You could actually use the internet. The real Internet with full websites and everything. Also, imagine launching an operating system that didn’t include “copy/paste.” ” Terrible! Email actually worked.

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If you build it, they won't come, unless.

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OK, so what can you do to rise above the cacophony that is the Internet? I already beat you to death about how celebrity endorsement can serve as an untouchable competitive advantage , and it's also an answer to how to burst out of the dull roar of Internet marketing. Visibility-fail. Anyone-gives-a-crap-fail.

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Not disruptive, and proud of it

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

In retrospect we say that Google transformed how people find information, and further, how advertising works on the Internet. Their technology proved superior, but "a better search engine" was hardly a new idea. Scott Berkun gives several other examples in a recent BusinessWeek article. The disruptors often don't make the money.

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No, that IS NOT a competitive advantage

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

You live in the era of the flat world where millions of people have access to technology, education, and a powerful sales, marketing, and communication platform (the Internet). Innovative design and intellectual property are no longer long-term competitive advantages.

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Yes, but who said they'd actually BUY the damn thing?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Business "experts" can argue all day long that it makes no sense to buy shoes over the Internet, but as long as people give Zappos $1 billion per year, it doesn't matter what experts say. The only thing that matters is that people are willing to give you money!

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Why it’s nice to compete against a large, profitable company

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

For example, Microsoft decided to make Internet Explorer a loss-leader against Netscape, and destroyed that company. That is a scary competitor — lots of resources and nothing to lose!

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When being an “expert” is harmful

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

I asked whether it was OK to depend on an Internet connection inside a secured hospital; he said “probably&# but he’d never asked. I asked whether it was OK to install new software on their computer; he didn’t know because he was selling hardware before.

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