Twelve Ways to Create Barriers to Competitors
The only real way to grow sales and profits is to create innovative offerings that have some “must haves” that define new categories or subcategories for which competitors are not relevant. The goal is not only to find and successfully introduce such offerings, but to create barriers that inhibit or prevent competitors from entering and becoming serious customer options. The firms that have enjoyed years or even decades of life with no or weak competitors have created such barriers. Here are some twelve routes to real barriers — the last six of which involve the brand. I would be interested in examples of others. • Proprietary technology. Diamond’s (formerly P&G’s) Pringles, Prius’ Hybrid Synergy Drive, and Dreyer’s Slow Churned Ice Cream all have technologies not easily copied. • On-going innovation. Becoming a moving target as Apple did by following the iPod with products like the nano, shuffle, and iTouch, and Gillette did with razors from the Trac II to the Fusion ProGlide.