We all had a thing for “me-too” ideas. Its simple. Someone’s gone through the trouble of doing all the thinking and putting the budget to launch something new, and the next thing you know your competition has done the exact same thing a few days later. Frustrating? Well you cant even think…..unless you’ve been there and done it.

Here’s the newsflash – Me-too works. But you just have to follow these simple rules

1. Make it me-three, rather than me-two(too). What i meant is make, when you copy your competition, copy the whole thing thats fine, but add a small upgrade.

2.  Copy fast. If you copy something that has been launched 3-4 months ago, does not matter. Because that product has not gotten into the mind of the customers. Therefore after a few years, none will remember that your product actually came 3-4 months later. On the other hand if you want to copy Microsoft now after 20 odd years…..lets just say….none should go that way.

3. Spend upfront to occupy the attribute. It means even if your product is an exact copy of another product, if you spend more money to create more awareness, people might seem that you actually are the inventor of that product / attribute!!!

Dont believe Me-too works? Even if the world’s new number 1 car maker Toyota says it…even then?

Toyota analyzed the engineering works of other cars,  but they added their own version to it..small, effiicient car, rather than the big cars of american automobiles.  

That is why even though they came into the picture some 30-40 years later, they have surpassed their much more illustrius competitors.